Alice Fisher

Alice Fisher (1839 - 1888) was a 19th Century Nursing pioneer, she built her career at the former Philadelphia General Hospital (AKA Blockley Almshouse).

Born in England, Fisher trained at the Florence Nightingale Training School at St. Thomas Hospital and served as a superintendent in several hospitals in the UK before coming to the United States in 1884.

She was appointed Superintendent at the former Philadelphia General Hospital and charged with transforming nursing and medical care at the deteriorated institution. She instituted dramatic improvement in standards of care in the institution and created PGH nursing school. Both achievements demonstrated the value of trained nurses in the early years of the profession’s development.

Fisher tenure was short: she succumbed to heart disease in 1888. Her burial site at The Woodlands Cemetery lies adjacent to the former hospital grounds and, for decades, was the site of a procession of nursing students from PGH and other hospitals in the Philadelphia region.