Evolution of the Nurse Cape?

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Hello everyone!

I am a student studying a degree in costume design in the UK and I am looking for some information on the history of the nurse cape!

I've looked all over the internet and am struggling to find any reliable info on the history of the cape and how the cape has changed over the years, from early 1900 to when the cape eventually died out of fashion.

I also keep finding loads of images without dates, so I can never tell when the photo was taken for me to be able to figure out what era the uniform they're wearing is from!

Everything a bit sort of mish-mashed up in terms of eras and styles and I would just like some solid information and possibly even some photos with dates that tell me what specific styles of capes were popular in which era, if anyone knows!

Any help would be great, thanks!

Amy x

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Specializes in Critical Care and ED.

I don't know much about the history except that I remember seeing Florence Nightingale wear one in a picture (not in real life...I'm not THAT old lol). However, I'm old enough to remember that I actually wore one in my first year of nursing school...which was in 1989. It was issued with my uniform. I went to the Royal Free School of Nursing in London and our uniform was a pale blue dress with a white nursing hat and black stockings and then the cape for wearing outside of the hospital. I remember it was navy blue wool with a pale blue wool liner and had criss cross straps across the front that buttoned up. Not many students wore it and I stopped after the first few months because it was kind of old fashioned.

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Specializes in Peds, Med-Surg, Disaster Nsg, Parish Nsg.

Check out this link:

Nursing Uniforms of the Past and Present

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

I trained in the UK in 1986 and a cape was issued as part of the uniform and I still have it.

Oh oh and my mum trained as a nurse in the army back in the early 1960's and I have her cape somewhere also

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

Capes had gone away because everyone now KNOWS we're superheroes- making them superfluous.

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Specializes in ICU, LTACH, Internal Medicine.

Catch a train one day and go to London. There is a wonderful museum of Florence Nightinghale there.

Also, visit Minnewaters in old Bruges, Belgium. They have another excellent nursing myseum there, and mental health asylim is still working, so I guess you'll find plenty of resources in both places.

And get some trippel, too. I'd heard they now got a beer pipeline in Bruges!

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Thanks everyone, you've been a great help!! :) @WKShadowRN do you mind if I use the image you posted as a reference image in my work?

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