Nursing Narratives: Mapping Nurses’ Convalescent Homes and Rest Clubs from the First World War

Nursing Narratives is a digital humanities project that maps nurses’ convalescent homes and rest clubs during and shortly thereafter the First World War. This project uses the mapping tool to provide micro-narratives associated with the convalescent homes and rest clubs to tell larger narratives of the First World War including nurses’ physical and mental health, philanthropy, and memory and legacy. While Nursing Narratives looks at several elements, the project closely looks at nurses’ psychological health. Nurses’ psychological health, specifically psychological war trauma, was not viewed and treated as male combatant trauma. However, these facilities created for nurses demonstrates an interest and commitment to nurses’ psychological (and physical) health during the war. This poster presentation will convey this through analysis and visuals of the map, which shows the scale of the homes and clubs through the sheer number of points on the map, but will also use the individual narratives. Several archives and primary sources are used in this project, including records from the UK National Archives, the Imperial War Museum, and the Royal London Hospital.