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Nurses: On the Job

What do we see when we look closely?

Examine this early 20th-century Red Cross publicity card that aimed to tempt nurses to serve their country by offering new opportunities in various roles worldwide.
Roll over different areas of the postcard to discover answers to the questions below.

    • Q1Can you see what the nurse is pointing at?
    • A1From a hilltop overlooking the city the Red Cross nurse points to the sky, implying a working life lived above and beyond mere worldly concerns.
    • Q2Can you identify who the nurse is aiming to recruit?
    • A2The lacrosse stick lying beside the schoolgirl is indicative of her well-educated, respectable status and relatively wealthy middle-class background.
    • Q3Can you find an industrial area?
    • A3The overcrowded living conditions in large industrial cities create new opportunities for nurses to establish public health care programs.
A White female nurse, stands with young White woman and points into distance.
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A Red Cross recruiting postcard, ca. 1918

    • Q1Can you see what the nurse is pointing at?
    • A1From a hilltop overlooking the city the Red Cross nurse points to the sky, implying a working life lived above and beyond mere worldly concerns.
    • Q2Can you identify who the nurse is aiming to recruit?
    • A2The lacrosse stick lying beside the schoolgirl is indicative of her well-educated, respectable status and relatively wealthy middle-class background.
    • Q3Can you find an industrial area?
    • A3The overcrowded living conditions in large industrial cities create new opportunities for nurses to establish public health care programs.
  • 1Can you see what the nurse is pointing at?
  • 2Can you identify who the nurse is aiming to recruit?
  • 3Can you find an industrial area?

Choose another postcard from Nurses: On the Job

  • White female army nurse in uniform and cap, visible from chest up.
  • Five Japanese women nurses and one male doctor, tending to two Russian wounded men.
  • Large room filled with several dozen White women looking forward.
  • Three White female nurses in white aprons and a White male doctor hold babies.
  • An African American female nurse in white holds diploma and looks at the viewer.
  • A White female nurse in white squats down while talking with a White mother and child.
  • Five Japanese Red Cross female nurses in white carrying a stretcher in a field with building behind.
  • Female nurse in white shaking hands with another female nurse, in front of group of women nurses.
  • A White female nurses in white visible from shoulder up on left, on right is stamp.