International nursing postage stamps
Stamp of approval - nurses honoured by international stamps
The stamps included in this exhibition are snapshots of each featured country’s history and a recording of the contribution of nurses and nursing to the social history of the world. Some of the themes highlighted in the stamps include:
- the foundation of the first nursing school in various countries
- the establishment of professional nursing associations
- the introduction of registration for nurses in a number of countries
- saints and nuns who founded hospitals and nursing orders
- different branches of nursing including medical, surgical, district and army nursing.
This exhibition was created to celebrate the publication of A History of Nursing Through Philately, by Margaret B Ritchie, 2007.
Margaret’s stamp collection began at primary school, hibernated through her nursing career, and awakened in retirement. Her interest in nursing history developed as a member and contributor of Meditheme (a medical philately study group). In 2003 she exhibited ‘A history of nursing through philately’ at the International History of Nursing Conference, in Oxford.
The original stamps and postcards in this collection were sourced from the collections of Margaret B Ritchie. Copyright of the stamps belongs to the designer and the postal service of the country which issued them. They are reproduced here at low resolution for the purposes of exhibition only.
Exhibition created by the RCN Archives,
Information and Knowledge Management,
RCN Learning and Development Institute, 2007.
For further information, contact archives@rcn.org.uk.