{"id":7957,"date":"2015-11-10T11:00:53","date_gmt":"2015-11-10T16:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/?p=7957"},"modified":"2024-12-12T13:32:23","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T18:32:23","slug":"a-pharmacists-mate-first-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2015\/11\/10\/a-pharmacists-mate-first-class\/","title":{"rendered":"A Pharmacist’s Mate First Class"},"content":{"rendered":"

By John Rees ~
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

In celebration of Veteran\u2019s Day, the Archives and Modern Manuscripts program highlights the recent acquisition of the Charles Henry Stevens Papers, 1945\u20131946<\/a>, selections of which are currently on display in our reading room at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland. The collection was generously donated by his nephew via the American Veterans for Equal Rights<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Charles Henry Stevens, ca. 1945<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Stevens, from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was a Pharmacist’s Mate First Class. He served on the Navy hospital ship USS<\/em> Repose<\/em><\/a> during the last days of World War II combat in the Pacific and continued his service during the Korean Conflict. As a gay man he later helped in the battle to repeal the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. He was active in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) issues during his civilian life living in Atlanta, GA, and a member of American Veterans for Equal Rights.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Pharmacist’s mates are petty officers who, under the direction of medical officers, administer medical assistance, treatment, and services to naval personnel. They may serve in the sick bay or dispensary of a ship or shore station, at a naval hospital, or on a hospital ship. When assigned to a marine landing party, they render first aid to the injured on a battle field, or at a dressing station. Many pharmacist’s mates in addition to skill, training and experience acquired in the performance of general hospital duties, take specialized training and through practical experience become competent medical technicians in such fields as X-ray, clinical laboratory, pharmacy, epidemiology and sanitation, fever-therapy, etc. Those pharmacist’s mates who are employed as technicians are required to attend regular classes in general medicine to maintain skills and knowledge previously acquired. \u2014United States Navy Rating Description for the Pharmacist Mate, Second Class, NAVPERS 15386, Navy Department Bureau of Naval Personnel, 1945<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

His papers are small in size, but rich in content. Included is a nearly complete set of standard professional photographs<\/a> taken during the ship\u2019s commissioning day. There are also several crowd photos of the ship\u2019s crew, perhaps taken just before a departure. In addition, there are several personal photographs taken by Stevens of the ship and harbor while deployed to Shanghai, China, and soldiers recuperating at a shore hospital. There are also a few of Stevens himself at home and around Philadelphia on shore leave.<\/p>\n

The collection also contains a ship’s newsletter from 1946, Stevens\u2019s dog tags, and his Pharmacist\u2019s Mate uniform insignia. Below are a few items from the collection, which provides a portal into the life and service of Pharmacist\u2019s Mate Charles Henry Stevens.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/a>
USS Repose Anchored in Shanghai Harbor <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Crewmen <\/a>
Crew of the USS Repose <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
View of Shanghai, China Taken from Bow of the Repose <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Dental <\/a>
Dental Clinic Area Aboard the Repose <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
52-bed Patient’s Ward Aboard the Repose <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
Issue of the Repose Review, the Ship Newsletter, April 13, 1946 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
Stevens’ Pharmacist’s Mate Uniform Insignia <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

These materials are on display in the History of Medicine Reading Room at the National Library of Medicine through June 30, 2015, visit us<\/a> M-F 8:30 to 5:00 EST.\u00a0 For questions about these materials, including how to consult them, please contact the History of Medicine Division Reference staff NLM Customer Support<\/a> or (301) 402-8878.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Portrait<\/a>John Rees is Archivist and Digital Resources Manager for the Archives and Modern Manuscripts Program in the History of Medicine Division at the National Library of Medicine.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Highlighting the Charles Henry Stevens Papers, 1945\u20131946. Stevens, from Philadelphia, was a Pharmacist’s Mate First Class in WWII and a member of the American Veterans for Equal Rights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19605840,"featured_media":19310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"A Pharmacist's Mate First Class\u2014 Charles Henry Stevens, WWII veteran and LGBT advocate #VeteransDay","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[42333869,12763,103],"tags":[5967,678875806,517998,488,12074,2971278],"class_list":["post-7957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives-manuscripts","category-collections","category-news","tag-advocacy","tag-lgbtq","tag-manuscript","tag-military","tag-photograph","tag-recent-acquisitions"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/DSC0860_feature.jpg?fit=900%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3xcDk-24l","jetpack-related-posts":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19605840"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7957"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51349,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7957\/revisions\/51349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}