Nutting, Mary Adelaide (1858–1948)

Canadian nurse educator. Her life's work was advancing the professional education of nurses. She helped establish the American Journal of Nursing (1900) and coauthored History of Nursing (4 volumes 1907–12). Her basic writings are collected in A Sound Economic Basis for Schools of Nursing (1926). She was also active in the woman suffrage movement.

Born in Waterloo, Québec, Canada, Nutting left her impoverished family in 1889 to enter nursing school at Johns Hopkins (Baltimore), becoming head nurse in 1891, and superintendent of nurses training (1894–1907). There she commenced what would be Moving on to the Columbia University Teachers College, she established the department of hospital economics (1907) and the department of nursing and health, which she chaired (1910–25), making it a leader in the education of nurses.