William Augustus Muhlenberg, left, (September 16, 1796-April 8, 1877), born in Philadelphia, PA., was an Episcopal clergyman and an influential educator. His great-grandfather Henry Melchior Muhlenberg (1711–1787), immigrated to America in 1741 from Hanover, Germany in response to the call for a Lutheran minister to pastor several churches in Pennsylvania, and is considered the father of Lutheranism in America. An uncle of William’s fought in the Revolutionary War, and his grandfather served as a member of the First and Second Continental Congress and as Speaker of the House of Representatives under President George Washington.
Muhlenberg was educated at the Philadelphia Academy and the Grammar School of the University of Pennsylvania, graduating from the university in 1815. In 1817, he was ordained a deacon in the Episcopal Church and became assistant to Bishop William White (1748–1836). In 1820, Muhlenberg was ordained a priest, and until 1826, he was rector of St. James’ Church in Lancaster, PA, before resigning his charge to study the educational systems of Europe.
However, before leaving for Europe he agreed to fill the pulpit at St. George’s Church in Flushing, Queens, as a six-month replacement. This changed the course of his life. At St. George’s, he became acquainted with a group of men who wished to establish a boy’s school, and he agreed to lead it. Called The Flushing Institute, Muhlenberg initiated a successful curriculum for the education of boys that was duplicated in many other schools in the country.
Over time, Muhlenberg developed plans to establish a college and grammar school on a piece of land in Queens, NY, which then became known as College Point. He intended to merge The Flushing Institute with the school there, but the financial crash of 1837 left the funding promises unfulfilled. Without adequate endowment, the state legislature denied the charter for the new schools.
Muhlenberg painted by Jacob Eicholtz, 1836
In 1845, Muhlenberg left The Flushing Institute in the hands of his assistant and moved to New York City to become rector of the Church of the Holy Communion, a church built by his sister, Mary A. Rogers, as a memorial to her late husband, John, who desired to found a church where rich and poor would worship together as one community. An early proponent of the social gospel, Muhlenberg founded various social welfare-related ministries through the Church of the Holy Communion, to assist the poor community which surrounded the church building at West 20th Street and Sixth Avenue.
Muhlenberg came to see that access to medical care was a serious need of the community. On October 18, 1846, the day set aside to honor St. Luke the Physician on the liturgical calendar, he announced to his congregation that he would set aside half of the church’s Sunday offering for the founding of a hospital in which those without means to pay could come and be treated without charge. It took quite a while to raise the funds to build it, but St. Luke’s Hospital opened in 1858 on West 54th Street and Fifth Avenue. The archival collection of materials about St. Luke’s Hospital are found here.
The first St. Luke’s Hospital building on West 54th Street, at Fifth Avenue
In 1866, seeing the need to care for disabled children and the elderly, Muhlenberg founded the Church Industrial Community of St. Johnland on Long Island. The Community would train the children for employment within their physical limitations and provide care for the elderly who had no family to care for them. He bought 535 acres with 1.5 miles of shorefront on the Long Island Sound near Kings Park. This hospital exists still, as an elder care facility. Materials on this facility are found here.
Rev. Muhlenberg had rooms at St. Luke’s Hospital where he lived and worked for the rest of his life. He died on April 8, 1877, in St. Luke’s Hospital, and was buried in the St. Johnland Cemetery. More information about him can be found in the Archives, find his catalog record here.
In 2019, the Archives Committee began promoting October 18 as Founder’s Day to remember and honor Muhlenberg’s contributions to our city in founding St. Luke’s Hospital, now Mount Sinai Morningside. Last year, in conjunction with the Morningside Heights Historic District Committee, a historical marker honoring Muhlenberg was placed in the garden in front of the W. 113th Street entrance. This year, as in prior years, a dish which reflects an 1850s diet will be on the menu at Luke’s café. Mount Sinai employees can check The Daily for additional events celebrating the day.
