Rays of Light: the legacy of nurses' uniforms left by the 'Lady with the Lamp'

‘Rays of light: the legacy of nurses’ uniforms left by the ‘Lady with the Lamp’’

Elizabeth Mason-Whitehead, University of Chester

Today’s nurses’ uniforms are remote descendants of those worn by Florence Nightingale and the first nurses and sisters who arrived in Constantinople on 4^th November 1854. Rain-sodden and exhausted after travelling for 14 days, they must have been hoping for some rest. The devastating Charge of the Light Brigade, however, brought them their first patients immediately: 400 wounded soldiers.

The principles of their uniforms were intended to demonstrate that whatever their background, they were now nurses; they should be easily identified; and they should demonstrate subservience to their ‘superiors’. As the Crimean War progressed, the professionalization of the first nurses in Scutari Hospital developed and their behaviour became more regulated. The enhancement of their uniforms was significant to these developments, including new boots, sent from England to Scutari. 

Florence Nightingale captured the imagination of the readers of The Times as they read, ‘Miss Nightingale, lamp in hand, each night traversed alone the four miles of beds.’ Throughout the next 160 years, nurses have continued to respond to the changing demands of health and illness with their uniforms being a central thread of how the profession perceives itself and is in turn perceived. 

1b: Textiles and Labour (Chair: Louisa Yates) – CWE 125