The Canadian Nursing History Collection is a rich repository of artifacts and documents held by the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Canadian War Museum and the Library and Archives Canada.

This online resource focusses on the artifacts at the Canadian Museum of Civilization and the Canadian War Museum. In the future, selected materials such as photographs and documents at our partner organization, the Library and Archives Canada, will be integrated into this online collection.

The resource has been designed to provide students, researchers, nurses and the general public with material evidence on nursing theory, practice and education.

We invite you to browse through the highlights of the collection; learn more about our special artifact holdings, such as nurses' uniforms; and do your own search for artifacts in the collection. You will also find suggestions for further study and a bibliography, as well as online links.

This national collection of nursing artifacts is the most significant of its kind. It consists of approximately 1,800 artifacts from the late nineteenth century to the 1980s, including nursing uniforms, school pins, equipment, educational materials, paintings, war medals and nursing organization memorabilia, all of which were used by nursing leaders, nursing sisters and regular nurses alike. The collection continues to grow.