Mary Bartlett Dixon Cullen
Personal Information
Born: 1873
Died: 1957
Country of Birth: USA
Nationality: USA
Ethnicity: White
Education
Johns Hopkins School of Nursing 1903
"In an essay she wrote titled "Votes for Women” in the Nurses’ Journal of the Pacific Coast she wrote, “no other issue or matter could be attended to until nurses were politically oriented. . .the health, wealth, and happiness of society and of the nursing profession relied on nursing’s increasing political involvement in social reforms. . .nurses’ concerns with injustice in the world rendered their political involvement unavoidable.” (mdwomensheritagecenter.org); "
— Mary Bartlett Dixon Cullen
Professional Life
Field of Study: Nursing; Social Activist
Institution/Corporation: Johns Hopkins School of Nursing; Easton Memorial Hospital; Talbot City League of Women Voters; American Cancer Society
Degrees & Memberships: Member: Women's suffrage Association of Maryland, Just Government League of Maryland, Maryland State Nurses' Association, Johns Hopkins Nursing Alumnae Board, Talbot county League of Women Voters; Silent Sentinels
Awards & Achievements
Awards: 2022 was honored (with Mary Jenkins) with a historical marker in Easton MD
Achievements: 1907 helped establish the 1st hospital & nursing school on Maryland's eastern shore, Easton Memorial Hospital; with Elizabeth Wright Dixon began the nursing school run solely by volunteers in the hospital in 1907; 1909 chaired the special sanitary committee run through the Maryland Association for the Prevention & Relief of Tuberculosis; elected chairman of the Women's suffrage Association of Maryland 1909; was chair of the legislative committee of the Just Government League of Maryland 1910; during WWI fought for nurses to receive officer rank; founded the Talbot County League of Women voters; helped establish the Talbot County chapter of the Children's Aid Society; after her husband died in 1953 she donated her Baltimore home to the American Cancer Society
the 1st hospital she established in Easton MD burned to the ground less than 1 year after it opened in 1906
received $43,000 to rebuild the hospital & it reopened as Easton Memorial Hospital in 1907
was part of the delegation of women who met with President Wilson to discuss the suffragist movement
the Principal of Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, Adelaide Nutting, wanted to reduce the number of hours student nurses worked during the week so she admitted dixon to the nursing program because her father was President of the hospital & she believed he would reduce the hours when he saw how overworked his daughter was
Nutting pushed Dixon harder than any other student & gave her more hours even though she told Dixon she expected her to drop out of the program
Dixon graduated even though she was extremely overworked & her father decreased the hours of nurses
1917 Dixon & 40 other Silent Sentinels were arrested after picketing the White House for suffrage issues & was sentenced to the Occoquan Workhouse for 2 days
was a Quaker
wrote regularly for the Maryland Suffrage News & edited a regular column for the Baltimore Sun titled "What the Suffragists Are Doing"
in her later years when she began losing her hearing she became a "leading spirit" for the League for the hard of Hearing