Linda Richards

Linda Richards was the first professionally trained American nurse. She established nursing training programs in the United States and Japan, and created the first system for keeping individual medical records for hospitalized patients. Richards was born Malinda Ann Judson Richards on July 27, 1841 in West Potsdam, New York. She was the youngest of three daughters of Betsy Sinclair Richards and Sanford Richards, a preacher, who named his daughter... more

Linda Richards was the first professionally trained American nurse. She established nursing training programs in the United States and Japan, and created the first system for keeping individual medical records for hospitalized patients. Richards was born Malinda Ann Judson Richards on July 27, 1841 in West Potsdam, New York. She was the youngest of three daughters of Betsy Sinclair Richards and Sanford Richards, a preacher, who named his daughter after the missionary Ann Judson Hasseltine in the hopes that she would follow in her footsteps. In 1845, Richards moved with her family to Wisconsin, where they owned some land. However, her father died of tuberculosis just weeks after they arrived there, and the family soon had to return to Richards' grandparents' home in Newbury, Vermont. They purchased a small farm just outside the town and settled there. Betsy Sinclair Richards also contracted tuberculosis, and Linda Richards nursed her mother until her death from the disease in 1854. Her... less