Figure 5. Anna Palmberg (a night nurse) wears the earliest "mob" style of cap in 1888, designed to completely cover the hair. Image courtesy of the Massachusetts General Hospital Nursing Alumnae Association.
Figure 6. Belle McLaughlin and Miss Bell wear the smaller, stylish caps of the Virginia Hospital Training School for Nurses in 1901. Image courtesy of the Special Collections and Archives, Tomkins-McCaw Library, Virginia Commonwealth University.
Figure 7. Milwaukee Hospital nursing students in 1914 wearing the school's peaked caps. Image courtesy of the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Nursing History Center.
As time went on, hairstyles changed and nurses' caps changed with them. Rather than covering most of the hair, the newer, stylized caps were designed to perch on the back of the head. Hairstyles for women were becoming shorter, and the modern "bobbed" hairstyle didn't need to be tied up in a bun, so caps became smaller as well. Many nurses began fashioning their own caps out of men's handkerchiefs or purchasing a cap that they found attractive. In 1877, a probationer wrote that she and her fellow students wore "caps, or no caps, as they liked, and when worn, were of any description."[3]
Caps of Distinction
What started out as a pragmatic head covering gradually became a hallmark of a profession. Because a nurse's cap had to be earned, it was highly coveted and bestowed upon its wearer the status of an educated, self-supporting woman outside of the hospital and a well-trained, respected, and dedicated professional within. Early schools of nursing quickly realized that the nurse's cap could become a "brand" for their institutions, and it became desirable to design a unique cap to represent their school and the image they wished to convey.[5] (Figure 8) As more schools of nursing opened, the diversity of cap styles grew, and some became as famous as the institutions they represented.