Friday, June 2, 2017

American Red Cross nurses at tea, 1918

Had I planned better, I would have shared this photo last month during National Nurses Week! This is one of the latest tea-related vintage photos I've found on the Library of Congress website, and this one is by photographer Lewis Wickes Hine and was created on June 25, 1918. The title is "How many Lumps? Afternoon tea in the American Red Cross Nurses' Rest Room in an American Hospital."

This image was taken at the hospital in the town of Chaumont, France, which was the headquarters of the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I. Must say I was rather delighted to come across a teatime photo of nurses who were actually serving during wartime!

To read more about the American National Red Cross photograph collection at the Library of Congress, click here.

6 comments:

  1. They certainly deserved every drop of that tea!

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  2. Wonderful photo! I'm sure they needed that tea break.

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  3. This is a great photo! My aunt was a nurse and in 1928 when she had her nurses training at the Pottstown Hospital Training School (PA), one of the "skills" she was taught was how to serve tea using a silver tea service. Nurses at this time often accepted private duty positions in the homes of the wealthy and were expected to know the proper method of serving tea. My aunt went on to become an Army Nurse and enjoyed a rather illustrious career in nursing education. I'm sure she enjoyed tea along the way.

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  4. I always love your vintage tea picture finds. Good one!

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  5. I had to zoom in! The shoes, clothing and furniture! Sparse, I'm sure but most interesting. Thank you for sharing such a find.

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