KEY SOURCES
A History of Care - 250 Years of American Need, Service, and Hope
We invite you to explore these key sources for your personal, professional learning and applications for today and ahead.
What speaks to you? Challenges you? Deepens your empathy? Raises questions to learn more?
How will you use these to make a difference that matters?
In your roles, your part of our history?
Links to these are also provided at the end of each decade-specific entry:
- 1776–1866: Founding and Fracture
- 1867–1936: Industrial America and Reform
- 1937–1976: War, Rights, and Hospice Origins
- 1977–2006: Hospice and Palliative Care Take Shape
- 2007–2026: Trauma, Equity, and Moral Distress
- Coda: Composing the Next Movement of Care
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A Contemporary Black Perspective on the 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic in Philadelphia
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6727299/
A List of the Deadliest Mass Shootings in Modern U.S. History
https://www.wamc.org/2016-06-12/a-list-of-the-deadliest-mass-shootings-in-u-s-history
About Daniel Drake
https://med.uc.edu/about/daniel-drake-medal/daniel-drake
Abraham Lincoln Online – The Gettysburg Address (Bliss copy)
https://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm
Act Establishing the National Asylum for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (signed by President Abraham Lincoln, March 1865)
https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/about-the-national-asylum-for-disabled-volunteer-soldiers.htm
Act Respecting Quarantines and Health Laws (1799) – Statutes and Stories
https://www.statutesandstories.com/blog_html/an-act-respecting-quarantines-and-health-laws/
African American Herbalism – History and Practice
https://theherbalacademy.com/blog/african-american-herbalism-history
American Journal of Nursing – Healing with Humility: Palliative Care for Refugee Communities
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41709390/
American Medical Association – Code of Ethics History (Ochsner Journal, 2003)
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3399321/
American Medical Association – Council on Medical Education (history of Flexner era)
https://bulletin.entnet.org/home/article/21246076/the-flexner-report-a-revolution-in-american-medical-education
American Medical Association – Recommendations for Future Directions for Medical Education H‑2295.995 (2024)
https://policysearch.ama-assn.org/policyfinder/detail/H-295.995
American Red Cross – Clara Barton and the Founding of the American Red Cross
https://www.redcross.org/about-us/who-we-are/history/clara-barton.html
American School for the Deaf: History & Cogswell Heritage House
https://connecticuthistory.org/the-american-school-for-the-deaf-today-in-history/
Apple – Apple reinvents the phone with iPhone (2007)
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2007/01/09Apple-Reinvents-the-Phone-with-iPhone/
Apple – Apple launches iPad (2010)
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2010/01/27Apple-Launches-iPad/
Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings – Medical and Surgical Care During the American Civil War
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4790547/
Black History Online – Richard Allen, Pioneer of African American Religious and Social Advancement
https://blackhistoryonline.org/2024/04/08/richard-allen-pioneer-of-african-american-religious-and-social-advancement/
Black Lives Matter – Movement overview
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Lives_Matter
Bulletin of the ENT – The Flexner Report: A Revolution in American Medical Education
https://bulletin.entnet.org/home/article/21246076/the-flexner-report-a-revolution-in-american-medical-education
CAHPS Hospice Survey – Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
https://www.cms.gov/medicare/quality/hospice/cahpsr-hospice-survey
CDC – Mapping Medicare Disparities tool
https://www.cms.gov/priorities/health-equity/minority-health/research-data/mapping-medicare-disparities-tool-mmd
CDC – U.S. Public Health Service roots in the Marine Hospital Service
https://www.cdc.gov/museum/online/story-of-cdc/roots/index.html
Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services – Hospice Conditions of Participation (Federal Register)
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2008/06/05/08-1305/medicare-and-medicaid-programs-hospice-conditions-of-participation
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services – Hospice payment and coverage
https://www.cms.gov/medicare/payment/fee-for-service-providers/hospice
Cherokee Nation Memorial to Congress, 1829
https://history.house.gov/Records-and-Research/Featured-Content/Cherokee-Memorial/
Clara Barton and the Founding of the American Red Cross, 1881
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/american-red-cross/
Composing Life Out of Loss – About book “Music of the Soul”
https://composinglife.com/about/book/
Composing Life Out of Loss – About Joy S. Berger
https://composinglife.com/about
Constitution Center – Frederick Douglass, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” (1852)
https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/historic-document-library/detail/frederick-douglass-what-to-the-slave-is-the-fourth-of-july-1852
Constitution Center – Indian Removal Act (1830)
https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/historic-document-library/detail/indian-removal-act-1830
Cornell University – Gettysburg Address transcript
