Photo of headstone for Lavinia Dock which she shares with two of her sisters.
It is an injustice to summarize the life of Lavinia Dock: her brilliance sparked many causes and not just in nursing. Born February 26 1858 in Harrisburg, PA, she was one of six children. Well educated, she is said to have been inspired to enter nursing after reading a magazine article. Below are some highlights of her life:
| 1886 | Graduated Bellevue Training School for Nurses |
| 1888 | During a yellow fever epidemic in Jacksonville FL ran ward with Jane Delano |
| 1889 | Worked at Johnstown (PA) flood |
| 1890 | Assistant superintendent under Isabel Hampton at Johns Hopkins. |
| 1893 | Spoke at Columbian Exposition in Chicago |
| 1893 | Present at founding of the Society of Superintendents of Training Schools |
| 1893 | Became superintendent at Illinois Training School ["I was really a failure"] |
| 1896 | Joins with Lillian Wald at the Henry Street Settlement where she lives and works for next 20 years. She claimed she never thought until this time. |
Very instrumental:
- Society of Superintendent of Training Schools, served as secretary
- 1896 Dock was chairperson and secretary of the Committee on a National Association that founded the Nurses' Associated Alumnae.
- International Council of Nurses; founded with Ethel Gordon Fenwick; served as Secretary from 1900-1922
- Volunteer faculty at Teachers College in Hospital Economics program
- Contributing Editor for AJN "Foreign Department" 1900-1923
- Wrote History of Nursing with Adelaide Nutting.
- Joined Alice Paul's Advisory Council of the National Woman's Party
Social Activism:
| 1907 | Joined Equality League of Self Supporting Women; ran suffrage newsstand in front of their office. |
| Involved with Social Reform Club. Also worked with NY Women's Trade Union League. | |
| 1909 | Walked picket lines for Shirtwaist strike |
| 1913 | Spoke at ANA convention urging nurses to support union movement |
| 1910 | Hygiene & Morality published; called for abolition of double standard of morality; abolish, not regulate prostitution, suffrage for women, self control for men. |
| 1912 | Walked with 4 other women from NYC to Albany on a Suffrage hike |
| 1913 | Organized marchers from the Lower East side for the Suffrage parade, carried banners in 10 languages |
| 1917 | Led suffrage pickets from the National Women's Party Headquarters to the White House. Was jailed June 25 and August 17, 1917, and again August 6, 1918 for participating in militant demonstrations. |
| With Leonora O'Reilly founded a local of the United Garment Workers of America at a Henry Street workshop. Encouraged workers to unite in trade unions. | |
| Crusader against VD; early member of American Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis | |
| 1921 | Praised birth control leader Margaret Sanger: "for teaching to poor working women what all well-to-do women may learn from reliable authority" |
| Active in National Woman's Party | |
| Condemned World War I | |
| 1916 | Moved back with family in Pennsylvania |
| 1922 | Resigned as ICN secretary |
| 1923 | Resigned from American Journal of Nursing |
| 1947 | Attended ICN at Atlantic City age 89 |
| 1956 | Fell, broke hip, died April 17 |
Miss Dock's grave in the family plot in the Harrisburg Cemetery, Harrisburg, PA
Photo by Dr Mary Ann Burnam
Sources:
Burnam, M.A.B. (1998). Lavinia Lloyd Dock: An activist in nursing and social reform. Ph.D. dissertation, The Ohio State University.
Dock, L.L. (1977). Lavinia L. Dock: Self portrait. Nursing Outlook, 25, 22-26.
Dock L.L. (1926). A history of nursing, Vol III. Buffalo: The Heritage Press.
Christy, T. (1969). Portrait of a leader: Lavinia Lloyd Dock. Nursing Outlook, 17:72-5.
Estabrooks, C.A. (1995). Lavinia Lloyd Dock: the Henry Street years. Nursing History Review 1995; 3: 143-72.
James, J.W., & Stein, A. P. (1988). Lavinia Lloyd Dock. In: American nursing: A biographical dictionary. V.L. Bullough, O.M., Church, & A.P. Stein, (Eds.). New York: Garland.
Monteiro, L. (1978). Lavinia L. Dock: On nurses and the Cold War. Nursing Forum 17:46-54.
Ott, M. (1994). An analysis of the friendship of Lavinia Dock and Lillian Wald, 1898-1930. Master's thesis, D'Youville College.
Poslusny, S.M. (1989). Feminist friendship: Isabel Hampton Robb, Lavinia Lloyd Dock and Mary Adelaide Nutting. Image: Journal of Nursing Scholarship 21(2): 64-8.
Ramos, M. (1997). Caring for patients, profession, and world: the social activism of Lavinia Lloyd Dock. International Journal for Human Caring (1997 Spring) 1(1): 12-7.
Roberts, M. (1956). Lavinia Lloyd Dock - Nurse, feminist, internationalist. American Journal of Nursing 56(2): 176-179.