Ann Henshaw Gardiner papers, 1723-1981

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Summary

Creator:
Gardiner, Ann Henshaw, 1890-1982
Gardiner, Mabel Henshaw, 1866-1952, contributor
Abstract:
Ann Henshaw Gardiner was a white nurse, scientist, historian, and co-founder of the School of Nursing at Duke University. The Henshaw and Snodgrass families were enslavers, farmers, and politicians in Virginia and West Virginia throughout the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The Ann Henshaw Gardiner papers include legal and financial documents for the family, including materials related to enslaved people, as well as photographs, scrapbooks, local history and genealogical materials, and materials documenting Ann Henshaw Gardiner's career as a nurse in World War I and at Duke University.
Extent:
14.75 Linear Feet (37 boxes and 2 oversize folders)
651 Megabytes
Language:
Materials in English
Collection ID:
RL.00432

Background

Scope and content:

Collection contains materials documenting Ann Henshaw Gardiner's travels and career as a nurse, the early years of Duke University School of Nursing, and Gardiner's family history. Topics addressed in the collection include the history of Berkeley County, West Virginia; land acquisitions; slavery, mostly in West Virginia; genealogy; family estates; nurses' training; and nursing during World War I. Includes correspondence, school materials, notebooks, scrapbooks, genealogical materials, writings of Ann and Mabel Henshaw Gardiner, diaries (largely the travel diaries of Ann Henshaw Gardiner and Fannie Henshaw), and family papers mostly for the Henshaws and Snodgrasses.

Correspondence consists of the letters of Ann Henshaw Gardiner and other members of the Snodgrass, Henshaw, and Anderson families. The letters address topics like genealogical matters, business transactions, and events happening during that time such as the women's suffrage movement, John Brown's raid, the arrival of the Japanese Embassy in Washington, and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. A few of the letters in this collection contains references to slavery, freed persons, and the sale and purchase of enslaved persons. The legal papers in the collection include bills of sale, deeds, estate settlements, wills, depositions, tax records, military records, hire bonds, and warrants. Bills, receipts, and accounts books make up the financial papers and are largely divided between the Henshaw and Snodgrass families.

Genealogical materials consist of scrapbooks, notebooks, a Snodgrass family Age Book, family charts, histories, writings about the Snodgrass family, and some Daughters of the American Revolution materials. Also contains materials on the genealogy of Berkeley County and as such several families like the Verdiers, McConnells, Turners, Pendletons, Robinsons, and the Rawlingses appear throughout the collection. Local history materials are largely about Berkeley County and other areas of West Virginia and consist of clippings, publications, a copper plate with a map, and writings by Ann and Mabel Henshaw Gardiner.

Includes photographic materials in the form of digitized nitrate negatives, prints, and glass plate negatives. These materials contain images of Ann Henshaw Gardiner, members of the Henshaw and Snodgrass families, historic buildings, maps, and Gardiner's time at Duke University School of Nursing and as a nurse in France during World War I.

Materials related to Duke University School of Nursing consist of writings, speeches, addresses, clippings, programs, invitations, and audio recordings on cassette tapes. Also contains materials related to Gardiner's portrait unveiling at the School of Nursing and the 40th anniversary banquet for the Alumni Association of the Nursing School of the Duke Medical Center, which includes a recording of Gardiner's speech at the banquet.

Records related to slavery and enslaved persons can be found in the following series: Correspondence, Legal Papers, Genealogical Materials, and Local History Materials. These records consist of bills of sale, hire bonds, estate settlements, wills, warrants for fugitives from slavery, and the Snodgrass family Age Book. Most contain the names, dates of birth, or ages of the enslaved persons listed.

Biographical / historical:

Ann Henshaw Gardiner (1890-1982) was a white nurse, scientist, historian, and co-founder of the School of Nursing at Duke University. She graduated from Shepherd College and taught at public schools from 1909 to 1911. She trained in nursing at the Massachusetts General Hospital, receiving her diploma in 1914. She saw service in World War I as an Army nurse at the United States Army base hospital in France (U.S. Base Hospital No. 6) from 1917 to 1919. She graduated from Teachers College, Columbia University in 1923, and in 1927, she wrote her thesis, "The Development of the External Form of the Squid Embryo," at Kansas State Agricultural College for her Master of Science degree. Gardiner was educational director at Baylor School of Nursing, Flushing Hospital School of Nursing, and Stanford University School of Nursing. She joined the School of Nursing at Duke University in 1930 as the first full-time faculty member and the first director of nursing education. She taught most of the courses and developed the curriculum for the School's first class of students. She remained at Duke School of Nursing until 1941. She went on to a role as director of nursing education at King's Daughters Hospital in Martinsburg and taught at Shepherd College as an assistant professor. Her family history traces back to the Henshaw and Snodgrass families of Berkeley County, West Virginia. The Henshaw and Snodgrass families were enslavers, farmers, and politicians in Virginia and West Virginia throughout the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Gardiner co-authored Chronicles of Old Berkeley: A Narrative of History of a Virginia County from Its Beginning to 1926 with her mother, Mabel Henshaw Gardiner, which began as her mother's master's thesis, "History of Martinsburg and Vicinity, 1778-1926."

Source: Duke University School of Nursing: Promise and Progress 1931-1971, Duke University School of Nursing, Durham, NC, 2011, https://nursing.duke.edu/about-us/our-history. Accessed April 3, 2026.

Acquisition information:
The Ann Henshaw Gardiner Papers were acquired by Duke University through purchases and gifts 1965-1984.
Processing information:

Processed by: David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library Staff, circa 1984.

Encoded by Stephen Douglas Miller.

Photographic materials series reprocessed to separate nitrate negatives by Tracy M. Jackson, July 2023. Previously scanned nitrate negatives in the Nursing: France, World War 1 folder, as well as nitrate negatives duplicating photographic prints elsewhere in the series, were removed and discarded.

Original nitrate negatives were digitized and deaccessioned in July 2025 and only exist in digital form.

Redescribed to identify evidence of slavery and enslaved people and addition of biographical note by April Blevins, April 2026.

Arrangement:

Organized into the following series: Correspondence; Diaries; Financial Papers; Legal Papers; Genealogical Materials; Local History Materials; Photographic Materials; Scrapbooks; Clippings, albums, school work, and ephemera; and Duke University School of Nursing.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

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Restrictions:

Access note. Collection contains fragile materials in the form of glass plate negatives and may require extra assistance from staff. Contact Research Services for access.

Access note. Some materials in this collection are digitized audiovisual materials that require special equipment. Contact Research Services with questions.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the Rubenstein Library's Citations, Permissions, and Copyright guide.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Ann Henshaw Gardiner papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

Permalink:
https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/m13320