August 29, 2019 – October 12, 2019
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 5, 2019 at 5:30 PM. Free and open to the public. RSVP required.
Pictures of Nursing: The Zwerdling Postcard Collection
Pictures of Nursing: The Zwerdling Postcard Collection explores the relationship of nursing to significant forces in 20th-century life, like war and disease, and how nursing was seen during those times.
Pictures of Nursing: The Zwerdling Postcard Collection explores a unique archive of 2,588 postcards and over 100 years of images of nurses and the nursing profession from around the world, investigating the hold these images exert on the public imagination—then and now.
The postcard is a fleeting and widespread art form influenced by popular ideas about social and cultural life in addition to fashions in visual style. Nurses and nursing have been the frequent subjects of postcards for over one hundred years. In fact, no other art form has illustrated the nursing profession so profusely using such a variety of artistic styles and images. These images of nurses and nursing are informed by cultural values; ideas about women, men, and work; and attitudes toward class, race, and national differences. By documenting the relationship of nursing to significant forces in 20th-century life, such as war and disease, these postcards reveal how nursing was seen during those times.
The six-banner traveling exhibition highlights only a small selection from the 2,588 postcards of The Zwerdling Postcard Collection, but over 500 more are available to view in the exhibition’s online digital gallery at http://nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/picturesofnursing/digitalgallery.
Army Nurse Corps recruitment poster reproduction for World War II, 2001 
Great White Army, ca. 1915 
The “Nurse Mother” as a Madonna figure, Red Cross promotion, c. 1910 
Rural visiting nurse Elizabeth McPhee, 1926 
Star Trek series 1, 1966-69 
Operating team – US Army Nurse Corps, 1951 
George A. Brewster Nurse Training School, Jacksonville, FL, ca. 1908
Pictures of Nursing: The Zwerdling Postcard Collection began traveling around the United States in January 2015. For more information, contact nlmtravelingexhibits@nlm.nih.gov or visit us on the web at: www.nlm.nih.gov/picturesofnursing.
This exhibition was developed and produced by the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health.
Curated by Julia Hallam, PhD.
This project is partially supported by a CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events.
This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
