The New York Academy of Medicine Section on Historical Medicine announces the third talk in its 2003-2004 lecture series:

Elizabeth Norman, Ph.D., New York University
"We Band of Angels: The Story of American Nurses Captured in the Philippine Islands During World War II”
Wednesday, December 10, 2003, 7:00 PM, with a reception beginning at 6:30 PM
New York Academy of Medicine, 1216 Fifth Ave., New York, NY.

This lecture explores the dramatic stories of ninety-nine American Army and Navy Nurses serving in the Philippines at the start of World War II. On December 7, 1941 when the Japanese Imperial Navy launched its surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, it also attacked other American bases in the Far East, including the Philippines. Many American military nurses came to the Philippines for adventure and a relatively safe tour of duty, with “cocktails and bridge at sunset, white jackets and long gowns at dinner, good gin and Gershwin under the stars.” Instead they became the first American nurses to set up military hospitals within combat areas, and--when the Philippines fell--the largest group of American women captured and imprisoned by an enemy. This talk is based on Dr. Norman’s book “We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Women Trapped on Bataan by the Japanese,” published in hardcover in 1999 by Random House Inc., and in paperback in May 2000 by Pocket Books.

Elizabeth Norman is a professor and director of the PhD Program in Nursing at New York University Division of Nursing. In addition to “We Band of Angels”, she is the author of “Women at War: The Story of Fifty Military Nurses Who Served in Vietnam 1965-1973”; and third book, “Tears in the Darkness”, co-authored by Michael Norman, is under contract with Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. Dr. Norman has written numerous articles, and has spoken at regional, national, and international conferences. She is the recipient of the American Academy of Nursing National Media Award, the Lavina Dock Award for Outstanding Nursing Scholarship, and an Official Commendation from the Department of the Army for her military research.

Join us at 6:30 for light refreshments; and please visit our current book exhibition, “Heroes of Health: Medicine in Popular Doses,” on display in NYAM Library’s Main Reading Room. The exhibit features medical history as portrayed in comic books and other popular literature for young people.

This event and exhibition are free and open to the public. For more information about NYAM programs in the history of medicine, write history@nyam.org or call Christian Warren at the nmber provided.

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