Lillian D. Wald (1867–1940)

Lillian D. Wald was born to a prosperous American Jewish family in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her father, Max D. Wald, was a successful optical goods merchant. She grew up in a happy home filled with books and music. In 1878, the family moved to Rochester, New York. There Lillian attended Miss Cruttenden’s English-French Boarding and Day School, where she excelled in languages, arts, math, and science and graduated at age 16. Too young for college, she traveled worldwide for six years and worked briefly as a newspaper reporter.

In 1889, she enrolled at the New York Hospital Training School and upon her graduation went to work for the New York Juvenile Asylum, an orphanage. She also began classes at the Women’s Medical College to become a doctor. In addition to caring for orphan children, Miss Wald helped with classes and provided nursing for poor immigrant families on the Lower East Side.

She witnessed first-hand the hardship and deprivation experienced by the families in that neighborhood. Many lived in cheaply-built, dilapidated tenement buildings; it was not unusual for a family of 10 to live in a 325-square-foot apartment. Due to the cramped quarters and lack of upkeep on the buildings, many of the residents were frequently sick.

Miss Wald decided to dedicate her life’s work to the tenement community. She quit medical school and moved with her friend and colleague Mary Brewster to the College Settlement House on the Lower East Side. In 1893, she coined the term "public health nurse" to describe those who worked outside hospitals in mostly poor and middle-class communities. With the help of donors and Mary Brewster, she also started the Visiting Nursing Service of New York to bring affordable and decent health care to the neighborhood. In 1894, the two women started the Henry Street Settlement House, an organization dedicated to providing social services and instruction in various subjects for the Lower East Side community.

Beyond her work with the Henry Street Settlement, Wald was a passionate, tireless advocate for the rights of women, children, immigrants, and laborers. She helped start the United States Children's Bureau, the National Child Labor Committee, and the National Women's Trade Union League. She supported and worked for a women’s right to birth control and was active in the women's suffrage movement. She also lobbied for workplace health and safety. After World War I, she chaired the Red Cross's campaign to end the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918 and represented the USA at International Red Cross meetings. Her groundbreaking work continues to be memorialized in the organizations and causes she sponsored.