Authored by Michala Biondi, Associate Archivist in The Arthur H. Aufses, Jr. MD Archives
William Augustus Muhlenberg, left, (September 16, 1796-April 8, 1877), born in Philadelphia, PA., was an Episcopal clergyman and an influential educator. His great-grandfather Henry Melchior Muhlenberg (1711–1787), immigrated to America in 1741 from Hanover, Germany in response to the call for a Lutheran minister to pastor several churches in Pennsylvania, and is considered the father of Lutheranism in America. An uncle of William’s fought in the Revolutionary War, and his grandfather served as a member of the First and Second Continental Congress and as Speaker of the House of Representatives under President George Washington.
Muhlenberg was educated at the Philadelphia Academy and the Grammar School of the University of Pennsylvania, graduating from the university in 1815. In 1817, he was ordained a deacon in the Episcopal Church and became assistant to Bishop William White (1748–1836). In 1820, Muhlenberg was ordained a priest, and until 1826, he was rector of St. James’ Church in Lancaster, PA, before resigning his charge to study the educational systems of Europe.
However, before leaving for Europe he agreed to fill the pulpit at St. George’s Church in Flushing, Queens, as a six-month replacement. This changed the course of his life. At St. George’s, he became acquainted with a group of men who wished to establish a boy’s school, and he agreed to lead it. Called The Flushing Institute, Muhlenberg initiated a successful curriculum for the education of boys that was duplicated in many other schools in the country.
Over time, Muhlenberg developed plans to establish a college and grammar school on a piece of land in Queens, NY, which then became known as College Point. He intended to merge The Flushing Institute with the school there, but the financial crash of 1837 left the funding promises unfulfilled. Without adequate endowment, the state legislature denied the charter for the new schools.
Muhlenberg painted by Jacob Eicholtz, 1836
In 1845, Muhlenberg left The Flushing Institute in the hands of his assistant and moved to New York City to become rector of the Church of the Holy Communion, a church built by his sister, Mary A. Rogers, as a memorial to her late husband, John, who desired to found a church where rich and poor would worship together as one community. An early proponent of the social gospel, Muhlenberg founded various social welfare-related ministries through the Church of the Holy Communion, to assist the poor community which surrounded the church building at West 20th Street and Sixth Avenue.
Muhlenberg came to see that access to medical care was a serious need of the community. On October 18, 1846, the day set aside to honor St. Luke the Physician on the liturgical calendar, he announced to his congregation that he would set aside half of the church’s Sunday offering for the founding of a hospital in which those without means to pay could come and be treated without charge. It took quite a while to raise the funds to build it, but St. Luke’s Hospital opened in 1858 on West 54th Street and Fifth Avenue. The archival collection of materials about St. Luke’s Hospital are found here.
The first St. Luke’s Hospital building on West 54th Street, at Fifth Avenue
In 1866, seeing the need to care for disabled children and the elderly, Muhlenberg founded the Church Industrial Community of St. Johnland on Long Island. The Community would train the children for employment within their physical limitations and provide care for the elderly who had no family to care for them. He bought 535 acres with 1.5 miles of shorefront on the Long Island Sound near Kings Park. This hospital exists still, as an elder care facility. Materials on this facility are found here.
Rev. Muhlenberg had rooms at St. Luke’s Hospital where he lived and worked for the rest of his life. He died on April 8, 1877, in St. Luke’s Hospital, and was buried in the St. Johnland Cemetery. More information about him can be found in the Archives, find his catalog record here.
In 2019, the Archives Committee began promoting October 18 as Founder’s Day to remember and honor Muhlenberg’s contributions to our city in founding St. Luke’s Hospital, now Mount Sinai Morningside. Last year, in conjunction with the Morningside Heights Historic District Committee, a historical marker honoring Muhlenberg was placed in the garden in front of the W. 113th Street entrance. This year, as in prior years, a dish which reflects an 1850s diet will be on the menu at Luke’s café. Mount Sinai employees can check The Daily for additional events celebrating the day.
Authored by Michala Biondi, Associate Archivist in The Arthur H. Aufses, Jr. MD Archives
This year we’re discussing aspects of Mount Sinai’s history as a community by joining forces with the Institute for Equity and Justice in Health Sciences Education through a series of three Chats for Change programs. In this post I’ll provide some background about what Chats for Change is, how it came to be, the Institute team we’re working with this year, and what the Archives brought to table.
