Isabel Hampton Robb Collection

In 1889, she came to the newly opened Johns Hopkins Hospital, where she was the first Superintendent of Nurses and Principal of the Training School. Hampton was present in 1890 for the formation of the Women’s Fund Committee, which called for the admission of women into the school of medicine. While Superintendent at Hopkins, she wrote the nursing text book, Nursing: Its Principles and Practices, published in 1893. In 1893 at the World’s Fair in Chicago, she organized the Nurses section of the International Congress of Charities, Correction and Philanthropy, for which she arranged to have Florence Nightingale send an address. Out of these activities, the American Society of Superintendents of Training Schools for Nurses was organized, which would later become the National League for Nurses. She later served as its president. In 1894 she left Hopkins to marry Dr. Hunter Robb, an obstetrician/gynecologist at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. They were married in London, England on July 11, 1894. Florence Nightingale sent Hampton her wedding bouquet. The couple moved to Cleveland, Ohio. They had two sons, Hampton, born Dec. 25, 1895, and Phillip, born Feb. 28, 1902.

Isabel Hampton Robb continued her leadership in the nursing profession locally, nationally, and internationally through her writing, nursing organizations, and activities. She was active in the International Council of Nurses and the Committee to Secure by Act of Congress the Employment of Graduate Women Nurses in the Hospital Service of the US Army, which worked toward the establishment of the Army Nurse Corps. In 1896, Isabel Hampton Robb became the first President of the Nurses’ Associated Alumnae of the United States and Canada, which would later become the American Nurses Association. Robb helped to found the American Journal of Nurses. She was instrumental in establishing the course in Hospital Economics at Teachers College, Columbia University in 1899. She worked to secure a place for professional nurses within the Red Cross Nursing Service. Locally, she served as an advisor to the Lakeside Training School for Nurses in Cleveland and helped found the Cleveland Visiting Nurse Association. She continued to write and give speeches on various nursing topics. She wrote the books Nursing Ethics in 1900 and Educational Standards for Nurses in 1907. She was killed April 15, 1910 in a streetcar accident in Cleveland, Ohio.

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