1844

1846

1847

1853

1861-1865

Catherine S. Lawrence and other nurses provided anesthesia for soldiers wounded during the Civil War.

1867

1877

Sister Mary Bernard, a nurse at St. Vincent's Hospital in Erie, Pa., became the first nurse to specialize in anesthesia.

1880

The administration of open drop ether and chloroform was taught to Sister Aldoza Eltrich at St. John's Hospital in Springfield, Ill.

1889

Edith and Dinah Graham began to administer anesthesia at St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester, Minn.

1893

Alice Magaw began working as a nurse anesthetist at St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester, Minn., for Dr. Charles Mayo, who would later bestow upon Magaw the title "Mother of Anesthesia" for her mastery of open drop ether.

1895

1898

1899

Magaw published “Observations in Anesthesia,” the first paper by a nurse anesthetist, in the Northwestern Lancet.