About Chats for Change
In 2015, Mount Sinai launched the Racism and Bias Initiative (RBI) to center underrepresented voices and experiences, recognize the historical underpinnings of racism and bias in medicine, and explicitly address and undo racism and bias in all functional areas of the medical school. Beginning in the fall of 2018, the Department of Medical Education launched “Chats for Change”—a series of dialogues centered on racism and bias in medicine.
Chats for Change was developed in response to medical education staff, faculty, and medical students who wanted dedicated time to engage in a dialogue as a community and deepen their understanding of and ability to address racism. These sessions were based on the notion that in order to respond to racism and to be anti-racist, we must engage in dialogue, learning, and action. Participants include staff, faculty, and students from across the School and Health System. There is also a National Chats for Change available to all medical schools in North America.
The Process
How does this work? The structure of Chats for Change remains the same regardless of the topic. Held over Zoom, facilitators provide some introductory background information and review the grounding assumptions for the dialogue about to take place. The grounding assumptions that I find change the power dynamics are “everyone here is all we need” and “refrain from expecting experts or others to know best.” In both education and healthcare, there is deeply ingrained respect for and deference to expertise. Asking participants to shift out of this mindset is a challenge and requires intentional interactions outside the traditional norms and hierarchy.
The facilitators review the process and hen there is a brief check-in to get everyone acquainted. The next portion is framing and defining that day’s topic with a brief presentation, about ten minutes long.
We then review norms for the breakout groups in which the participants are about to participate:
All of us are taught misinformation about our own group(s) and about members of other groups
We agree not to blame ourselves or others for the misinformation we have been taught, and to accept responsibility for not repeating misinformation after we have learned otherwise
The participants enter the breakout rooms with some questions to guide their discussion, keeping in mind that there will be a debrief with the whole group afterwards to share any themes, insights, similarities and/or differences (as shown on the slide here). Every session ends by asking “given today’s dialogue, what do you need to learn and unlearn?”, followed by a request for feedback and a preview of the next week’s topic.
2024 Spring/Summer Season
In planning the 2024 Chats for Change season, Leona Hess, PhD, MSW, Co-Director of the Institute, invited me (the Aufses Archives’ director) to join in on brainstorming topics for discussion.
For this year, we arrived at the following groupings:
Series on Understanding Islamophobia and Antisemitism
Given the horrific increase in hate crimes against Muslim and Jewish people, it’s imperative for us to commit to deeper understanding and reflection.
Antiracism Fellow Series
This year’s Institute for Equity and Justice in Health Sciences Education Antiracism Fellows will introduce new topics, challenging all of us to critically examine pressing contemporary issues and the role of medical students.
Mount Sinai History Series
Pulling from resources in the Aufses Archives, we will uncover how Mount Sinai’s past shows up in our present, how equitable treatment regardless of the ability to pay is a relatively new concept, and how our patient populations have been recorded and reported at different moments in our hospitals’ histories.
Rejuvenate and Restore (R&R) Series
With everything going on, we can still find time for joy, future dreaming, and collective care.
In addition to these series, there were one-off chats on decolonizing global health, cybersafety, the rural vs. urban divide, and much more.
Mount Sinai History Series
The first Mount Sinai History Series took place on April 23rd, exploring the question, How Does Our Past Show Up in Our Present? by reflecting on our hospitals’ and medical school’s founding charters, articles of incorporation, and mission statements.
At Mount Sinai we often cite our origin story, the opening of Jews’ Hospital in New York in 1855, as a core element of our identity: to treat those who were refused treatment elsewhere (at the time, people of Jewish faith, and accident victims). As a health system, we are now multiple hospitals and a medical school. Pulled from resources in the Aufses Archives, we considered how the histories of these institutions shape us today. To do this, I started with a quote from the Charter of the Jews’ Hospital (which became Mount Sinai Hospital in 1866).
New York State Charter of the Jews’ Hospital in New York
January 16, 1852
We have associated and hereby do associate ourselves into a benevolent, charitable and scientific Society… to be known… by the name of The Jews’ Hospital in New York… the particular business, purpose and object of such… will be the medical and surgical aid to persons of the Jewish persuasion.