https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/gettysburg/good_cause/transcript.htm
Death and Dying in North America, Late 18th–19th Century
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/deathanddyingvls1/chapter/2-2-death-in-north-america-late-18th-to-late-19th-century /
Dorothea Dix – “Memorial to the Legislature of Massachusetts” (1843), The American Yawp Reader
https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/religion-and-reform/dorothea-dix-defends-the-mentally-ill-1843/
Dr. Benjamin Rush – “Directions for Preserving the Health of Soldiers”
https://www.americanrevolutioninstitute.org/lesson-plans/benjamin-rush-directions-for-preserving-the-health-of-soldiers/
Dr. Benjamin Rush – Medical Inquiries and Observations, Volume I (4th ed., 1815)
https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-2569005R-mvset
Dr. Benjamin Rush – University of Pennsylvania archives biography
https://archives.upenn.edu/exhibits/penn-people/biography/benjamin-rush/
Dr. Daniel Drake – Natural and Statistical View, or Picture of Cincinnati (1815)
https://www.loc.gov/item/rc01002261/
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894) – Essay on puerperal fever
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2675443/
Dr. Thomas Percival – Medical Ethics (origin of AMA Code of Ethics)
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3399321/
Embaling and the Rise of the Funeral Profession after the Civil War, c. 1860s–1870s
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/almshouses-poorhouses/
End-of-Life Care Disparities Experienced by American Indian and Alaska Native Peoples (Journal of Palliative Medicine, 2025)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1089/jpm.2024.0481
“Exploring Artificial Intelligence in Hospice and Palliative Care: An Integrative Review of Technological and Clinical Approaches”
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41636764/
Financial crisis of 2007–08
https://www.britannica.com/money/financial-crisis-of-2007-2008
Florence Wald, founder of the first U.S. hospice, 1974
https://hospicefoundation.org/Florence-Wald
Harriet Tubman Historical Society – Songs of the Underground Railroad
https://www.harriet-tubman.org/songs-of-the-underground-railroad/
Homegoing (African American funeral traditions)
https://www.morrisfhs.com/homegoing
Hospice Analytics
https://www.nationalhospiceanalytics.com/
Hospital Electrification – Light in the Night, early 1900s
https://inspital.com/the-history-of-surgical-lights-from-the-first-ray-of-light-to-modern-medical-technology/
Indiana University Lilly Library – Drake’s medical geography commentary
https://blogs.libraries.indiana.edu/lilly/2025/03/12/drakes-principal-diseases/
Journal of Palliative Medicine – Ethical dimensions of utilizing Artificial Intelligence in palliative care
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39551621/
Joseph Warrington – The Nurse’s Guide (1839)
https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-68180230R-bk
Lemuel Shattuck – Report of the Sanitary Commission of Massachusetts (1850)
https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/cphl/history/books/sr/
Lighting America – The Early Adoption of Electric Light
https://blogs.loc.gov/maps/2024/10/lighting-america-the-early-adoption-of-electric-light/
Marine Hospital Service formally renamed U.S. Public Health Service (1912)
https://www.cdc.gov/museum/online/story-of-cdc/roots/index.html
Mark Twain – “I’m in favor of progress; it’s change I don’t like.”
https://quotefancy.com/quote/862046/Mark-Twain-I-m-in-favor-of-progress-it-s-change-I-don-t-like
Medical Care and the Health of Enslaved People
https://www.whobuiltamerica.org/item/medical-care-and-the-health-of-enslaved-people
Medical Education in the United States and Canada – Flexner Report (Carnegie Foundation, 1910)
https://www.carnegiefoundation.org/resources/publications/medical-education-in-the-united-states-and-canada/
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845), Chapter X
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23
National Archives – Declaration of Independence transcript
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript
National Death Index – CDC
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/ndi/index.html
National Endowment for the Humanities – “O Say Can You Hear: A Cultural Biography of the Star‑Spangled Banner”
https://www.neh.gov/project/o-say-can-you-hear-cultural-biography-star-spangled-banner
National Park Service – Declaration of Sentiments (Seneca Falls)
https://www.nps.gov/wori/learn/historyculture/declaration-of-sentiments.htm
National Park Service – Sojourner Truth, Speech at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention
https://www.nps.gov/articles/sojourner-truth.htm
National Park Service – The Trail of Tears and the Forced Relocation of the Cherokee Nation
https://www.nps.gov/articles/the-trail-of-tears-and-the-forced-relocation-of-the-cherokee-nation-teaching-with-historic-places.htm
New Orleans Second Line History
https://www.neworleans.com/things-to-do/music/history-and-traditions/second-lines/
New York State Legislature – State Care Act, 1890
https://www.omh.ny.gov/omhweb/aboutomh/statecareact.html
NIH Images – Health Care for Seamen
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/phs_history/seamen.html
Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) – Supreme Court case library
https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/supreme-court-case-library/obergefell-v-hodges
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. – “The Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever” (1843)
