University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: September 15, 2005

By PATRICIA DONOVAN
Contributing Editor

The University at Buffalo Library Archives recently acquired the papers of Eva M. Noles, already a historic figure in 1939 when she became the first black nurse to be trained in Buffalo.

NOLES

Noles went on to become a distinguished educator, a nationally recognized figure in health care, a promoter of civil rights and education for minority women, and the founder of the New York State Nurse Week.

In recognition of her accomplishments on behalf of nursing, education, minority women and the Western New York community, the University Archives will host a reception in Noles' honor from 3:30-5 p.m. Wednesday in the Special Collections Research Room, 420 Capen Hall, North Campus. It will be free and open to the public.

The reception and accompanying exhibition of selected material from the Noles collection, "Eva M. Noles: African American Trailblazer," also in the Research Room, will be held in connection with 2005 Gender Week celebration sponsored by the Institute for Research and Education on Women and Gender.

"The reception marks the archives' acquisition of Eva Noles papers, of course, and the exhibition of the materials in her collection, but we want to honor Eva Noles as well and give the public an opportunity to meet and speak with her," said John Edens, curator of the UB Archives.

The reception will feature presentations by Peggy Brooks-Bertram and Barbara Nevergold, directors of UB's Uncrowned Queens Institute for Research and Education on Women Inc. and authors of "Uncrowned Queens: African American Women Community Builders of Western New York," Vols. I and II.

The institute includes in its mission the collection and dissemination of the individual and collective histories of African-American women and women's organizations. In 2002, Noles received the institute's Culture Keepers Award for outstanding contributions to African-American culture in Western New York.

Noles, former director of nursing at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, serves on the New York State Board of Nursing and the board of the New York State Nurses Association (District One). She has been an active member of the American Nurses Association (ANA) and many of its national committees.

She served on the board of trustees of the Buffalo General Hospital, chaired the governing board of the hospital's Community Mental Health Center and was a longtime member of the board of directors of the Greater Buffalo Chapter of the American Red Cross.

The Medical Personnel Pool, with which she worked for years, established a biennial five-year scholarship in Noles' name, which is presented by the New York State Nurses Association to an outstanding senior minority nursing student in Western New York.

Noles graduated from the Edward J. Meyer Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in 1940. She received a bachelor's degree in nursing and master's degree in education from UB.

She is the author of "Black History: A Different Approach-A Compilation," "Buffalo's Blacks: Talking Proud" and "Six Decades of Nursing at Roswell Park, 1914-1974."

In 1986, she received the William Wells Brown Award from the Afro American Historical Association of the Niagara Frontier for her "notable contributions to the preservation and popularization of regional Afro-American history."