To learn more about this collection please see the finding aid link found above, and/or visit the College and Lutheran Church Archives to use these primary sources.
Bethesda Hospital. Documents Concerning the Establishment and History of Bethesda Hospital and Deaconess Home in St. Paul, Minnesota, 1883-1969. LCA Collection 134. ½ Hollinger box, 1 cassette box, and 1 oversize folder.
ABSTRACT:
The Bethesda Hospital collection contains information on the organization’s history, as well as secretarial minutes from meetings of the Tabitha Society. The society was created by the Lutheran Minnesota Conference in 1880 to establish and maintain a hospital. The history of the Bethesda Hospital is provided through an essay, newspaper articles, and an annual report on the Bethesda Hospital and Deaconess Home. The Constitution and Rules of Order, created for Bethesda Hospital by both the Tabitha Society and the Minnesota Conference, are also included in the collection, as are meeting minutes from the Hospital Working Association and the Bethesda Missionary Society. Some documents are in Swedish.
The Bethesda Hospital was established in 1882 through The Tabitha Society, a committee formed by the Lutheran Minnesota Conference. The hospital was opened, closed, reopened, and moved several times in its first ten years of existence. Eventually, it reopened in St. Paul during March 1892. The Minnesota Conference also instituted the Deaconess Home in conjunction with Bethesda Hospital in 1909, which served as a training school for those who wished to become deaconesses until 1930, when the training school merged with Immanuel Deaconess Institute in Omaha.
