This collection was originally compiled by Elmer Wilcox while he was a member of the Grand Manan Hospital Board. In order to document all aspects of medical services on Grand Manan, additions were made to the collection by Glenata Hettrick in 1986-87 as part of an Archives Backlog Reduction Project.

The Grand Manan Hospital Board was set up in 1940 to organize Grand Manan's first hospital, which was located in a house given for this purpose by Mrs. Annie Smith Ingersoll. Questionnaires were sent to householders to learn their attitudes toward an Island hospital. When they answered favourably, Mrs. Mary McMurthry was appointed business representative for the Grand Manan Hospital Company, Ltd., with the task of raising the money needed to turn the house into a hospital.

The hospital was jointly organized by the New Brunswick division of the Canadian Red Cross, the Grand Manan Red Cross branch and the Grand Manan Hospital Company, Ltd. Grand Manan's first hospital was also the first Canadian red cross outpost hospital. The New Brunswick division of the Red Cross opened the hospital in October 1941.