Harriet Putman, Susan Boulding and Others at Camp Sherman

This undated black and white photograph of army nurses and their patients was taken at Camp Sherman, a huge military garrison near Chillicothe that was active from 1917 to a few years after the end of World War I. This photo would have been taken during the spring or summer of 1919. It includes three nurses, recognizable by their white uniforms, several men in white smocks that suggest they were medical aides, and soldiers in army uniforms. The group is positioned in front of what appears to be a two-story barrack with verandas. A second barrack can be seen at the far left. 

The nurse in the white uniform, fourth from the left, is Harriet Putman (Putnam). She grew up in Worthington, and at Camp Sherman in 1919 met Charles Dignan Wing, a soldier whom she later married. Wing, who is not included in this photo, spent the early months of 1919 recovering from severe war injuries at the camp. Wing and Putman married on July 7, 1920, in Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Cleveland. They spent the rest of their married lives in Worthington.

Stephanie D. Smith at the University of Illinois Chicago has identified the Black nurse, fifth from the right, as Susan M. Boulding. Boulding's inclusion is notable given the ingrained racial segregation practiced by the U.S. Army and the Red Cross at during this period. Boulding was one of nine Black nurses stationed at Camp Sherman. It is possible that only the severity of 1918-1919 influenza crisis could have induced the army to accept these nurses. Camp Sherman had the highest death rate of any army camp in the country; in the camp’s crowded barracks, 1777 men died from the so-called "Spanish flu." Before that time, the Army and the Navy barred Black nurses, ostensibly because they could not provide segregated facilities for them. Boulding and 17 others were the first Black nurses to serve in the Army Nurse Corps.

When the nurses arrived, they were assigned to segregated housing and warned by Chief Nurse Mary M. Roberts that "they should not expect to share in the social activities of the white nurses." 

Nevertheless, the Black nurses of Camp Sherman and Camp Grant (the only other camp that allowed Black nurses) were recognized by their contemporaries as leaders in the civil rights struggles of their time. In 1919, "The Crisis,” a publication of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, received a photo of the Camp Sherman nurses sent by Mattie McGhee, the widow of civil rights pioneer Fredrick McGhee. An accompanying note stated: “These young women willingly responded to the call when the country needed them, some of them giving valiant service during the Flu Epidemic, under the American Red Cross. Having been assigned to military duty they have faced every difficulty and are winning many small battles for the race.”

The Army waited several days after the November 11, 1918, armistice to officially call up the nine Black nurses, thus depriving them of the wartime duty benefits accorded other nurses who served in the conflict.