HISTORY TOPICS

Sister Elizabeth Kenny

Overview

Kenny discovered a revolutionary treatment for infantile paralysis and devoted her life to the dissemination of the treatment throughout the U.S. and abroad. Sister Kenny came to Minnesota in 1940 and established the Sister Kenny Institute in 1942. She went against traditional treatments for polio and urged that the stricken limbs be exercised. This procedure opened the modern-day era of rehabilitation medicine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Get Started With Secondary Sources

• Minnesota Medicine.
  St. Paul, Minn.: Minnesota Medical Association, 1918-present.
  MHS call number: R11 .M6 (in the Serials Collection).
  Note: This serial is indexed in MedLine, which is available at the University of Minnesota's Biomedical Library in Diehl Hall.
• Sister Kenny: The Woman Who Challenged the Doctors, by Victor Cohn.
  Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press, 1975.
  MHS call number: Reading Room RT 37 .K47 C65.
• "Sister Kenny's Fierce Fight for Better Polio Care: She was Obstinate and Not Open About Her Own Background, But She Nevertheless Was Responsible for a Revolution in Medicine," by Victor Cohn.
  In Smithsonian, vol. 12, no. 8 (Nov. 1981): pp. 180-200.
  MHS call number: RD 796 .S57 C65 1981.

 

Primary Resources

• Elizabeth Kenny Papers.
  This archival collection (1937-1992) documents Kenny's life and career and includes correspondence, telegrams, a typed transcript of an autobiography, reports and essays, photocopied legal documents, motion picture scripts, newsletters, photographs, scrapbooks, printed matter, journal articles, and newspaper clippings.
  MHS call number: See the green Manuscripts Alpha Notebooks—filed under Kenny, Elizabeth—for a detailed list of boxes and locator numbers (there are 7 boxes), or use an electronic version of the inventory.
• Abbott-Northwestern Hospital Photograph Collection.
  This archival collection includes photographs of the treatment program.
  MHS call number: III.2 (in the A-V Collection).
• James Ford Bell Papers.
  This archival collection (1916-1960) contains correspondence, clippings, speeches, printed materials, and miscellany of Bell, a General Mills executive who was an active participant in public affairs. His papers include information on Sister Kenny's treatment program.
  MHS call number: A.B433jf ; see the green Manuscripts Notebooks for a detailed list of boxes and locator numbers (there are 8 boxes, but not all relate to this topic).
• "Elizabeth Kenny Institute, Minneapolis, Minnesota, February 1943: Infantile Paralysis Patients and Visitors at the Institute …" photographed by Jack Delano for the U.S. Office of War Information.
  [Washington, D.C.: The Office, 1943].
  MHS call number: Microfilm no. 1546.
  

Newspapers

• Minneapolis Star-Tribune (an index for articles published after 1970 is located in the Hubbs Microfilm Room)
• St. Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch (an index for articles published in 1967 or after is located in the Hubbs Microfilm Room)

 

Visual Resources

• Use Collections Online to find more images that may be useful for this topic. Helpful searches may include:
  • Elizabeth Kenny
  • Kenny Institute
  • Polio

3D Objects

 

Learn More

• Check the library catalog for other materials.