People

Group Portrait of Medical Officers, Base Hospital No. 18

Group Portrait of Nurses, Base Hospital No. 18

Twenty-five Hopkins doctors initially enlisted as officers to serve with the Johns Hopkins Hospital Base Hospital No. 18.  Winford H. Smith, then acting superintendent of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, backed out at the last minute in order to continue his role at the hospital during the war. By 1918, a third of the School of Medicine faculty were on active duty both with the Hopkins Unit and elsewhere. In addition to those in the photographs, 32 medical students and over 100 technicians, orderlies and cooks were recruited from Baltimore. This loss of personnel greatly strained the homefront operation of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and School of Medicine.

Sixty-five nurses and fifty nurses’ aides traveled with the Johns Hopkins Unit to the front.  For a closer look at the texture of their work and the impact of their wartime careers, please view the Johns Hopkins Hospital Training School for Nurses portion of this exhibit.