Letterman Hospital Staff

A view of the Presidio of San Francisco with Letterman General Hospital in the background

Golden Gate NRA, Park Archives, Soper Photograph Collection, GOGA-2975

Due to the increase of troops before during and after the Spanish American War, the need for a larger hospital at the presidio was recognized. From 1898 as the Hospital was being built it was also being used, many of the challenges of sicknesses and camp diseases continued to ravage the military and immediately pressed the hospital into duty. In 1901 the hospital became the fist to employ the Army Nurse Corps and the proficientcy of the staff had improved markedly. In 1911 the hospital was officially named Letterman General Hospital, for Johnathan Letterman who served the army as a surgeon and in other medical functions from 1849 -1864. When he retired and moved to San Fracisco. Lettermans organization practices and proceedures so improved medical service in battle that they were made into Army law.
_{From Erwin N. Thompson, Defender of the Gate: The Presidio of San Francisco, A History from 1846 to 1995, (Golden Gate National Recreation Area, California, National Park Service, 1995).}

 

 

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