The Archives: It started with a shoebox

When UAB School of Nursing Adjunct Instructor and Archivist Patricia Cleveland, RN, MSN (BSN 1973, MSN 1975), began saving memorabilia like programs and alumni newsletters in a shoebox under her desk in 1975, she never could have imagined where the School’s Archives would be 50 years later. Now, it consists of more than 1,400 artifacts, including early nursing equipment, uniforms, caps, pins, diplomas, photos and textbooks. In 2020, the School’s Archives were officially designated as a small museum by the Alabama Museum Association, ensuring the preservation of the School’s rich history.

Preserving the past comes naturally to Cleveland, and her appreciation for it can be traced back to her elementary school days and the teachers in her family who taught her the value of remembering history. When her father was killed in the line of duty as a police officer when she was 7 years old, her mother made sure to protect his legacy by saving items in a cedar chest.

“It was reassuring we had those reminders of Daddy,” Cleveland said. “This kind of work is in my DNA—I can’t imagine doing anything else. When I was a young girl, I remember feeling a conviction to save certain things I knew would be important one day. I’ve done that my entire life, so it was the most natural thing in the world to do it at the School of Nursing.”

Cleveland’s long-standing connection to the School began when she graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 1973 after working at Princeton Baptist Hospital as a diploma-graduate registered staff nurse and then earning her Master of Science in Nursing in 1975. After finishing her MSN, she joined the School as a faculty member, teaching Nursing Fundamentals. Over her career, Cleveland has met all five of the School of Nursing deans and worked under four of them.

Soon after she joined the School of Nursing as a new instructor, then-Dean (now Dean and Professor Emerita) Marie O’Koren EdD, MSN, FAAN, asked Cleveland to help with the School’s Alumni Newsletter. Cleveland remarked that “this was code for you are in charge!” As she worked to connect with alumni, Cleveland saw the importance of preserving the tangible elements of their legacy.

“Some things just can’t be thrown away—they tell a story. Initially I started saving things for myself, but soon I realized this was bigger than me. My shoebox and I gained a reputation, and faculty and staff would say, ‘Don't throw that away give it to Pat for the archives.’ We still find materials placed in the archives drawer in the School’s mailroom. Someone had to start documenting the School’s history, and it just happened to be me,” Cleveland said.

As the UAB School of Nursing’s influence, programs, faculty and alumni pool expanded, Cleveland’s collection far outgrew her cardboard shoebox.

“I went from a shoebox to a bigger box to a file cabinet, and then it exploded. One day the School’s then Director of Operations Karen Buckner called me to her office for a meeting with John Coles, CFO for the school and the facilities team. They surprised me by showing me the first official archives storage room located behind the nursing auditorium. There was a place to hang nursing uniforms, built-in shelves for storage boxes and a small office work area. It meant so much to me that the School valued my work and our history enough to do something like that. That was a wonderful day!” Cleveland said.

The School of Nursing is the only UAB entity to have its own archival collection and works closely with the archives team at UAB Libraries Historical Collections. Even after Cleveland retired from the faculty in 1997, she continued her work in the archives with support from the School’s Dean’s Office, the Office of Development and Alumni Relations, Office of Student Success, as well as help from retired faculty member Judy Taylor, MSN, RN, and UABSON Board of Visitors founding member and author Anita Smith. In 2006, then-Dean (now Dean and Professor Emerita) Doreen C. Harper, PhD, RN, FAAN, established an honorarium with Cleveland for her work, and in 2007 she was officially appointed Adjunct Instructor in the role of Archivist.

By 2020, the work had grown to be far too much for one person, and Cleveland approached Harper in hopes of getting an undergraduate work study student to help her a few hours a week. Knowing the breadth of work that the upkeep of the School’s archives required, Harper instead appointed Adjunct Associate Professor Lynn Stover Nichols, PhD, RN, PED-BC, SANE, ANEF (BSN 1989, MSN 1993, PhD 2000), to be the School of Nursing Archives Coordinator.

