Pictures of Nursing - NLM Exhibition Program

Picture Perfect Images and Realities of Military Nursing During the World Wars

• Class 1
• Class 2
• Class 3
• Class 4
• Class 5
• Class 6
• About the Module

Class 5: A Proud Profession: Women’s Work and Entrance into the Military

Introduction:

The fifth class investigates the work that women performed during World War II, when many of them entered the workforce for the first time. Even though women have always labored, during the war the government needed large numbers of females who had not previously worked outside the home to help the war effort. This class provides an overview of the new fields women entered during the period, but focuses on military nursing. Doris Weatherford’s second chapter in American Women and World War II, “Calling all Nightingales,” reveals the problems the government faced recruiting nurses during the war, as well as the significant changes that the conflict created within the profession. “Women in Uniform,” chapter three of The Home Front and Beyond, by Susan Hartmann, specifically discusses the history of women in the military during World War II, as well as the experiences of military nurses, creating a comparison between the two. Chapter two, “Victory for the Angels of Mercy,” of D’Ann Campbell’s Women at War with America, focuses on military nurses, but also talks about the experiences of civilian nurses, creating an additional way to compare nurses’ varied experiences. The introduction of No Time for Fear, by Diane Burke Fessler, provides a brief history of nursing in the armed forces that demonstrates how training for official military nursing did not really begin until World War II. Within the experiences of military nurses, Susan Godson’s Serving Proudly explores the Navy Nurse Corps and provides specific insight into the distinct organization during World War II.

The recruiting brochure and The Army Nurse newsletters featured in Additional Online Resources provide the history of nursing and explain nurses’ experiences during their service from the perspective of World War II. The Army Nurse brochure is government recruitment material for the armed forces, but unlike the posters it uses extensive text to relay its message, rather than images. The brochure creates a more nuanced picture of nursing than the posters by describing to readers some of the challenging realities of wartime nursing. Conversely, servicewomen produced The Army Nurse newsletters, but the periodicals reflect many of the same themes as the recruiting brochure.

• Class 1
• Class 2
• Class 3
• Class 4
• Class 5
• Class 6
• About the Module

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