The history of nursing encompasses the story of the largest section of the health care workforce, in war and peace, home and hospital. It includes the nursing care of adults, mothers and babies, children, and people with a learning disability or mental health problem. Use this guide as a starting point to find information resources related to the history of nursing including books, journals, archives and exhibitions.
Brooks J & Hallett C E (2015) (editors) One hundred years of nursing wartime practices, 1854-1953, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
D'Antonio P (2013) Routledge handbook on the global history of nursing, Abingdon: Routledge.
Davis E (2015) Betsy Cadwaladyr: a Balaclava nurse : an autobiography of Elizabeth Davis, Aberystwyth: Honno.
Graham M (2013) Nurses voices from the Northern Ireland troubles: personal accounts form the front line, London: RCN Publishing.
Hallett C (2017) The nurses of Passchendaele, Barnsley: Pen and Sword.
McEwen Y (2014) In the company of nurses: the history of the British Army Nursing Service in the Great War, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
McGann S, Crowther, A & Dougall R (2009) A history of the Royal College of Nursing, 1916-1990: A voice for nursing, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Mortimer B (2012) Sisters memories from the courageous nurses of world war two, London: Hutchenson.
Palmer D (2014) Who cared for the carers? A history of the occupational health of nurses, 1880-1948, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Parry J F (2015) Joyce's war: the Second World War journal of a Queen Alexandra nurse, Stroud : The History Press.
Robinson J (2006) Mary Seacole: the charismatic black nurse who became a heroine of the Crimea, London: Constable.
Skretkowicz V (editor) (1992) Florence Nightingale’s Notes on Nursing (revised with additions), London: Scutari Press.
Souhami D (2015) Edith Cavell (Centenary edition), London: Quercus.
Sweet H & Hawkins S (2015) (editors) Colonial caring: A history of colonial and post-colonial nursing, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Author of this guide
RCN Library and Archive Services