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Ruby (Baker) Finney, training as a nurse at Alta Bates Sanitorium.
Ruby was my great grandmother Nora Belle (Baker) Saunders's sister,
and my grandfather Delbert's aunt.
The photo is dated February 6, 1920 with a greeting in her own hand on the back:
"Love to all, from Ruby."
Ruby was my great grandmother Nora Belle (Baker) Saunders's sister,
and my grandfather Delbert's aunt.
The photo is dated February 6, 1920 with a greeting in her own hand on the back:
"Love to all, from Ruby."
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Ruby (on the right) with a nursing school classmate, Eng Daniels,
at Alta Bates Sanitorium. This photo is dated May 1920.
at Alta Bates Sanitorium. This photo is dated May 1920.
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Ruby in training at Alta Bates Sanitorium.
This photo is dated March 11, 1923.
This photo is dated March 11, 1923.
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Ruby's nursing school graduation photo.
Unfortunately, this photo is not dated, but it is likely from the mid-1920s.
Unfortunately, this photo is not dated, but it is likely from the mid-1920s.
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Another of Ruby's nursing school graduation photos,
Likely from the mid-1920s.
Likely from the mid-1920s.
Alta Bates Sanitorium, now called Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, in Oakland, CA, was founded in 1905 as an eight-bed hospital for women and their infants, by Nurse Alta Alice Miner Bates. Alta was a prominent early California Nurse Anesthetist, having been one of the first graduates of a nurse's training program out of Eureka, CA. Alta administered over 14,000 anesthetics during a career lasting more than fifteen years. Early in the 1900s, she opened her family's home to women and children medical needing care. Soon after that, with about one hundred dollars, a building design from her father and credit from local merchants, she founded the eight-bed hospital that came to bear her name. Throughout her career, Alta was active in the nurses' training program at her hospital and likely taught Ruby and her classmates during the early 1920s, while the hospital was expanding its capacity and services.
