196 A Short History of Nursing a factor of immense importance was added to all the others striving toward a higher form of na- tional life. This was the contribution to nursing history first made by Lillian D. Wald (1893), quickly followed by nurses in other sections of the country. In the nurses' settlements (New York, Richmond, Orange, San Francisco, etc.) a wealth of initiative was shown, a kind of originality in nursing research, so to speak, which became a recognized power of much value. In such groups the leaders have been able to attract the financial support needed for their ventures, through the inspiring effect on the community of what they did and hoped to do, and this gave them the freedom needed for following out new clues as they met them, and for instituting experiments on lines of prevention of illness. They were able to discard precedent, and to do things for the first time. This was especially true in New York, where Miss Wald's unusual personality and abilities attracted many gifted residents, both lay and professional, and made of the Henry Street Settlement a co- worker with all the best forces of the great city. It may fairly be said that nurses' settlements have had a definitely large share in freeing the nurse from the old "handmaid" status to that of origin- ator and collaborator in many good works. It may
