Victorian Nurse – Cabinet Card

 

 

Another cabinet card that I received today, at first I thought that the woman could be a nurse, the bottle of “medicine” or “tonic” and spoon on the table with a pair of scissors suggesting this, looking at the brooch on her collar I thought could be a hospital badge, the Workhouse Infirmary Nursing Association issued one of the first in 1879 and the picture looks to be from that period. However, on closer examination I could see an image of Saint George and the Dragon, it is much too small to be a mounted sovereign which was about 20mm in diameter and after searching I found a silver coin brooch c1820 with a similar design measuring 3.8 mm or 1.5 inches in diameter therefore suggesting she was a maid wearing a brooch rather than a nurse.

Can’t you see, all around you, the Dragon’s breath?

 

Ely Cathedral is called the ‘Ship of the Fens’

 

Association of English Cathedrals