Mary Phinney von Olnhausen

Mary Phinney von Olnhausen (1818–1902) was an American nurse, abolitionist, and diarist. Historians look to the book extracted from her diaries -- "Adventures of an Army Nurse in Two Wars" to understand the medical techniques of the Civil War.

Born in Massachusetts to Elias and Catherine Bartlett Phinney, a lawyer and her mother the daughter of a doctor, Phinney was well educated at several academies. When her father died in 1849 at age 69, the farm was sold and she "sought employment as a designer of print goods" at the mills. There she met Gustav, Baron von Olnhausen (c. 1810–1860) who left Saxony after the 1848 unrest and financial troubles, which led to selling of his castle. He was making a meager living as a chemist in a dye-house of the Manchester Mills. They married when she was 40 years old on May 1, 1858 and he died two years later in 1860.

Fictional portrayal
In 2015, the PBS Masterpiece Theatre series-produced the six-part miniseries, Mercy Street, about the Mansion House Hospital, where Phinney was stationed, that relied heavily on her diaries. A character based on Phinney, and named after Phinney, is the series' lead character.