Estelle Garner Ptaszynski Collection

Details

Who's responsible?: Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries (Repository)
How much has been digitized?: This collection has been digitized in its entirety.
Where can I find more information?: https://uncg.as.atlas-sys.com/repositories/2/resources/862
What's in the full collection?: February 1999 oral history transcript; photograph Burford, May 1944, photograph of nurses' tents 305th Station Hospital; photograph of operating room 305th Station Hosptial on D-Day, 1944; photograph of nurses and officers outside of the operation room; photograph of nurses outside of the operation room; photograph of Estelle outside of "Miramar"; photograph of Estelle on her day off in Southhampton, England, 1943, photograph of Longleat Gardens and Castle in England.
Full biography: Estelle Garner Ptaszynski (1917-2006) of Seagrove, North Carolina, a member of the Army Nurse Corps (ANC) from 1943 to 1945. She also served as a surgical nurse for many years at hospitals in Connecticut and North Carolina. Estelle Garner Ptaszynski was born on 7 December, 1917, in Seagrove, North Carolina. She attended Elsie Academy in Robbins, North Carolina, and Campbell College in Buies Creek, North Carolina. She graduated from nurse's training at Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 1940 and became a surgical nurse in the hospital's operating room. In January 1943 Ptaszynski joined the Army Nurse Corps. She spent eight months at Camp Butner near Durham, North Carolina, and then went to Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Kilmer in New Jersey for overseas training. Ptaszynski sailed to England on the SS Mauritania with the 305th Station Hospital in September 1943. She spent several months with the hospital on the Longleat Castle estate near Warminster, England, before moving to Oxford for one month. Ptaszynski moved with the hospital to Southampton in the spring of 1944 and remained there until August 1945. She returned to the United States and was discharged from Fort Bragg in November 1945. Ptaszynski met her husband, Ed, while in the service. They married in February 1946 and moved to Connecticut, where they lived for twenty-nine years. Ptaszynski resumed her work as a surgical nurse when her children reached elementary school age, and continued her nursing career for several years after the family moved back to North Carolina and settled in Troy. Ptaszynski died in 2006.
Topics: Women's History
Military
Branch of service: Army -- Army Nurse Corps
Conflict: World War II era (1940-1946)
Subject headings: World War, 1939-1945
United States. Army--Women
Contributing Institution: Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries

: Army nurses in the snow; Estelle Garner Ptaszynski (center) and four other Army Nurse Corps members stand outside the field hospital in England on a snowy day, 1943-1945. Garner is wearing the Army Nurse Corps overcoat.

: Estelle Garner Ptaszynski in Southampton; Estelle Garner Ptaszynski sits on an iron fence on a day off in Southampton, England, 1943.

: Estelle Ptaszynski in front of Miramar sign; Estelle Ptaszynski in front of Miramar sign, undated.

: Medical staff outside field hospital; Estelle Garner Ptaszynski and other staff of the 305th Station Hospital stand outside of the operation building in England, 1943-1945.

: Nurses in field uniforms in Burford, England; Estelle Garner Ptaszynski and other female army personnel wearing the field uniform and helmet use barrels to wash and rinse their mess gear in Burford, England, in May 1944.

: Operating room staff on D-Day; Estelle Garner Ptaszynski (left) and other medical staff stand above a patient in an operating room of the 305th Station Hospital on D-Day, June 6, 1944. The nurses are wearing the brown and white seersucker field hospital uniform.

: Oral history interview with Estelle Garner Ptaszynski; Primarily documents Estelle Ptaszynski's nurses training; service in England with the Army Nurse Corps (ANC) during World War II; and personal life and nursing career after the war. Ptaszynski discusses her decision to become a nurse and training at Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in the late 1930s. She also describes her basic training Fort Bragg in North Carolina and her preparations for overseas service at Fort Kilmer in New Jersey in 1943. " Ptaszynski chiefly describes her service in England. Topics include living conditions and social life during her voyage to Liverpool on the SS Mauritania; the Nissen huts and tents that comprised the 305th Station Hospital at Longleat Castle in Warminster, England, in 1944; hospital shifts and uniforms at the hospital in Southampton in 1944 and early 1945; taking care of American patients after D-Day; treating German prisoners of war; and her social life and traveling while stationed in England. Ptaszynski also provides her opinion on patriotism during the war and how the perception of nurses differed from that of women in the army. " Personal topics cover Ptaszynski's courtship during the war and marriage in early 1946 and her life in Connecticut and North Carolina after serving in the military.

: Tent Quarters of the 305th Station Hospital; Nurse Helen Savage (in image on right) and nurses of the 305th Station Hospital (image on left with Ptaszynski in the center of the group) pose in front of the tents in Southampton, England, they called home for thirteen months in 1944 and 1945. All wear the army field uniform and helmet.

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Estelle Garner Ptaszynski Collection

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