A Cultural History of the Nurse's Uniform

This first and only in-depth analysis of the attire worn by the largest workforce in the health care system explores the role of the nurse's uniform in creating nursing identity for over a hundred years.

The introduction of the nurse's uniform in the late nineteenth century was part of a strategy to legitimize North America's first nursing schools. At first varied and experimental in design, by the early 20th century the uniform was drawing on elements of fashionable, scientific, milita…