Month: July 2018

National Library of Medicine Exhibit at UConn School of Nursing

NLM Pictures of Nursing traveling exhibit
NLM Pictures of Nursing traveling exhibit

Until early September, the UConn School of Nursing will display a National Library of Medicine traveling exhibit, Pictures of Nursing: The Zwerdling Postcard Collection.

Located in the atrium of the Storrs Hall Widmer Wing on the Storrs campus, the exhibit examines nursing and gender, social respectability, and service to humanity. This exhibit has been arranged by the school’s Josephine Dolan Nursing History Collection.

NLM Pictures of Nursing traveling exhibit
NLM Pictures of Nursing traveling exhibit

According to the NLM, “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.”

Pictures of Nursing, Dolan Collection Artifacts
Pictures of Nursing, Dolan Collection Artifacts

In addition to the NLM traveling exhibit, a display case will feature objects from the Dolan Collection, including book covers, advertising, and postage stamps.

“Ephemeral popular culture materials like postcards, book covers, and movie posters provide vivid representations of the nursing profession at given points in time,” said Dolan Collection curator, Dr. Thomas Lawrence Long. “They are windows into what people thought about nursing, and sometimes what they fantasized about nurses.”

The Widmer Wing atrium is open daily.

Pictures of Nursing, Dolan Collection Artifacts
Pictures of Nursing, Dolan Collection Artifacts