Handwritten in blue ink: "March 8/72 Dept Head Party"; printed in black ink: "DISPOSABLE NURSES' CAPS // DISPO/CAP // BOX 427, POSTAL STN. "T" // TORONTO, 19, ONTARIO".
Permanent Location
Storage Room 0007
0007 Closet C
Length
9.5 cm
Width
5.0 cm
Depth
5.0 cm
Unit Of Measure
centimeters
Dimension Notes
Length 9.5 cm x Width 5.0 cm x Depth 5.0 cm
Condition Remarks
Some discoloration from handling on paper; slight bends at edges.
Copy Type
Original
Reference Types
Person
Websites
Reference Comments
Donors remarks
Canadian Museum of History, "Symbol of a Profession: One Hundred Years of Nurses' Caps," https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/hist/infirm/inint01e.html
"For Service to Humanity: Nursing Education at Kingston General Hospital," Museum of Health Care. https://www.museumofhealthcare.ca/explore/exhibitions/forservicetohumanity.html
Research Facts
Helen G Hughes, graduated from the Kingston General Hospital School of Nursing in 1931. The miniature cap was used with the table decorations at the 1972 nursing reunion dinner. This miniature nurses cap was a salesmans sample for ordering full size.
Throughout the twentieth century, nurses' uniforms changed, in particular with the rising of hemlines. The nurse's uniform was generally white, and Kingston General Hospital uniforms were once known for "turkey red" hemlines. Different levels of nursing education had different uniforms, in particular different caps, as graduate nurses had black bands on their caps to indicate their level of education.
Nurses' caps in Canada changed and evolved over the years, with caps resembling a nun's coif used by military Nursing Sisters and as a reminder of Roman Catholic nursing tradition. Older nurses' caps were styled similarly to caps that female domestic servants wore, and were made to cover the head and keep hair neat. These evolved into highly starched symbolic nurses' caps which perched on the top or near the back of the head. Nurses' caps were white, and usually cut from a flat pattern that could be folded and unfolded for starching and cleaning. The nurse's cap began to disappear in the 1970s as nursing education moved from hospitals to colleges and nurses wanted to be identified more closely with doctors and other medical professionals who wore no uniform.