Learn more about North Carolina nurses in their own words. There are oral history collections in archives and libraries across the state. Follow the links to discover oral history interviews with North Carolina nurses. Most of these interviews have audio recordings or transcripts available online.
Institutional Oral History Collections
Many institutions gather and catalog interviews and oral histories to help provide historical context and give voice to people and populations whose experiences would not typically be recorded in traditional records. Here are some selections from various collections across North Carolina institutions.
| Oral History Collection | Institution |
|---|---|
| HIS 5579 Project, 2010 |
Appalachian State University |
| Behind the Veil Collection |
Duke University |
| DUMCA Oral History Collection |
Duke University Medical Center Archives |
| Sarah Wahab Moore Oral History Interview |
East Carolina University Joyner Library |
| Oral Histories of Public Health Nurses (2010) |
NC Public Health Association |
| Southern Highlands Oral History Collection |
UNC Asheville |
| Voices of Asheville Project |
UNC Asheville |
| Jane Abernethy Plyler Papers, 1979-1980 |
UNC Chapel Hill |
| Southern Historical Collection |
UNC Chapel Hill |
| Southern Oral History Program |
UNC Chapel Hill |
| Voices of the New South |
UNC Charlotte |
| Women Veterans Historical Project |
UNC Greensboro |
Selections from the Internet Archive
Audio Interviews
- Margaret Baggett Dolan, 1964 - This recording contains Margaret Dolan's commencement speech to the graduates of the East Carolina College of Nursing. She is speaking on love, generosity and the role of nurturing in nursing. May 1964.
- Lula Owl Gloyne, 1982 - Partial recording of an interview with Lula Owl Gloyne. The portion of Owl Gloyne's story that is available is fascinating. She discusses her training, her nursing exam, and the differences between her education and the ways in which nurses are trained now. She describes her early work in South Dakota: the health problems faced by her patients, her interactions with practitioners of traditional medicine, the language barrier between herself and her patients, local customs, and the scarcity of doctors in the area. She discusses her marriage, which she kept secret for some time so that she could continue working. Owl Gloyne recounts her return to the Qualla Boundary and discusses the health problems and health care on the reservation over the course of her time there. She talks about the opening of the first hospital in Cherokee, her experience delivering babies and providing patient screenings, and the advantages and disadvantages of traditional cooking. She also discusses the travel challenges, from learning to ride a horse to fording streams in her car, that she encountered in her public health career. Owl Gloyne was relatively isolated from other health care providers many times during her career, and she discusses the independence and the responsibility that these circumstances gave her.
Video Interviews
- North Carolina Nurses - Collection of responses from North Carolina Nurses made during interviews conducted during the annual meeting of the North Carolina Public Health Association, October 28, 2010.
- The Thinking Nurse - Video in celebration of Duke University School of Nursing 75 Years.
- Betty Compton Interview - Interview conducted 2013. She was in the first class of Nurse Practitioners in NC 1970-1971. Transcript (pdf).
- Lisa Goldstein Interview - Interview conducted March 4, 2013 with an Appalachian lay and then Certified Nurse Midwife. An honors thesis project by Annemarie Anglim on Lisa Goldstein's life and work and much of thier interview transcription can be found in Anglim's thesis Midwifery in the Mountains: Lisa Goldstein's Care of Appalachian Women and Their Families in Western North Carolina (pdf).