Staff Pick - My Name Is Mary Sutter

I first heard about this book at the Iowa Library Association Conference. It was the book chosen as All Iowa Reads book for 2015. It sounded like a good story and when I saw our copy one day, I picked it up.

This story is about a young woman living in Albany, New York just prior to the Civil War. Mary's mother, Amelia is a well-known midwife. Since they were very young, Amelia took her children along when she had a delivery scheduled that would take some time away from home.

Mary quickly became Amelia's diligent helper and learned everything she could about childbirth. Mary and her twin sister, Jenny, turned 20 yrs. old the day their father died in Sept. 1860. The day after his funeral, Mary wrote her first letter to request admission to the Albany Medical School. Her deepest wish was to become a surgeon.

As she leaves for the city of Washington, she plans to do whatever she can to become a nurse while the war rages around her. She couldn't have guessed how difficult it would be to be taken seriously. She is turned down by Dorothea Dix, Female Superintendent of Army Nurses. When Mary arrives at the Union Hotel, it has been occupied as a Hospital. It is old and dirty and not ideal as a Hospital, but Mary goes to work doing anything that needs done. Mopping floors, washing bedding and when the first wounded soldiers come it is Mary working alongside Dr. Stipp taking care of them as best as anyone can.

Mary's story gives the reader a first hand look at the difficulties in the medical field during the Civil War. Mary leaves her family home and it's comforts behind in Albany and learns many new things in the care of soldiers and their wounds.

If you'd like to read My Name Is Mary Sutter, you can find it in our online catalog by clicking here.

- Cindy