Guide to the Elinor Delight Gregg video
1936
Collection number: HMC-0424.
Creator: Gregg, Elinor Delight
Title: Elinor Delight Gregg video.
Date: 1936.
Volume of collection: 0.02 cubic feet.
Language of materials: Materials in the collection are in English.
Collection summary: Copy of film of a trip to Alaska by this public health nurse.
Biographical note:
Elinor Gregg was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She attended Colorado College (1905-1906) and the Waltham Training School for Nurses in Waltham, Massachusetts (1907-1911). She worked as a factory nurse and a private duty nurse (1913-1914) in Boston, an assistant superintendent of nurses in Cleveland (1914-1915), and a superintendent at Infants Hospital in Boston (1915-1917). She was a Red Cross Army Nurse overseas in WWI, after which she served as a Red Cross Chautauqua lecturer (1919), a public health nurse in New Hampshire (1921), a Red Cross Nurse working with the Bureau of Indian Affairs at the Rosebud and Pine Ridge agencies (1922-1924), and as a supervisor of public health nursing for the Medical Division of the BIA (1924-1939). In 1939, she made a field trip to Alaska to visit many of the BIA nurses and observe the health of Alaska Natives. She retired in 1939. In 1965, she related her experiences about the Indian reservations and her supervisory position in a book entitled The Indians and the Nurse. Elinor Gregg died in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on March 24, 1970.
Collection description:
This collection consists of a VHS videocassette copy of the black and white motion picture film taken by Elinor Gregg during her trip to Alaska in 1936. The film begins while she is aboard the North Star through the Inland Passage and includes footage from stops at Ketchikan, Wrangell, and Juneau. She next crossed the Gulf of Alaska to Seward, and shot views of Cordova, Seward, a train in the Seward station, Mountain View, and Anchorage. She also went to Nome via a chartered airplane. This part of the film includes scenery, the float plane, aerial views, views of interior villages (possibly Dillingham, Bethel, Kanakanak, and Unalakleet), as well as views of hospital interiors, hospital staff, homes, boats, and a garden. The Nome footage includes residences, a fish wheel, people, home interiors, the hospital exterior, and other scenes. She boarded the North Star again and traveled to Barrow. There is footage of sailors taking a sounding, women making fried bread, a kayak, an umiak, a sailboat, the hospital interior and staff, a surgical operation, and people. On the return trip she visited various villages (possibly Point Hope, Kotzebue, and Kivalina), and filmed a cemetery, villagers killing part of the Kivalina reindeer herd, and King Island. She returned home by airplane via Fairbanks and Tanana. The final footage includes children, a schoolhouse interior, residences, a DC-3 airplane, and aerial views.
Arrangement: The collection is arranged in original order.
Digitized copies: The VHS videocassette has been digitized and is available to view on Alaska’s Digital Archives. For information about obtaining digital copies, please contact Archives and Special Collections.
Digitization was made possible by a Recordings at Risk grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The grant program is made possible by funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Rights note: Archives can authorize copies made of the film.
Preferred citation: Elinor Delight Gregg video, Archives and Special Collections, Consortium Library, University of Alaska Anchorage.
Related materials: Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University has the Elinor Gregg collection.
Acquisition note: The collection was given to the Archives and a deed of gift signed by Nancy M. Wirth, Gregg’s niece, in 1995.
Processing information: This collection was described by Michele Wellck in 2005. The guide to the collection was converted to current standard by Veronica Denison in 2015. Additional description was provided by Becky Butler in 2019.
Location of originals: The original film is presumed to be with the Elinor Delight Gregg’s family.
| Box/Folder | Description | Date |
| 1/1 | “A Public Health Nurse in Alaska.” Black and white silent motion picture film recorded by public health nurse Elinor Delight Gregg. The film includes footage from a journey on the North Star through the Inland Passage, stops at Ketchikan, Wrangell, and Juneau, views of Seward, Cordova, a train in the Seward station, Mountain View, and Anchorage. Footage also includes a flight to Nome, its scenery, the float plane, views of interior villages (possibly Dillingham, Bethel, Kanakanak, and Unalakleet), views of hospital interiors, hospital staff, homes, boats, and a garden. The Nome footage includes residences, a fish wheel, people, home interiors, the hospital exterior, and other scenes. Gregg boarded the North Star again and traveled to Barrow. There is footage of sailors taking a sounding, women making fried bread, a kayak, an umiak, a sailboat, the hospital interior and staff, a surgical operation, people, various villages (possibly Point Hope, Kotzebue, and Kivalina), a cemetery, villagers killing part of the Kivalina reindeer herd, and King Island. The final footage includes children, a schoolhouse interior, residences, a DC-3 airplane, and aerial views in Fairbanks and Tanana. | 1936 |