We are pleased to share the new spotlight display, ‘Little Black Bags: A Brief History of District Nursing’, which draws on the RCN’s collections to explore the intricacies of the profession. As a result of ongoing work towards cataloguing and development, the spotlight display will include a range of items from the RCN Object Collection. You can find the case on the lower ground floor of the library at 20 Cavendish Square.
Inspired by his wife’s experiences when she was sick, the Liverpool philanthropist, William Rathbone (1819-1902) began the process of standardising District Nursing in the late nineteenth century. From the start, District Nursing was based on the idea of nurses caring for the sick poor in their own homes. The dedication, creativity, and skill of the individual district nurses that have treated the nation’s sick since the mid-nineteenth century cannot be overstated. Their influence can still be seen in community nursing practices today.
The exhibition highlights our relationship with the Queen’s Nursing Institute and displays unique items that belonged to individual nurses, including uniform and medical tools, seeking to recognise their contribution and dedication to their patients’ lives. As put by Amy Hughes, head of the QNI in 1902, “It is not systems alone, admirable as they may be, which bring success, it is the work of each individual nurse which makes the work what it is.”
Image: Postcard of a ‘District Nurse in snow’, 1926. RCN Archive [BM/18/39]
