A captivating, often playful album documenting the lives of nurses who were training and working at the French Hospital in San Francisco, CA, from around 1899 to 1906.

There are seven photos related to the French Cruiser Protet, a navy ship that assisted in extinguishing a fire in San Francisco harbor in 1900. There are a few different photos of the women humorously enacting faux surgeries, with one of them posed on the operating table as a “sham victim.” There are also many photos of the nurses posing with skulls or skeletons, a macabre trope often present in medical school photo albums. There are a few photos showing the women posed with a (presumably female) skeleton whom they refer to as “Mrs. Fogerty.” Another photo, captioned “Bughouse and her den” shows a woman posed proudly alongside a skull, standing in front of a wall of snakes, insects, bones, photos, and other curiosities. This is one of two photos printed in an unusual, metallic-tone. (The other is a photo of the nearby Southern Pacific Railroad Hospital.)

The album contains a handful of playfully-risque photos, accompanied by cheeky captions. There are two showing pairs of women kissing, one captioned “Sappho up to date” and the other captioned “Noses and chins.” Another photo is covered by a piece of paper which reads, “FOR THE SELECT FEW (not to be viewed by the common herd).” Underneath this, there is a picture of a young woman in her under-things.

There is also an unintentionally-dynamic abstract image captioned “my first attempt at photography;” views of leisure time in San Francisco; photos of a train wreck in Mill Valley; portraits of other hospital employees and the compiler’s family; numerous views of buildings on the French Hospital campus, and more.

Due in large part to the gold rush, by the mid-19th century the French population in California had significantly expanded. It had grown large enough to necessitate the formation of “La Société Française de Bienfaisance Mutuelle,” or The French Mutual Benevolent Society. The organization provided assistance to French residents in need of support. From this idea of mutual aid the French Hospital was created. Opened in 1851 and located on Rincon Hill, it was the city’s first private hospital. As stated in its by-laws, its objectives were “to provide for the needs of the sick, furnish assistance to Frenchmen as well as to citizens of other nationalities without resources, and to take care of their funeral expenses.”

In 1895, the hospital moved to a new and larger building on Point Lobos Avenue (now Geary) between 5th and 6th, which is shown in the present album. This same year, the hospital began its nursing program. It relocated to a new location in 1963 and that building is now known as the "French Campus" of Kaiser Permanente Medical Center.