Quote from the 1852 Charter
First Mission Statement of The Mount Sinai Medical Center
1979
The focus was on the mission statements and articles of incorporation that state the reasons why the hospitals were created and what they were intending to do. I have found that these statements do resonate with our values and mission today, so I wanted to see how others felt. We asked the Chats participants, “what parts of our legacies most resonate with you?” There was a good discussion.
The second session, Unified Care?, was about how patients have historically been segregated by ability to pay and other factors. This was co-hosted by Dr. David Muller, Director of the Institute for Equity and Justice in Health Sciences Education. We are working towards health equity, we want everyone to have the same care, but there has always been a way of dividing patients that persists today. Goal was to show past practices–the general open ward layout, transition to semi-private rooms, and entirely private care–that demonstrate how we evolved into the patient placements we see in today’s hospitals.
The final session, Who Sought Treatment, took place in August and covered how hospitals have tracked and reported demographics of the patients who sought treatment. Today we are familiar with tracking patient outcomes by identities, such as race or gender–but this has not always been the case. As New York’s demographics have changed through time, so too have the data recorded about people seeking medical care. We looked at hospital reporting to see how patient populations have been recorded and reported at different moments in our hospitals’ histories. We reflected on how our practices have evolved.
As Mount Sinai Hospital was established to care for immigrants, nativity was most frequently reported. The sex, occupation, age, and other categories were also typically tabulated.
Report on patients from Mount Sinai Hospital’s 1866 Annual Report, page 24
Listed: Number of admitted and refused in a single month (over the course of the year) and age.
Report on patients from the 1866 Annual Report, page 25
Listed: civil Condition, term of Residence in the U.S., nativity, and occupation.
Beth Israel Hospital Annual Report from 1903 stated, “the nativities of the patients reveal at once the broad spirit prevailing in the management of the Hospital. Beth Israel knows no difference in creed, class or color, when suffering humanity appeals to it for aid and relief?”
St. Luke’s Hospital Annual report, 1910
Listed nationality and religious denominations, and occupations of patients.
Mount Sinai is based in East Harlem, over half of the population are of Puerto Rican and Dominican ancestry. This document shows when the hospital first became cognizant of the growing population and demographic shifts in the late 1920s. The language is not current, and we say Latino instead of “‘Spanish’ nativity.”
I am so grateful to Leona, David, and the team (Jay especially), who were incredibly supportive partners. They have a the structure of Chats for Change in place, facilitate adeptly, handle the logistics seamlessly—piloting the Mount Sinai History series could not have happened without their partnership.
This year, Nurses’ Week is May 6th through 12th, and the theme is “Nurses Make the Difference.” To recognize the invaluable contributions of nurses, here’s a brief overview of the evolution of nurses’ responsibilities and education.
In the early days of American nursing, nurses simply observed changes in the patient’s condition and reported to the attending physician. They were taught to change bandages, and feed and clean patients and were in charge over the ward. At this point, any woman could take the job and at times, some unsavory characters filled the position. There was no formal training or educational system in place.
Women’s Ward, St. Luke’s Hospital
By the mid-1800s, nurses were entrusted with taking vitals, preparing nourishing meals to meet specific patients needs, and administering medications on the instructions of the physicians. They also began to assist in operating theaters.
As medical and scientific breakthroughs were made, nursing benefited from better instruction on the ward, supplemented with weekly class lectures by medical staff. By the 1870s the first American nursing school opened. Instruction started on the wards, and the students covered the wards for the first few years.
The first of the Mount Sinai Health System Hospitals schools, The Mount Sinai Training School for Nurses, opened in 1881. Its history is chronicled in the book The Forty-Seven Hundred. The former St. Luke’s Hospital Training School for Nurses, now Mount Sinai Morningside, opened in 1888 and in 1896 the former Roosevelt Hospital, now Mount Sinai West, opened their training school. Read some of that history here. Lastly, The Beth Israel Hospital School of Nursing, now Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing, opened in 1902.
