Ruth Holden

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Ruth Holden
Photo of Ruth Holden in graduation attire c.1911
Graduation photo of Ruth Holden c.1911
Born(1890-11-27)November 27, 1890
Attleboro, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedApril 21, 1917(1917-04-21) (aged 26)
Kazan, Russia
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)paleobotanist, nurse

Ruth Holden (November 27, 1890 – April 21, 1917) was an American paleobotanist and nurse, who died in Russia during World War I.

Biography[edit]

Ruth Holden was born on November 27, 1890, in the city of Attleboro, Massachusetts. She grew up in the city with her parents Charles and Caroline Holden. She had two siblings, an older sister, Alice, and a younger brother, John. Her father was a doctor.[1][2]

She was educated at Attleborough High School where she was valedictorian of the class of 1907;[3] she then studied at Radcliffe College, Harvard. She graduated from Radcliffe in 1911 and received her MA the following year. While at Radcliffe she studied Paleobotany with Professor E. C Jeffrey.[4] She was awarded the Caroline Wilby prize for her thesis Reduction and Reversion in the North American SalicaIes.[5] She used the money from this and other academic prizes to pursue her interest in fossil hunting. For example, she collected fossils in Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick in Canada in the summer of 1911.[6]

In 1912, Holden made her first trip to England where she attended a "Summer Meeting" at Cambridge University where she was able to examine their collection of fossil plants.[7]

She returned to England in 1913 after obtaining an AAUW European Fellowship and began paleobotanical research at Newnham College, Cambridge.[8]

Following the outbreak of the First World War, Holden began attending lectures given by the Red Cross.[7] The Cambridge Independent Press reported that she received the first certificate for "First Aid to the Injured" on January 21, 1915.[9] Throughout 1915 she worked part-time as an orderly at the Auxiliary Hospital in Cintra Terrace in Cambridge.[10]

In August 1915, she was awarded an Associates' Fellowship by Newnham College. This entitled her to £100 each year for three years to enable her "to continue her work in fossil botany".[11]

However, she decided to suspend her studies and early in 1916, joined the first Millicent Fawcett medical unit run by the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service. The unit left London on January 29 and headed for Petrograd in Russia to set up maternity hospitals for Polish refugees. The unit consisted of Holden (assistant nurse), two doctors, a matron, three other nurses, a sanitary officer, an almoner, and a secretary.[12] She then went on to Kazan to help set up a new hospital for Polish refugee children. She even managed to continue her research into paleobotany at the local university, however, most of her time was spent travelling throughout Russia helping to distribute supplies to different hospitals. It is believed that during these travels Ruth Holden contracted typhoid, her illness lasting for many months into 1917. Although she appeared to recover she began to suffer from tubercular meningitis and eventually died in her sleep during the evening of April 21, 1917.[4][13][7][14]

Soon after news of Ruth Holden's death was announced obituaries began appearing in various media: Nature said that "Botanical science has suffered a serious loss through the death of Ruth Holden";[15] A C Seward (who worked with Holden in Cambridge) wrote in the New Phytologist that "though Miss Holden was a student of exceptional originality and promise she was much more than that—a chivalrous and noble woman whom it was a privilege to count a friend";[7] Miss Moberly, an administrator of the medical unit in Russia wrote in Common Cause (a Women's Suffrage newspaper) that "[Holden] greatly loved the people and the land for which she has given her life, and she told me more than once that nothing in the future could ever make her regret having volunteered for this work."[16]

On October 5, 1919, a bronze tablet was unveiled in Capron Park, Attleboro, commemorating Ruth Holden alongside another nurse, Alice Illingworth Haskell, who had also died in service during the war. A memorial nursing fund was also set up in both the nurses' names.[17]

Published works[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Holden, Ruth. "Massachusetts, Birth Records, 1840–1915". search.ancestry.com. Retrieved June 19, 2018.
  2. ^ Holden, Ruth. "1900 US Federal Census Records". search.ancestry.com. Retrieved June 19, 2018.
  3. ^ "WILL STUDY IN ENGLAND". The Boston Globe. Vol. LXXXIV, no. 37. August 6, 1913. p. 13. Retrieved February 19, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ a b "Biography of Ruth Holden at Holden, Ruth, 1890–1917". oasis.lib.harvard.edu. Archived from the original on April 3, 2018. Retrieved November 4, 2018.
  5. ^ Radcliffe College 1911. Radcliffe College. 1911. pp. 57–58.
  6. ^ New Brunswick Museum (August 2013). "Ruth Holden, Howard Falcon-Lang and Abby Othman". www.nbm-mnb.ca. Archived from the original on June 19, 2018. Retrieved November 4, 2018.
  7. ^ a b c d Seward, A. C. (May 1917). "Ruth Holden (1890-1917)". New Phytologist. 16 (5–6): 154–156. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8137.1917.tb07237.x. ISSN 0028-646X.
  8. ^ Beckman, Elizabeth (July 23, 2014). "Not All Patriots Are Fighters". AAUW: Empowering Women Since 1881. Retrieved June 19, 2018.
  9. ^ "Red Cross Training, Presentation of Certificates by the Mayor". Cambridge Independent Press. January 22, 1915. Retrieved June 19, 2018 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  10. ^ Holden, Ruth. "British Army, British Red Cross Society volunteers 1914–1918 Transcription". search.findmypast.co.uk. Retrieved June 19, 2018.
  11. ^ "Newnham College Awards". The Times. No. 40946. London, England. August 30, 1915. p. 4.
  12. ^ "TO SAVE RUSSIA'S BABIES. Women's Maternity unit for Petrograd". Nottingham Journal. January 31, 1916. Retrieved June 19, 2018 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  13. ^ "GENERAL ITEMS". Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 – 1954). August 10, 1917. p. 35. Retrieved June 19, 2018.
  14. ^ "Biographical accounts of Ruth Holden: Edward C. Jeffrey, photocopy of ms. excerpts of article published in Annals of Botany, August 1918. | HOLLIS for Archival Discovery". hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu. Retrieved June 19, 2018.
  15. ^ "Notes". Nature. 99 (2482): 247–251. May 24, 1917. Bibcode:1917Natur..99R.247.. doi:10.1038/099247b0. ISSN 0028-0836.
  16. ^ "The Millicent Fawcett Hospital Units. IN MEMORIAM: MISS RUTH HOLDEN". Common Cause. May 4, 1917. Retrieved June 21, 2018 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  17. ^ Attleboro (Mass.) (1920). Annual Reports of the Officers and Departments of the City of Attleboro for the year 1919. Attleboro Public Library. The City. pp. 76, 174.
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