ExhibitionThe Art of Nursing: Celebrating Modern Nursing
Since the 1980s, nurses have become far more conscious of the need to counteract gendered and sexist images with more accurate images of modern nursing work. Modernization of the nurses’ uniform, while not entirely eliminating the gendered, sexist fantasies that shadowed nursing’s image in the past, has created a new image of the nurse as a dedicated health care professional.
An illustration of modern healthcare, ca. 1995
Created by Virginia Powell
Produced by The Wellcome Trust, London
This illustration captures the concentrated atmosphere of teamwork in a modern operating room. Instead of showing medical staff wearing uniforms that demark professional hierarchies or gender divisions, clothing is functional for the task.
Nursing recruitment postcard, 1999
Produced by Suburban Hospital, Bethesda, MD
Hospital publicity in the 1990s began to present images of nurses as part of the modern health care team, highlighting gender and racial diversity and creating an impression of equality between different health care professionals.
Centenary of the nursing profession commemoration card, 1961
Created by R. Dyer
Nursing commemoration card, ca. 1971
Created by Herman Maul (1897—1983)
An Autumn View from a Window, Dallas, TX, mid-20th century
Produced by Methodist Hospital of Dallas
On se dit qu'on n'est jamais assez humain (We say that one is never human enough), 1992
Created by Manuel Aries
Produced by Public Hospital System of Paris Museum
Nursing Care, 1999
Created by Susan Macfarlane
Produced by the British Post Office