I recently bought a series of vintage snapshots of nurses from long ago. Nurses dressed in uniforms that can only make today's nurses shake their heads in horror.
Click on any image to see it larger.
This is my submission to this week's Sepia Saturday theme of a sick child in bed. I give you the nurses who are there to make everything better.
Posts
Aren't they the most amazing caps/bonnets or whatever you call them - extraordinary! Just like the nurses I suppose :)
ReplyDeleteWhat silly little hats! I always thought nurses hats / caps must get in the way but what purpose do these one serve?
ReplyDeleteThe quaint headgear certainly doesn't add to their charm and one wonders why it has to be so stylised.
ReplyDeleteI love these photos. But don't you think it was more sanitary that those nurses didn't wear their uniforms to and from work?
ReplyDeleteThose goofy hats would justifiably cause a revolt today!
ReplyDeleteOh my those are a bit, odd! I still do like the smaller version I remember of those little (more stylish) hats they wore when I was a little girl.
ReplyDeletewonderful photos of the nurses! I remember the days when they wore starched uniforms and wore a cape as the outer garment.
ReplyDeleteLove the little caps!
ReplyDeleteThe nurses of yesteryear look spiffy in their starched white dresses & high caps, but I can imagine those same spiffy uniforms inhibited movement among patients. Today's easy uniforms may not look as spiffy, but allow nurses so much more freedom of movement & they're more cheerful looking to patients, too, with all the different colors & designs available.
ReplyDeleteThey look like small chefs hats.
ReplyDeleteI think they looked like something you bake in the oven...silly, indeed!
ReplyDeleteYes, indeed! Pop 'n' fresh hats.
DeleteNursing schools all had their individual cap design. By looking at a nurse's cap, it was possible to tell where she had been trained. Too, the caps aren't as silly as they now look. This was an era when most women had very long hair, most almost waist length. The caps allowed for the hair to be coiled, confined, and kept away from the face, and the patient. Too, the nurses uniforms were far less restrictive than the day to day fashions of the period. And white...nurse uniforms were bleached as a sanitary precaution, so white was the best choice.
ReplyDeleteI had forgotten about the caps being from different schools, but you've reminded me of the capping ceremony I went to of a friend. Indeed, nurses did wear different caps at work.
DeleteAs I recall, Clara Barton introduced the nurses caps as a way to identify nurses from other women in the hospitals.
ReplyDeleteImagine the hair pins required to keep those little things in place!
ReplyDeleteMust have been a fashion statement in its time as certainly not practical at all!
Practical or not I like the nurses and their hats.
ReplyDeleteThe last photo is perfect for the theme. I can imagine the fresh scent of their crisp starched uniforms.
ReplyDeleteActually I have more faith in a nurse who is professionally dressed so that she looks efficient and not just one of my visitors wandering in. There was a time later than the above photos when the uniforms were were very practical and with an apron which could be whisked off and changed., not the pants and polo shirts of today. Actually I think that may have happened when they started university training nurses. I'll show my colours - I'm all in favour of training nurses mainy on the job plus going off to their studies instead of vice versa.
ReplyDeleteWhen I started in the mid 80s, 1980s that is...
ReplyDeletethere was one nurse still hanging on to her uniform and cap. She had big hair and her cap was precariously on top of it...
:D~
Nice collection!!
:)~
HUGZ
Great photos, and they do look fresh, clean and hygenic, which is more than you can say for some nursing staff today. I expect the principle was 'white is right' , and the caps were meant to keep their hair out of the way.
ReplyDeleteTheir caps look like shrunken chefs' hats. They seem more ornamental than practical.
ReplyDeleteDo you know where these nurses come from? I never saw such strange hats
ReplyDeleteThere's no information on any of the photos.
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