A LOVELY PORTRAIT

Ref: 47
Title: Liverpool diocese nurse.
Date: Around 1910
Location: Liverpool
Creator: Unknown
Description:
Many of the nurses and doctors that visited the Homes were not paid and worked in their free time for this good cause.
Rights: © The Children's Society

I was reading, over at The Thinking Housewife blog about nineteenth century waifs. After clicking one of the pictures, I was brought to a site which houses several photos of institutionalized children of that period and workers who cared for them.

I was so moved by this picture of this kindly looking nurse.  As the caption states, many of the nurses and doctors who tended to the children in institutional care were not paid, but rather did it as an act of charity.
It is also true that nursing was considered more than a profession, but a true vocation, as one is called to the consecrated life.  Many nurses and school teachers (also a vocation), were single women, as were quite a few missionary ladies, who devoted themselves to their life's work in the service of others. 

The website hosting this photo is fascinating and goes into much detail about the lives of the children cared for by the Waifs and Strays of England during the late Victorian and Edwardian times. Here is the site:
http://www.hiddenlives.org.uk/