author
Lillian D. Wald
1867–1940
A pioneering nurse and reformer, she helped create modern public health nursing by bringing care directly to New York’s immigrant neighborhoods. Her work at the Henry Street Settlement connected medicine, education, and social justice in ways that still feel strikingly modern.
1 Audiobook
The house on Henry Street
by Lillian D. Wald
About the author
Born in Cincinnati in 1867 and raised partly in Rochester, New York, Lillian D. Wald trained as a nurse and soon saw how poverty shaped illness. After visiting families on New York City’s Lower East Side, she committed herself to caring for people in their homes and neighborhoods, not just in hospitals.
In 1893 she founded what became the Henry Street Settlement, which started as a visiting nurse service and grew into a major center for health care and community support. She is widely remembered as a founder of public health nursing in the United States and as an early advocate for school nurses.
Wald also spoke out on broader social issues, including children's welfare, workers' rights, women's rights, racial equality, and peace. She wrote about the people and communities she served, leaving a record of a life devoted to practical compassion and lasting reform.