Army nurse Abbie Ewart modeling traveling uniform on roof of the Irving Hotel, May 1918 (MOHAI 7499)

Kentucky-born Abbie Ewart (1889-1977) moved to Seattle with her family in 1907. Ewart graduated from Queen Anne High School in 1910 and began her training as a nurse, graduating from Seattle General Hospital School of Nursing in 1913. After caring for tuberculosis patients for two years at Firland Sanatorium, she and another nurse opened a single-day surgery clinic in Seattle. Ewart sold the surgery in late 1917 to enter service as a military nurse, training with other Seattle area nurses at Fort Lewis, near Tacoma. The nurses were transported to New Jersey and New York, and from there shipped overseas.
When Abbie Ewart left New York on June 12, 1918, bound for Army base hospitals in France, she wore this "steamer outfit." Here, Ewart models the brimless cap and overcoat worn by the nurses as they crossed the Atlantic on the SS Megantic. In her diary, Abbie Ewart describes a typical day at sea: "Breakfast at 9 - boat drill at 10:30 and French class at 12. Lunch at 1 - French at 3:30."
Handwritten on verso: Outfit to be worn on steamer-French cap, dark blue ulster and blue serge dress. May '18.
Subjects (LCTGM): Military nursing; Nurses - American - 1910-1920; United States. Army.; World War, 1914-1918 - People
People: Watkins, Abbie Ewart, 1889-1977