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The Progressive Era & Beyond 1910-1940

The years after germ theory became common knowledge coincided with what historians call “The Progressive Era,” a period of time where Americans fought for education, economic, political, and public health reforms. This movement had a lasting impact on public health, which expanded and professionalized even more to address concerns people had about urban life.

The “City Beautiful Movement” was one such progressive crusade to make cities pleasant, refined, and healthy. A clean city, progressive activists believed, could be evidence of civilization and success. As such, the Salt Lake County health department went to war with ills facing the community, particularly pests and condemned homes. The city also expanded its public health employees by training and deploying nurses to homes and schools across the county.

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Men’s Comfort Station, 1913

Free public restrooms, called “comfort stations” were installed across Salt Lake City in the early 1900s. (Image used by permission, Utah Historical Society.)

The City Beautiful Movement

To make Salt Lake City more healthy, clean, refined, and civilized, the health department constructed “comfort stations” in the city – sheltered bathrooms that kept human waste off the streets. They also declared “war with all noxious weeds” in a 1915 Salt Lake Telegram article, aiming to keep the city “more attractive and healthful than it was last year.”

Housing and environmental concerns stayed on the minds of health department officials, particularly as the Great Depression led to poverty and tent cities. Mobile trailer camp villages were referred to as a “menace” and were repeatedly shut down or relocated by the health department for not managing waste and disease. Even entire homes were declared unusable by the health department. In 1938, during the New Deal, federal programs helped fund a full housing survey that looked for unsafe living conditions. It proposed the closure of 250 Salt Lake City houses due to faulty plumbing, illegal fires, accumulated trash, and “rodents, insects, and parasites.”

Animals and pests were one of the main concerns of the health department during the Progressive Era, so much so that they paid the public to eradicate them. In 1914, the health department paid 10 cents per rat brought in by a local, or 10 cents for 100 dead flies. This turned the grizzly work of rodent-hunting and fly-catching a fun pass time for children living in the city. 

Digital Image@2001 LJtah State All tightS

House Inspected by Board of Health, 1915

As part of the “City Beautiful” movement, public officials cracked down on poor housing conditions. (Image used by permission, Utah Historical Society.)

Public Health Nurses

After the 1860 creation of Florence Nightingale’s Training School for Nurses, nursing was seen as a respectable and particularly feminized career path. This made it so many white, middle-class women in Salt Lake County could become wage earners through their nursing work for the health department, which trained women at the County General Hospital. 

Nurse School Graduates

A group of women in white dresses.

The Salt Lake County's nurse education program started in January 1914. (Image used by permission, Utah Historical Society.)

The health department deployed nurses to schools to catch child disease and disability through regular in-person check ups. In two months in 1914 alone, nurses inspected 1,862 students. They also visited 100 homes helping families understand disease and quarantine their children.

In schools and homes, nurses became the face of public health. They were often the only point of connection between individual families and crucial services, such as family planning and mental health services. As the nursing division's assistant director Ruth Cronin wrote in the 1960s, "Bed-side nursing, quarantine, home visits for teaching, errand boy, delivery boy, you name it - nurse did it."

A couple of women standing outside a house.

Public Health Nurse Home Visits

Public health nurses followed up with families, newborn babies, and mothers to ensure childhood was going smoothly.

Immunizations & Check-Ups

As scientific discoveries about bacteria and viruses progressed and vaccines became widely available, it was often nurses administering them - helping parents, children, and teachers understand the benefits of immunization. In 1923, during a smallpox epidemic, the health department nurses gave out 60,000 free vaccinations at pop-up clinics in hospitals and schools.

Public health nurses monitored all sorts of health concerns. They reported to the county on the mental health and wellbeing of parents. At the health department’s Venereal Disease clinic, nurses were responsible for following up with patients to ensure they were taking their entire course of medication. Nurses were truly all over the county, filling a wide variety of health, education, and social work roles. 

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Nurse Educator, 1956

Nurses had many roles. This nurse was tasked with educating people on atomic warfare for the Civil Defense.

Sources

  • All photos courtesy of the Salt Lake County Archives unless otherwise noted.
  • "Oh, Rats! They're Being Bought for Health; All Sorts Come in-Large, Small and Even Smelly Ones! Flies Bought, Too," Salt Lake Telegram, March 27, 1914.
  • "Health Department Declares War with All Noxious Weeds," Salt Lake Telegram, May 24, 1915.
  • "Plan Campaign to Kill Vicious Dogs," Salt Lake Tribune, February 9, 1917.
  • "S. L. Dog Population Totals 5262 Tax Brings in $12,073 during 1927," Salt Lake Telegram, January 16, 1928.
  • "One Bid Made for County Dog Catcher," Salt Lake Telegram, April 5, 1929.
  • "Salt Lakers Asked to Fight Rat Army," Salt Lake Telegram, August 24, 1933.
  • "County Slates Trailer 'Move'," Salt Lake Telegram, August 20, 1938.
  • Salt Lake County Health Department Administrative Records. Salt Lake County Archives.
  • Board of Health Annual Reports. Salt Lake County Archives.