Time Frame

• Though it's unclear exactly when and where the nursing cap originated, two theories place it in the mid-1800s. One theory postulates the cap was developed at Paris' Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, where the first modern nursing school was established in 1864. The the other maintains the cap was introduced at Kaiserswerth in Germany, where famous 19th-century nurse Florence Nightingale studied in the 1840s.
  
  

Function

• While it eventually became a symbol of nurses' humanitarianism, the nurse's cap was primarily used to cover and manage nurses' hair. The first caps covered most of the hair, as long hair was the style of the time. As women's hair styles evolved, so did the caps.
  
  

Types

• After the first bonnet-like "dust caps" were used--and as women started to wear their hair shorter--the cap was required to cover smaller areas of hair. Tall, starched, ruffled caps and smaller pillboxes were common in later years.
  
  

Significance

• Supporting the cap's image of service and dedication, some nursing institutions still hold "capping ceremonies" during which new nurses receive caps. The cap went out of practical use in the 1980s, however, because of nurses' wider roles in the hospital and the profession's openness to men.
  
  

Famous Ties

• Florence Nightingale's nursing cap is on display in the lobby of the Westerly Hospital in Westerly, R.I.