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Pictured from left to right are: Audrey Nelson, Rosalee Yeaworth, Elizabeth Kentopp, Carol Wilson and Minnie Thornton in the new UNMC College of Nursing and Alumni History Museum room. |
“It’s just like Christmas,” Dr. Nelson said. “You never know what you are going to get.”
In one box from an alumnus, Dr. Nelson finds a carefully wrapped 1950s era nurses uniform, complete with a starched white collar and brand new cap.
Accompanying the collection of memorabilia is a guidebook given to student nurses at the time. The guidebook provided information for the students about proper etiquette, when and where to wear their uniforms and their dorm curfew.
Nurses and nursing students past and present will get to see these artifacts and many others with the opening of the UNMC College of Nursing and Alumni History Museum on Saturday, June 4. The museum is on the third floor of the College of Nursing.
An open house for the UNMC College of Nursing and Alumni History Museum also will be Monday, June 6, from 1 to 4 p.m. in the UNMC College of Nursing, Room 3000. Refreshments will be served.
Times have changed since the nursing school first opened its doors in 1917. Conkling Hall, which once housed the University of Nebraska School of Nursing, is a faded memory.
And the long, blue and white-stripped dress uniforms the nursing students once wore have been replaced with plain white shirts and pants.
“When the school of nursing first began in 1917 students were awarded diplomas,” Dr. Nelson said.
The nursing school moved from Conkling Hall to the current SSP building in 1956 when it began the degree program that was accredited in 1965. In 1972, the school of nursing name was changed to the College of Nursing and approved by the Board of Regents. Faculty members and students moved to the current College of Nursing building in 1975.
Those transitions are captured in pictures, artifacts and uniforms representing almost every era.
“There is a glass syringe, an army cadet uniform and probably 100 donated schoolbooks,” Dr. Nelson said.
A storage room adjacent to the history museum room is filled with memorabilia, she said.
The museum room is designed in such a way that allows for three, floor-to-ceiling glass display cases visible from the hallway. Each will feature a mannequin dressed in a different nurse uniform.
Inside the room, there will be touch screen computer stations, each with a three- to five-minute video featuring historical facts about the College of Nursing. In another part of the room there will be sound hoods that visitors will be able to stand in and listen to the taped memories of alumni.
The museum, which was the vision of former College of Nursing Dean Ada Lindsey, Ph.D., is divided into four areas: education, scholarship and research, service and the taped memories area.
“The history museum committee has put a lot of work into this and should be commended for their efforts,” Dr. Nelson said.
She hopes exhibits will rotate every six months.