Margaret Elder Hart was born June 11, 1907. She graduated from the Winnipeg General Hospital School of Nursing in 1930. She worked as a private duty nurse before starting public health nursing with the Brooklyn Visiting Nurse Service in New York in 1938. She obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from Columbia University in 1940. That same year she became the Educational Director for the Bureau of Public Health Nursing, Department of Health and Public Welfare in Winnipeg. She obtained a Master of Arts degree from Columbia University in 1946. In 1948, she became the Director and Professor of the School of Nursing at the University of Manitoba, a position she would hold until her retirement in 1972. Hart obtained a Doctor of Education from Columbia University in 1962. The following year she was Director of the first Nursing Baccalaureate Program at the University of Manitoba. Dr. Hart is the recipient of numerous awards. In 1967 she received a Confederation of Canada Centennial Medal. In 1982, she was named Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba. In 1986, she was given the Manitoba Association of Registered Nurses Award for Excellence in Nursing Education. The Margaret Elder Hart Distinguished Lecture Series was established at the School of Nursing at the University of Manitoba in 1991. She was given an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Manitoba in 1993. The Dr. Margaret Elder Hart Heritage Room at the School of Nursing was named in her honour. Dr. Hart died on April 2, 2008.