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2675443/
Poverty and Disease in the Postwar South, 1865–1876
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/almshouses-poorhouses/
President Andrew Jackson’s Message to Congress “On Indian Removal” – National Archives
https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/jacksons-message-to-congress-on-indian-removal
President George W. Bush – Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People (Sept. 20, 2001)
https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010920-8.html
President John Adams – Biography (Britannica)
https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Adams-president-of-United-States
President Abraham Lincoln – Second Inaugural Address
https://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/inaug2.htm
President Abraham Lincoln – Gettysburg Address (various copies)
https://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm
President Barack Obama – Miller Center biography
https://millercenter.org/president/obama
Pushing Life, Reframing Dying
http://www.deathreference.com/Sy-Vi/Technology-and-Death.html
RMS Titanic (1912) and the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS – 1914)
https://www.imo.org/en/About/HistoryOfSOLAS
Saunders quotes in The Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine (1993) – AZQuotes
https://www.azquotes.com/author/20332-Cicely_Saunders
Smithsonian National Museum of American History – Star‑Spangled Banner lyrics PDF
https://amhistory.si.edu/starspangledbanner/pdf/ssb_lyrics.pdf
“Steal Away,” “Wade in the Water,” “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” – spirituals and Underground Railroad
https://www.harriet-tubman.org/songs-of-the-underground-railroad/
Study “Who Cares for Mom and Dad? The Sibling Divide in Caregiving”
https://www.burdhomehealth.com/post/who-cares-for-mom-and-dad-study
Telehealth Group Interactions in the Hospice Setting: Assessing Technical Quality Across Platforms
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3621258/
Technologies to Support End of Life Care
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3143374/
The American Red Cross – founding by Clara Barton (Encyclopedia of Philadelphia)
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/american-red-cross/
The Flexner Report – Medical Education in the United States and Canada
https://www.carnegiefoundation.org/resources/publications/medical-education-in-the-united-states-and-canada/
The Gilded Age & High Society (late 1870s–1890s)
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/gilded-age/
The HIPAA risks of remote work in hospice administration
https://www.markkennedylaw.com/blog/2025/06/the-hipaa-risks-of-remote-work-in-hospice-administration/
The History of EHRs in Healthcare Technology
https://www.tebra.com/theintake/ehr-emr/history-of-ehrs-in-healthcare-technology
The History of the Fax Machine
https://vynemedical.com/blog/the-history-of-the-fax-machine/
The History of Surgical Lights – Inspital
https://inspital.com/the-history-of-surgical-lights-from-the-first-ray-of-light-to-modern-medical-technology/
The Star Spangled Music Foundation
https://starspangledmusic.org/
“The health and physique of the Negro American,” W.E.B. DuBois (1906)
https://openlibrary.org/books/OL13500753M/The_health_and_physique_of_the_Negro_American
“The Trail Where They Cried” – Oo-loo-cha testimony (1842)
https://www.nps.gov/trte/learn/historyculture/upload/The-Trail-Where-They-Cried-508.pdf
U.S. Census Office – Vital and Social Statistics of Death, 1890
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsushistorical/vsush_1890_4.pdf
U.S. Congress – Indian Removal Act (1830)
https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/historic-document-library/detail/indian-removal-act-1830
U.S. Congress – Native and Alaska Native End‑of‑Life Care Disparities (Journal of Palliative Medicine)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1089/jpm.2024.0481
U.S. Marine Hospital Service – Reorganization and Supervising Surgeon (1870–1873)
https://www.cdc.gov/museum/online/story-of-cdc/roots/index.html
U.S. National Library of Medicine – History of the U.S. Public Health Service
https://www.usphs.gov/history
United States Congress – Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen (1798)
https://www.usphs.gov/history
United States Congress – An Act Relative to Quarantine (1796) – Statutes and Stories
https://www.statutesandstories.com/blog_html/an-act-relative-to-quarantine/
Virginia Tech, Aurora, Sandy Hook, Mother Emanuel, Pulse – mass shooting history
https://www.wamc.org/2016-06-12/a-list-of-the-deadliest-mass-shootings-in-u-s-history
Walt Whitman – Biography (Britannica)
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Walt-Whitman
Walt Whitman – “The Wound‑Dresser,” Drum-Taps (1865)
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9165674/
Westward Expansion and Displacement, 1870s–1880s – New Starts, Old Wounds
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/almshouses-poorhouses/
When Death Was Women’s Work
https://www.susqu.edu/461-when-death-was-womens-work/
W.E.B. DuBois – Biography of “The Health and Physique of the Negro American”
https://openlibrary.org/books/OL13500753M/The_health_and_physique_of_the_Negro_American
A History of Care – 250 Years of American Need, Service and Hope
- Links to these are also provided at the end of each time-sensitive entry
- Table of Contents
- Epilogue
(c) 2026, Composing Life Out of Loss, by Joy Berger. All rights reserved.