The Archives latest acquisition is The Wellesley Hospital School of Nursing collection. Donated by their Alumnae Association, this collection includes such wonderful items as a scrapbook from World War II, photographs of almost every graduating class, uniforms and a beautiful silver tea set.
The Wellesley Hospital officially opened on August 27, 1912 – with the Nursing School starting the same year. The first class of graduates left the school in 1915.
The School graduated its last class in 1975. Two years previous, the Ontario government mandated that nursing schools be taken out of the Hospitals and placed into Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology. The Wellesley school was moved to Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, along with the school’s from Sick Kid’s Hospital and Women’s College Hospital, and amalgamated with Ryerson’s School of Nursing.
The following are some photographs of items in the collection. Stay tuned for further blog posts on The Wellesley Hospital School of Nursing collection as we come closer to their 100th Anniversary in August of 2012.
Portrait of Elsie K. Jones, Superintendent of Nursing at the Wellesley from 1937-1964. Portrait was a gift from the Nursing students. Portrait painted by Kenneth Forbes. Examples from the silver service and Limoges china. China was used to serve patients their meals in the early days of the Wellesley Hospital. Two Examples of Nursing Uniforms. Uniform on left was worn from 1949 – 1959 when Wellesley Hospital joined with Toronto General Hospital. The uniform on the right was worn from 1960-1968, after the Wellesley became an independent Hospital once more. Photo courtesy of University Advancement. Nursing Cape. Photo courtesy of University Advancement. Scrapbooks from the collection. Photo courtesy of University Advancement.
