A Navy Nurse Corps uniform (reproduction), circa 1910. This is the uniform worn by members of the Sacred Twenty, the first group of trained civilian nurses selected by the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery to serve in the Navy Nurse Corps, established in 1908.
[NMHM 2024.0023.294]
(National Museum of Health and Medicine Photo by Kevin Sommer Giron)
Extended caption: Congress authorized the Navy Nurse Corps female division on May 13, 1908, to ensure the Navy had a group of trained nurses to serve in hospitals or on hospital ships. The Bureau of Medicine and Surgery selected its first group of 20 nurses, known as the Sacred Twenty, in November 1908. These women were civilians and were paid only when on active duty. Applicants had to be graduates of at least a two-year program in a general hospital training school with clinical experience in the field. Applicants were also required to pass an examination of their professional, moral, mental, and physical fitness. Upon selection, these nurses completed three more months of orientation and training in naval medicine at the Naval Medical School Hospital in Washington, D.C., before being assigned to naval hospitals in Washington, D.C.; Norfolk, Virginia; Annapolis, Maryland; and Brooklyn, New York.
| Date Taken: | 11.18.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 11.26.2025 13:28 |
| Photo ID: | 9411628 |
| VIRIN: | 251118-D-FY143-1008 |
| Resolution: | 4608x3072 |
| Size: | 2.7 MB |
| Location: | SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND, US |
| Web Views: | 27 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
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