BOOK REVIEW: “Baystate Franklin Medical Center” by Thomas L. Higgins, Sandra W. Campbell, and Gina O. Campbell (Arcadia Publishing, 128 pages, $21.99)
Most of us in Franklin County have entered Baystate Franklin Medical Center at one time or another — to be tested, to undergo treatment, or just to visit a friend and check out the gift shop. A new book from Arcadia Publishing’s “Images of America” series presents 214 photographs that illustrate our hospital’s rich history.
“Baystate Franklin Medical Center” was put together by people who work at and care about the hospital — Dr. Thomas Higgins, Sandra Campbell, historian and genealogist, and Gina Campbell, nurse and chief operating officer. The three provide plenty of information to accompany the images in the book, which portray buildings and personalities associated with the hospital since its founding in 1895.
At that time Franklin County Public Hospital, as it was first named, operated out of a rented house on Main Street. It moved to a larger house on the corner of Main and Conway streets in 1898 and eventually to the first structure designed for it on High Street in 1910. Various building projects over the years (all documented by the authors) culminated in the current “spoke” design. A new surgical building is slated to open later this year.
As a reader I was entranced by some of the long-gone buildings and furnishings shown in the book. As a patient, I will probably be happy they no longer exist; many of them violated current building and medical codes.
“Baystate Franklin Medical Center” presents many riches. To me, the portraits of distinctive personalities are perhaps the book’s most appealing feature.
Those depicted include Harriet Louise Hardy, Merritt Low and Susie Walking Bear.
Hardy, a physician, worked alone with a nurse to treat scores of students injured by a collapsing chimney at Northfield Seminary for Girls during the hurricane of 1938.
Low, Franklin County’s first pediatrician, was crippled by polio in 1943 while caring for his patients and went on to advocate for the disabled.
Walking Bear was the first Native American to become a registered nurse.
From its inception until 1965, the hospital ran a nursing school. Walking Bear was trained there, graduating in 1927. She went on to work at the Crow Reservation and to fight for care for Native Americans via the Indian Health Service and the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
People like Hardy, Low and Walking Bear shine out of the pages of the book, which should interest just about anyone in our area.
The authors of “Baystate Franklin Medical Center” will sign copies of their book from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. today (Saturday, Aug. 20) at the World Eye Bookshop in Greenfield. A portion of all sales will go to the Baystate Franklin Medical Center Program Fund.
Tinky Weisblat is the author of “The Pudding Hollow Cookbook” and “Pulling Taffy.” Visit her website, www.TinkyCooks.com