Roosevelt Hospital nursing instruction on ward by Alfred Eisenstaedt – The LIFE Picture Collection, Getty Images
As scientific break throughs were made, nursing benefited from better instruction on the ward, with weekly lectures by medical staff.
An example of the early curriculum for nurses, taken from the Roosevelt Hospital School for Nursing, included monthly focus on aspects of anatomy, physiology, materials medica (the sources, nature, properties, and preparation of drugs), gynecology, digestion, ophthalmology and otology, the practice of medicine, the ethics of private nursing, massage, nutrition and cooking, and surgery, including surgical diseases and emergencies. Over time, the curriculum expanded and as graduate nurses were hired to cover the floors, student nurses began to move from ward duty to attend classes full time.
Nursing students in class
By the 1960s, nursing associations were pressing for university-based bachelor degree programs for RNs, as opposed to hospital-based certificate programs. This was accomplished by the early 1970s as financial struggles added to the pressure to close hospital-based schools.
Today we honor our highly educated nursing staff, the back bone of health care.
In celebration of Women’s History Month, the Aufses Archives would like to highlight one of the outstanding physicians who practiced at the former St. Luke’s Hospital.
Virginia Kanick (1925-2017) was a radiologist at a time when a small percentage of physicians were women and fewer practiced in that particular area. She was born in Pennsylvania, but when she was about fourteen, the family moved to Richmond, Virginia to be closer to her older brother, who was already practicing medicine there. Kanick, however, never did become a ‘southern belle;’ she described herself as having an “aggressive” personality and loved to learn. She was the high school valedictorian and chose to return north to pursue college at Barnard College, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest, and most prestigious, academic honor society in the United States.
Left: Dr. Virginia Kanick reviewing X-rays in 1971
At Barnard, she investigated many subject specialties, from anthropology to classical studies, archaeology to Russian history, before settling into science classes with the intention to pursue medicine. She earned her MD from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1951 and then interned at Case Western Reserve. She applied to a radiology residency program at Columbia, but their fall semester quota was full. Accepted into the program starting in January, the administrators suggested she spend a few months at St. Luke’s Hospital, an affiliated teaching hospital, before joining the Columbia program. However, she enjoyed the atmosphere and comradery of St. Luke’s so much that she completed the radiology residency there before receiving an appointment as an attending and spending her career at St. Luke’s.
Dr. Kanick was an enthusiastic teacher, especially when new equipment and technology was involved. She published over thirty articles in peer-reviewed journals. She became the first woman president of the St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center’s Medical Board in 1980-1981 and in fact, as far as she knew, she was the first president of the Medical Board who was not a surgeon or internist, and quite possibly, the first woman to be the president of a medical board in a major teaching hospital. She was very involved in the broader professional community by serving on the board of directors of the Medical Society of the State of New York, as the secretary and officer of the Medical Society of the County of New York, and as Director of the New York State Radiology Society, among a long list of other service commitments.
(Picture right, Medical Board meeting, r-l, Drs. Kanick, Beekman, Knox and unidentified.)
However, she felt that the most important role she was involved in was working on several committees for the Radiological Society of North America, and particularly, for serving as their representative to the Advisory Committee for Medical Devices at the Food and Drug Administration, reviewing new technologies including MRI, CT, and PET scans, for seven years.
Dr. Kanick circa 1989
However, Dr. Kanick was not all work and no play. Though she never married, she was the beloved “auntie” to her much older siblings’ four children, hosting them on vacations here and aboard. As they grew up and married, Kanick enjoyed their 11 grandnieces and nephews and 19 great-grandnieces and nephews. Upon her retirement in 1989, one of her St. Luke’s colleagues remarked, “In spite of her busy schedule, she has made it her business to know of our personal joys and to genuinely join us in celebrating, or giving us support, advice and true empathy in times of suffering.”
Virginia Kanick fell victim to Alzheimer’s disease and passed away in 2017. She is fondly remembered by hospital staff and the many residents who trained under her guidance.
Left: Dr. Kanick fellow volunteer, Michele Feldman, circa 2016
To learn more about Dr. Kanick’s life, in her own words, watch her interview with Dr. Norma Braun. here.
