Although documents, architectural drawings and photos of nurses in the early years of MGH are scarce, there is evidence that nurses have been essential since MGH admitted its first patient in 1821.

“We offer to you then ... kind nurses, whose only duty and occupation it is to watch and provide for the sick, proper and nourishing food, rest and tranquility... "

From an Address to the Trustees of the Massachusetts General Hospital
by Rufus Wyman. January 10, 1822