“When Dean Harper appointed Lynn to serve as the Archives Coordinator, I was so ecstatic. I have been searching for someone to come behind me and be my successor since the early days of the archives, and Lynn is the perfect person to do that. We complement each other's talents well, and she is a natural archivist and historian. Lynn has been an incredible asset to the School and to the archives specifically,” Cleveland said.

Nichols was equally as thrilled to work with and learn from Cleveland. Bonded by their appreciation for history, Nichols and Cleveland had a history of their own. When Nichols was a student in the School’s BSN program, Cleveland taught her Nursing Fundamentals. While they did not initially connect over their shared love for nursing history, Nichols remembers visiting Cleveland’s office with others from her cohort for a pep talk and Diet Coke when the stress of school set in.

When Nichols joined the School as faculty in 2014, she and Cleveland began having informal discussions about the School’s history, and Nichols would occasionally help Cleveland with various events or donate to the archives herself. When Harper created the Archives Coordinator position, Nichols was the obvious choice.

“I knew Pat first as a teacher and respected how she guided me and my peers in class and clinical activities. When I became the Archives Coordinator, I knew that she would guide and mentor me again, this time as an archivist and historian. She has so much knowledge of the School and every part of the archival collection. I can ask about a specific photo or artifact, and she can put her hands on it in a heartbeat,” Nichols said. “It's beautiful to have a mentor who has been there and done that but still has a growth mindset. She wants to see the archives grow and wants to continue to tell the story of our School’s history in new and innovative ways,” Nichols said.

Nichols refers to Cleveland as the first of the School’s three history books, as she has lived through the majority of the School’s history herself. She is thankful for Cleveland’s foresight to start the School’s collection all those years ago.

“I'm thankful that Pat had that vision to save important artifacts along the way. In the School’s early days, she was not afraid to speak up and to advocate for preserving our history. We wouldn't have half of the archival collection that we do now without her. I appreciate her advocacy, her support and her vision for growing this collection. As important as it is to educate nurses, it's also important to document the history of the School of Nursing. We're a leader among nursing schools, and documenting our School’s history gives a deeper appreciation for its evolution,” Nichols said.

Together, Cleveland and Nichols have collaborated to expand and systemize the collection. Since joining the department, Nichols has worked to digitize the collection in order to preserve it and make it more accessible to the public. Nichols notes that she and Cleveland have a mutual respect for each other's talents.

“My focus is on digitizing our collection, but I respect that Pat wants a paper copy of any document we receive for the physical collection. We make a great team, because when we’re searching for something for an alum or faculty member I can look through the computer and she can search the books. Between the two of us, we can always figure it out,” Nichols said

Every Tuesday, Cleveland and Nichols work to serve the needs of the School and its alumni network. Whether it is managing donations, creating displays that showcase the School’s past or retrieving composite photos for alumni, everything they do is in service of the School. As they work to connect alumni and students to the School’s rich history, Cleveland and Nichols feel fortunate to document a school with 75 years of nursing history.

“The work that we do is important because it helps us to remember our humble beginnings, and it demonstrates how much our School has grown. As a three-time alumna, this place is why I am the nurse, the educator and the leader that I am. I hold this School in very high esteem, and it’s an honor to promote our history so others can know how outstanding the UAB School of Nursing is,” Nichols said.

“To me, preserving the history of our School is about being proud of where we came from, where we are now and where we’re heading,” Cleveland said. “If we don’t remember our past, we will never learn from it. Nursing has a long and complicated history, and if you don’t understand its beginnings, you won’t appreciate the unbelievable strides we have made both here at the UAB School of Nursing and in the profession as a whole. It’s been an honor to steward the history of a School that has meant so much to me and countless others.”

Cleveland grinned as she said, “Old archivists never die, we just preserve.”

-Sarah Morgan Johnson