Digital Collections come from a broad range of sources, including materials that are offensive or contain negative stereotypes. VCU Libraries provides access to these items to support research and inquiry. An item in this collection, titled "Rammler, a German soldier, shot (without trial)," contains a photograph of human remains that has been redacted.
A note about searching: In an item-level search, digital objects with unknown dates may display a modern publication date (2023/2024). This date is inaccurate, and cannot be suppressed. Please see date approximation in individual item record for accurate item date.
About this collection
The Kay Seidenberg Nursing Postcard Collection consists of American and European postcards relating to the nursing profession. Seidenberg, a 1985 graduate of the VCU School of Nursing, began collecting postcards shortly after embarking on her nursing career. At first she was more of a generalist in her collecting, but she gradually began to acquire nursing related cards.
While building her collection she learned about Edith Cavell, an English nurse who was executed by the Germans in 1915 for assisting Allied soldiers to escape from occupied Belgium. Cavell’s story fascinated Seidenberg and she made the martyred nurse the focus of her collection. The Cavell postcards were bought from dealers or obtained at postcard shows primarily in the Mid-Atlantic region. Seidenberg once exhibited her Cavell collection for the Old Dominion Postcard Club.
Cavell postcards were fairly easy to acquire. The British nurse and her story were popular with British, Belgium, and other European postcards producers. These publishers took advantage of the frenzy surrounding Cavell’s execution and produced cards that memorialized the nurse and contributed to the anti-German propaganda campaign. They produced real photo, linen, comic, and serial cards. Representative cards of each type can be found in the Seidenberg collection.
To learn more about Edith Cavell, see the online exhibit of the same name in the VCU Libraries Gallery.
Copyright
This collection is of mixed copyright status and includes items that are in the public domain as well as items that are of unknown copyright status. See individual items for item-specific copyright information.
Additional research information
The Kay Seidenberg Nursing Postcard Collection is housed in Special Collections and Archives at the Health Sciences Library. Please direct reference and research inquires to libhssca@vcu.edu or call (804) 828-9898.
Credits
VCU Libraries digitized this collection in 2015. Drew Rollo supervised student employees, digitization, and quality control. Student employees Shannon Roulet or Sutisha Simluang assisted with digitization. Metadata Librarian Mary Anne Dyer created the metadata for this digital collection.
