Describing the life cycle of U.S. Marine Hospital #17, Port Townsend, Washington, 1855-1933.
This study was undertaken to determine why U.S. Marine Hospital #17, Port Townsend, Washington, closed at the peak of its utilization. A social history approach was taken, examining the hospital's developmental changes in the context of its role in the larger society. Both firsthand and interpretive sources were reviewed, and numerous photographs and drawings confirmed the hospital was an active participant in the economy. Regarding the hospital's transitions over time as a life cycle was a useful organizing framework. Inpatient census patterns as a measure of the hospital's growth and development informed and enlightened this study. It became clear the Marine Hospital responded to and influenced events in the Port Townsend seaport whose importance diminished when other port cities at the base of the Puget Sound began and sustained rapid growth.
Reed
Meribeth Meixner
MM
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, Rockville, MD 20857, USA. mreed@hrsa.gov
D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006772:Hospitals, Military / Q000266:history* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D006801:Humans; D014861:Washington