Fonds MCC16 - Mabel Eliza Lewin

Title proper

Mabel Eliza Lewin

General material designation

  • Textual record
  • Graphic material

Parallel title

Other title information

Title statements of responsibility

Title notes

  • Source of title proper: Title based on contents.

Level of description

Fonds

Reference code

CA CC MCC16

Edition statement

Edition statement of responsibility

Statement of scale (cartographic)

Statement of projection (cartographic)

Statement of coordinates (cartographic)

Statement of scale (architectural)

Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)

Date(s)

Physical description

30 cm of textual records
ca. 57 photographs
ca. 125 postcards

Title proper of publisher's series

Parallel titles of publisher's series

Other title information of publisher's series

Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series

Numbering within publisher's series

Note on publisher's series

Name of creator

(1915-1970)

Biographical history

Mabel Eliza Lewin was born in Benton, New Brunswick, in 1876, the daughter of Charles and Mary Lewin. Mabel Lewin was a 1915 graduate of Newton Hospital, Newton, Massachusetts. After her training, she worked as a private duty nurse in Massachusetts and Maine. During World War I, Mabel Lewin joined the Harvard Unit, a group of plastic surgeons from major American universities. In early 1915, British Ambassador Robert Bacon had convinced the universities of Harvard, Columbia, and Johns Hopkins to sponsor the first Harvard Unit which consisted of thirty-five physicians and surgeons, three dentists, and seventy-five nurses. This unit became the British Army's first maxillofacial (face-jaw) treatment centre in France.

She later enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force as a Lieutenant Nursing Sister. Lewin made twenty-two crossings of the Atlantic Ocean on transport duty, bringing the wounded home to North America. Her war record includes service in France with the 22nd General Hospital. Lewin also cared for individuals wounded in the Halifax explosion in 1917. Lewin received a commendation from the president of Harvard College for her participation in the war and was the recipient of a war service badge of the Canadian Expeditionary C.A.M.C. Force. After the war, Lewin returned to private duty nursing and was later a resident nurse at the student union, "The Fenway," in Boston, Mass. In 1970, Mabel Lewin died in Saint John, New Brunswick.

Custodial history

Information about the custody of these records prior to acquisition is incomplete.

Scope and content

This fonds documents Mabel Lewin's service as a nurse during the First World War. The fonds contains correspondence between Lewin and wounded WWI soldiers who were in her care, postcards of locations she served and of places where the soldiers she corresponded with served in Europe, and snapshots taken of nurses and officers whom Lewin met and served with. There are also magazines and newspapers dated 1937-1951.

Physical condition

Immediate source of acquisition

Source unknown

Arrangement

Language of material

  • English

Script of material

Location of originals

Availability of other formats

Restrictions on access

No Restrictions

Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication

Finding aids

A finding aid is available for this fonds

Associated materials

Related materials

Accruals

Alternative identifier(s)

Standard number

Place access points

Name access points

Genre access points

Description record identifier

Institution identifier

Rules or conventions

Status

Level of detail

Dates of creation, revision and deletion

Language of description

Script of description

Sources

Accession area

Related people and organizations

Related places

Related genres