The earliest existing records documenting the anesthetic care of patients by nurses were those of Sister
Mary Bernard, who assumed her duties at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1887. The
most well-known nurse anesthetist of the nineteenth century, Alice Magaw, worked at St. Mary’s Hospital
(later the Mayo Clinic) in Rochester, Minnesota. Dr. Charles Mayo conferred upon Magaw the
title “Mother of Anesthesia” for her many achievements, particularly her mastery of the open-drop
inhalation technique of anesthesia using ether and chloroform. Magaw subsequently published her
findings between 1899 and 1906, in one article documenting more than 14,000 anesthetics without a
single complication attributable to anesthesia. Together Mayo and Magaw were instrumental in establishing
a showcase of professional excellence in anesthesia and surgery. Hundreds of physicians and
nurses from the United States and throughout the world came to observe and learn their anesthesia
techniques.