History of Nursing

Online Library Exhibitions

Explore some of the past and present exhibitions at the RCN's Library and Heritage Centre in London.
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Our Permanent Collection consists of nursing specific core items and rare items. It is viewable by appointment at the RCN Library and Heritage Centre.

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Here is a small selection of items form our collection.

Baly M (1980) Nursing and social change, London: Heinemann.

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Grove EW (1917) Text-book for nurses anatomy, physiology, surgery and medicine, London: Henry Frowde.

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Nightingale F (1865) Organization of nursing : an account of the Liverpool Nurses' Training School, its foundation, progress, and operation in hospital, district, and private nursing, Liverpool: A. Holden.

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Rathbone W (1868) Workhouse nursing : the story of a successful experiment, London: Macmillan.

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The RCN Library and Museum holds an unrivalled range of English language nursing journals from around the world. The earliest issues date back to 1888 with titles covering a wide variety of nursing fields.

If you are a member of the RCN you have access to a digitised collection of 22 nursing journals from the Royal College of Nursing Collection covering dates from 1891 to 1986. It contains information about nursing, hospitals, wards, staff, illness and diseases, medicine and treatments, hospital equipment and events.

Nursing Record/British Journal of Nursing (1888-1956)

Digitised journal available online.
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Nursing Times (1905-1987)

Viewable by appointment at the RCN Library and Heritage Centre.
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The RCN Archive contains some of the most important collections dedicated to the history of the nursing profession in the UK. Visitors by appointment in Edinburgh.

Collections related to the history of nursing include:

Royal College of Nursing Archive 1916 – present. Search the Archives Catalogue (Ref No = RCN*)
Personal Papers. Search the Archives Catalogue (Ref No = C*)
Badges and medals. Search the Archive catalogue (Any Text = badge).
Oral History collection. Search the Archives Catalogue (Ref No = T)
Photographic collection. Images are available in the Archive catalogue (search Any Text = photograph)
Postcard collection. Search the Archives catalogue (Any Text = postcard)
Records of other nursing organisations. Search the Archives catalogue (Ref No = QNIS*)

RCN Archive