Michael Zwerdling Nursing Postcard Collection

The 2,474 postcards in the Zwerdling Collection date from 1893 to 2002. As Michael Zwerdling notes in the introduction to his 2004 book, Postcards of Nursing: A Worldwide Tribute, which presents nearly 600 cards from the collection, many were published between 1907 and World War I, a period known as the Golden Age of postcards. During these years, the world war, urbanization, and industrialization contributed to the increasing incidence of disease and injury, and a corresponding need for improved health care and additional nursing staff, as well as sanitation standards and labor laws. The role of nurses in caring for soldiers is a frequent theme in the collection, but so, too, is nurses protecting and taking care of children. The collection includes postcards published in North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, South America, and Oceania. There are many portraits. Topical themes include historical figures such as Florence Nightingale and Edith Cavell; postcards with a humorous bent; those depicting hospitals, ambulances, therapies, and remedies; and modern postcards dealing with AIDS and controlled substances.