Mary Phinney von Olnhausen

{{Infobox person

| name = Mary Phinney von Olnhausen

| image = Mary Phinney, Civil War nurse.jpg

| alt = Mary Phinney, Civil War nurse.

| caption = Image of Phinney from the frontispiece of her posthumously published diaries. Phinney was in her mid to late forties during the Civil War.

| birth_date = {{Birth year| February 3| 1818}}

| birth_place = Lexington, Massachusetts, U.S.

| parents = Elias and Catherine Bartlett Phinney

| death_date = April {{death year and age|1902|1818}}

| death_place = Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.

| nationality = American

| other_names =

| known_for = Diarist who recorded 19th Century medical techniques

| occupation = Nurse

| spouse = Baron Gustav Adolph von Olnhausen

}}

Baroness Mary Phinney von Olnhausen (1818–1902) was an American nurse, abolitionist, and diarist. Historians look to the book extracted from her diaries Adventures of an Army Nurse in Two Wars, edited by her nephew James Phinney Munroe, to understand the medical techniques of the Civil War.

Early life and family

She was born in Lexington, Massachusetts to Elias, a lawyer, and Catherine Bartlett Phinney, the daughter of a doctor. Phinney was well educated at several academies.

When her father died in 1849 at age 69, the farm was sold and she "sought employment as a designer of print goods" at the Manchester Mills company in Massachusetts.

Baron Gustav Adolph von Olnhausen (born in 1809)Baptism entry Gustav Adolph von Olnhausen in the baptismal register of the parish of St. Marien Zwickau. Baptismal register of the parish St. Marien Zwickau 1801–1818, year 1809, p. 225, no. 11. Central (micro-)film register (Zentrale Lesestelle) of the [https://www.evlks.de/service/landeskirchenarchiv/benutzung/ Ev.-Luth. Landeskirche Sachsen, Regional Church Office Dresden]. left Saxony after the German revolutions of 1848–1849 and also due to financial troubles, which led him to sell of his property. In the 1850s he was making a meager living as a chemist in a dye-house of the Manchester Mills, where he met Mary Phinney.

They married on May 1, 1858 (she was 40 years old at the time) and he died two years later in 1860.{{cite web|title=Adventures of an army nurse in two wars; ed. from the diary and ... Olnhausen, Mary Phinney von, 1818-1902|url=http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/fk7zk5616f;view=1up;seq=21|access-date=2016-02-07}}

American Civil War

During the American Civil War, von Olnhausen served as a nurse at the Mansion House Hospital in Alexandria, Virginia and Mansfield General Hospital at Morehead, North Carolina. After the war, she was discharged in August 1865, returning home to help raise her brother's children in Illinois.

Franco-Prussian War

With the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, she volunteered to serve as a nurse with the Prussian Army and was accepted on the basis of being the Baroness von Olnhausen. She served in field hospitals in Meung and Vendome.

Awards

Phinney was awarded a Cross of Merit for Women and Girls in 1873 by Kaiser Wilhelm I, which is similar to an Iron Cross.{{cite journal|title=Das preußische Verdienstkreuz für Frauen und Jungfrauen|editor=Uwe Brückner|journal=Ordensjournal|volume=8|location=Berlin|date=2007-05-01 |page=24}} Reprint of Das Verdienst-Kreuz für Frauen und Jungfrauen, hrsg. v. L. Schneider, Verlag Alexander Duncker, Berlin 1872 [https://ordensmuseum.de/Ordensjournal/Ordensjournal8Mai07VerlLiJungfr.pdf pdf] She died in Boston in April, 1902.

{{citation|title = Heroines of Mercy Street: The Real Nurses of the Civil War|author = Pamela D. Toler|author-link = Pamela D. Toler|date = 2016|publisher = Little, Brown, and Company}}

File:The Mansion House Hotel served as a hospital during the occupation of Alexandria, Virginia by Union forces, during the Civil War.png

In popular culture

The book Adventures of an Army Nurse in Two Wars was edited in 1903 by James Phinney Munroe and published in 1904, after Mary had died. It is based on the diaries and correspondence of Mary Phinney von Olnhausen. The first part of the book talks about the lives of the people that worked in the Mansion House Hospital in Alexandria as well as her work at the Mansfield General Hospital at Morehead, North Carolina. The second part discusses her work as a nurse again in 1870 in the Franco-Prussian War.

In 2015, the PBS Masterpiece Theatre produced Mercy Street, a fictional mini series portraying life in the Mansion House Hospital where Phinney was stationed. The show relied heavily on her diaries and portrays Phinney as the lead character, played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead.{{cite press release |title=New PBS American Drama "Mercy Street" to Star Josh Radnor, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Gary Cole, Peter Gerety and Norbert Leo Butz |url=http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news/2015/04/29/new-pbs-american-drama-mercy-street-to-star-josh-radnor-mary-elizabeth-winstead-gary-cole-peter-gerety-and-norbert-leo-butz-800114/20150429pbs01/ |publisher=PBS |via=The Futon Critic |date=April 29, 2015 |access-date=2016-01-01}}

References

{{Reflist|refs=

{{cite web

| url = https://www.pbs.org/mercy-street/uncover-history/behind-lens/nursing-civil-war/

| title = Behind the Lens: A History in Pictures

| author = Stanley B. Burns

| date = 2015

| publisher = PBS Masterpiece Theatre

| access-date = 2016-01-18

| quote = Nurses, both Union and Confederate, wrote memoirs of their experiences providing an intimate and personal look at the war from varied points of view. Mary Phinney von Olnhausen’s (1818-1902) "Adventures of an Army Nurse in Two Wars" gives a glimpse into the life of a Union nurse and was an inspiration for Mercy Street.

}}

{{cite web

| url = http://www.annandalechamber.com/civilwarnurses.rhtml

| title = Civil War Nurses & The Mansion House General Hospital

| date =