The namesake of the nursing school at Case Western Reserve University, Frances Payne Bolton was a vocal healthcare reformer and blazed a trail for women in higher education and on Capitol Hill.
As the first congresswoman to be elected from Ohio and the seventh woman to be a member of the House of Representatives, Bolton advocated for better working conditions for nurses, and earned funding from Cleveland industrialist Samuel Mather to expand Lakeside Hospital鈥檚 nurses鈥� residence. She also championed the Bolton Act, which, in 1943, established the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps, integrated previously white-only nursing institutions and provided federal funding for nursing education.
