MUSEUM BLOG
Good Air and Bad Air: The Importance of Ventilation
Considered by many as the founder of modern nursing, British social reformer Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) was one of the most well-known female voices on health care in the 19th century. In this blog entry, I outline what Florence Nightingale believed was the most important consideration of nursing – the ventilation and good air of a patient’s room – and will explore how this advice recurs and develops in the ensuing forty years in home advice manuals.
Domestic Nursing: An Introduction to Maintaining the Sick-Room
Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management: A Complete Cookery Book (1861) was perhaps the most well-known and referred-to home advice manual of its time. It was originally published in 24 separate parts from 1859 to 1861, and then compiled as a bound book in 1861, soon becoming a staple in most Victorian homes.
Health Care in the Victorian Home
I am very excited to be able to research and share with you a topic I personally find fascinating – health in the Canadian home during the Victorian era. I will be using home advice manuals, written primarily by women authors, to explore how the day-to-day health of families did not primarily fall underneath the purview of the doctor or the midwife, but was left in the care of the mother of the home or the ‘Angel in the House’.
Treatments for Menstrual Cramps throughout History
If menstrual cramps continue to significantly affect women today, even with accessibility to modern painkillers, how did the women of the past attempt to treat the pain associated with their monthly menstrual cycles?