Collectibles Series
Many nurses who honor and cherish our profession's history acquire artifacts and ephemera from nursing's past. These items often provide glimpses into long ago nurses or illuminate the practice of an earlier age.
Postcards
Postcards make wonderful collectibles: they take up little space and often can be purchased at reasonable costs. They often depict an image of nursing during an era or may just be a reflection of popular culture.
The artist of this postcard is Katherine Gassaway, who specialized in drawings of children. The reverse of this postcard shows the postmark but gives no indication of any message.
The year is not evident on the postmark of this card. Sent within the state of Massachusetts, Florence sent it to Paulene stating she was having a wonderful time and hoped the couple on the card weren't sitting on a box of eggs.
The card above was a birth announcement used in early 1900's. The message reads:
"on 12/3 11:30 PM. Both doing well."The postmark is 10:30 PM December 5 19__; the exact year is not legible.
For more information
Michael Zwerdling, M. (2003) Postcards of Nursing: A Worldwide Tribute. Lippincott
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| © AAHN 2005 | URL: http://www.aahn.org/feature/postcards.html Originally posted August 2000 |
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