Annotated Scrapbook

It may seem small, but something that caught my attention from the entirety of these two pages is the small cut out from a newspaper that says “DO IT… NOW!”. I can acknowledge that it is a part of the MNSA title for the year. However, its placement near the nursing-related content she underwent reminded me of my own nursing experience. Although she began her nursing journey during her freshman year, mine didn’t start until the end of my sophomore year. This is a very big difference between how the nursing program went in the 1970s and how it is being done now but the one thing that didn't change was the can-do attitude and support. The first day I met with the professors, they were all very supportive and even gave us inspirational quotes that the upperclassmen had written for us on our first day of class. The quote that I got last year is still something that look back on whenever I need an extra push to get through my day and it made me happy to see that the support has been there for years to come.

This right page contains notes Deborah Lease took for the conference she was attending in Minneapolis or they could have been her key takeaways from the conference. I believe this because she speaks on how she would improve the Minnesota Nursing Student Association as treasurer. Either way, this page is her way of putting her experience of participating at the MNSA conference together as she also placed her pre-registration form there as well. In addition to this, she also put a concert date on the top right corner for April 3rd, and seeing as her convention was on the first and second of April, the concert may have been her reward for attending. The last item on this page is the butterfly design and at first, I thought it was a card but it is simply there for design. For this reason, I believe she placed it there to color coordinate with the pop of green and pink on the other page.

This left page is based on her journey to the Radisson hotel in Minneapolis to attend the Minnesota Nursing Student Association Convention. She had a pamphlet of all the activities that were going to occur for the two days she was going to be there as well as what they would eat. In addition to this, she placed her name tag at the bottom with “MINNEAPOLIS The City of Eleven Lakes” which I found interesting because I know it as the Land of 10,000 Lakes. It also states that it is for the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce which is now known as the Minneapolis Regional Chamber. Their purpose is to help businesses and economic growth as well as education through workshops and networking which is why I believe St. Olaf nursing students were able to participate in this event. Finally, she added a cutout of a newspaper that she was pictured in alongside a quote of hers and two others. The content of this newspaper regards the campaign for treasurer in MNSA and why the candidates would like the position.

I enjoyed seeing what Deborah Lease had to say about her experience with the guest speaker from the district. This is because the guest was a hypnotist and he emphasized the importance that words can have on a person. Deborah Lease believed that this was a great message about the care and compassion you can provide to a patient and it’s true. A nurse is typically the first healthcare professional that a patient will encounter so it is important to start building a foundation of trust with them. The reason this is done is so that the patient will tell you exactly what they need and you can advocate for them. She uses this as a way to bring it back to her MNSA conference and state how she would use this knowledge as treasurer. She planned to have a socially concerned organization and although she did not delve into the details of the organization, they would deal with a lot. This type of organization would work towards improving the quality of life for communities and social justice. In light of this, it tells me a lot about who Deborah is as a person because taking part in this would require leadership, compassion, empathy, commitment, and determination.

The spring concert information for 1971 had a cost of $2.50 or you had to provide a “S.A.C card”. I had no idea what a S.A.C card was but after taking a look into the St. Olaf College Archives, I found that it stands for Student Activities Committee. The acronym S.A.C no longer exists at St. Olaf because now they go by OSA, Office of Student Activities. Something else that is different is the cost of admission to the concert. They do not charge us to go to concerts, plays, or games as all the students get at least 1 free admission to the majority of the activities held. Given this, I found it fascinating that 53 years ago, the students would be charged.

‘Who Killed Florence Nightingale’ was the title of the first invocation the participants at MNSA would be a part of, including Deborah. For this reason, I believe the purpose of having Florence Nightingale at the center of their conversation is to praise her. She is considered to be the founder of nursing and advocated for improved sanitary conditions and practices. In addition, she would emphasize the importance of holistic health care as well as compassion towards her patients. Even so, she would not follow her own set of rules for everyone as she was racist and classist. She would not allow people of color to practice nursing and she believed nurses should only help the middle and higher class. Even so, the St. Olaf College nursing department has a history of using her practice as a ‘good nurse’ to introduce students to nursing. This is different now because instead of having her on pamphlets, they teach us both the good and her bad characteristics.

While looking at the photos of individuals who were running for treasurer during the Minnesota Nursing Association Convention, I was surprised to see that there was a man not only running for treasurer but also aiming to become a nurse. This is because when I was looking at the scrapbook of a different St. Olaf nursing student during the 1950s there were no men present. It was not socially acceptable for it to occur so it was a career predominantly for women. If men had chosen a career in nursing, they would have received an extensive amount of stigma but I believe this changed around the 1960s after the feminist movement due to the emphasis on gender equality. Now it has been socially acceptable for quite some time.

A big difference between the nursing program now and the nursing program in the 1970s is that back then, the program would begin immediately in their first year. For me, the program didn't begin until the end of my sophomore year. This may not seem like a huge difference considering that we both began with prerequisites but by the end of her first year, Deborah was already very involved. She was pre-registering for a convention which I believe was optional and even paid to be able to attend. Those $3 are equivalent to $22 in 2024 when considering inflation so she must have really wanted to attend. Something else that piqued my interest is that in the 1970s, students needed to maintain a 3.0 GPA or higher to participate in music lessons but now there is no cut-off for students who are interested in music lessons.

The Raddison Hotel that Deborah Lease went to for the Minnesota Nursing Student Association Convention was demolished in 1982 but in 2014, they rebranded as Raddison Blu and there is now a new building there. In addition, I was curious as to whether or not the Minnesota Nursing Student Association still existed today and it does! They are not holding a convention this year but they held one in 2023 and I wonder why St. Olaf doesn’t advertise this anymore and if it is something that Deborah's nursing professors exposed her to. The last historical context I was interested in understanding is why Minneapolis used to be the City of Eleven Lakes and not the Land of 10,000 Lakes. After doing some research, I learned that the land of 10,000 lakes was already the slogan for Minnesota during the 1970s but the City of Eleven Lakes was more local and focused on the city itself for tourists.

I learned quite a lot of new things during the making of these annotations. I was able to make connections between different objects Deborah placed together and even made a personal connection with one of her cut-outs. Her scrapbook helped me dive deeper into what college life looked like during the 1970s for a nursing major and I compared it to what it looks like for me now. Not only this but I noticed how political movements like the feminist movement in the 1960s began to change the nursing profession from being exclusively for women to the destigmatization of it for men.