Brief Overview of Collection, MC49
Name: Florence
A. Hixson Papers
Dates: 1939-1989
Extent: 1 cubic foot
Historical Note: Florence Alberta Hixson was born in Bingen, Pennsylvania,
on October 18, 1899, the youngest of eleven children. Hixson enrolled at the
Hospital School of Nursing at the University
of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and received her diploma in
1924. She received a bachelor's degree in nursing education from Columbia in 1931 and a master's degree in education from
the University of
Pennsylvania in 1939. In
the 1940s she began work in a doctoral program in education at Columbia University, she would be awarded the
degree in 1952. From 1924 until 1949, while continuing her education, Hixson
taught in several hospital nursing schools in New York,
Michigan, and Pennsylvania. In 1949 the Alabama State
legislature authorized the creation of a four-year baccalaureate nursing
program at the Tuscaloosa
campus of The University of Alabama. Hixson was hired as the school's first
dean and moved to the campus in 1950. That fall, the school opened with 17
students and one faculty member, Dean Hixson. Throughout the 1950s and early
1960s, the nursing program continued to grow and prosper on the Tuscaloosa campus. In
1966, however, University President Frank Rose appointed a committee which he
charged with making recommendations for the future of the school. The committee
recommended that the School be moved from Tuscaloosa
to the University's Medical Center in Birmingham
where faculty and staff had been present since 1953. President Rose accepted
the recommendation and the School was moved during August of 1967. Hixson
remained at the new location for the next three years, and again worked to
"refound" the School of Nursing at the newly autonomous University of Alabama
in Birmingham (UAB). After serving as dean for twenty years, Dr. Florence A.
Hixson retired effective June 30, 1970, and was named Professor Emerita by the
Board of Trustees. In honor of her contributions to nursing and to UAB, the
nursing student residence on the UAB campus was rededicated Florence A. Hixson
Hall in 1985. Dr. Hixson returned from her home in Pennsylvania for the rededication of the
building. Florence Alberta Hixson, founding dean of The University of Alabama
School of Nursing, died in Pennsylvania
in 1989.
Scope and Contents: Includes correspondence, news clippings,
phonograph recordings, certificates and diplomas, reports, minutes, pamphlets,
plaques, a scrapbook, and a feschrift.
Arrangement: Organized by material format.
Accession Number: M97-08
Provenance: After the death of Dean Hixson, her papers were donated
by her brother to the School
of Nursing Alumni Association.
The papers remained in the Alumni Room of the School of Nursing Building at UAB
until 1997 when nursing dean Dr. Rachel Booth and alumni association archivist
Pat Cleveland transferred them to the UAB Archives.
Finding aid: Printed descriptive guide by Tim L. Pennycuff available
in repository.
Access Points: Crossland, Kathryn M.
Denny, Linna H., d 1864-1955.
Hixson, Florence
A., d 1899-1989.
Nurses z Alabama.
Nursing x Study and teaching z Alabama.
Nursing schools z Alabama z Tuscaloosa.
Nursing schools z Alabama z Birmingham.
Nursing students z Alabama.
Rose, Frank Anthony, d 1920-1991.
University of Alabama. b School of Nursing.
University of Alabama
at Birmingham.
b School of Nursing.
University of Alabama
in Birmingham.
Volker, Joseph F., d 1913-1989.
Document Types: Certificates, Clippings, Correspondence, Diplomas,
Feschrift, Minutes, Pamphlets, Phonograph records, Plaques, Reports,
Scrapbooks.
Location: Manuscript Stacks
Related Series: PMC49, Florence
A. Hixson Photographs
Physical Condition: For preservation purposes, several items,
including photographs, phonographs, and oversized materials, have been removed
and are now located in other boxes as noted in this finding aid.
Return to the Manuscript
Collections Page
Last Updated by Tim L. Pennycuff, 18
January 2000.
Copyright 1999-2000, The University of
Alabama at Birmingham.