Uniform, Cap & Pin
The unique uniform, cap, and pin worn by nurses and nursing students have important symbolism.
The Grady School of Nursing cap was designed in 1898 by Miss Adah Patterson, the first Superintendent of Nursing at Grady. The cap was a half circle shaped piece of cloth sewn, with a few gathers in the center, to a cuff. Pleats were evenly spaced and held together with a safety pin. The cap was worn high enough on the head so that it could be seen from the front, and the points of the cuff could be worn up or down.
The cap and pin for the Municipal Training School for Colored Nurses were designed by Ludie Andrews, R.N., the first Superintendent of Colored Nurses at Grady Hospital. The cap was a half circle shaped piece of cloth sewn to a cuff, evenly pleated into four pleats and held together with a safety pin. The cap was worn high enough on the head so that it can be seen from the front.
When the schools integrated in 1964, a new cap and pin were designed by Bernice Dixon, director of Grady School of Nursing from 1963 to 1982. The new cap was a combination of the two original caps: the crown of the cap designed in 1898 was sewed to the cuff of the cap designed in 1917 and evenly pleated into thirteen pleats held together by a safety pin. The thirteen pleats each had their own meaning, representing a particular core value of nursing.
The Grady School of Nursing pin is a combination of the original Grady Hospital School of Nursing and Municipal Training School for Colored Nurses pins with an outer circle of gold surrounding an inner circle of blue with a small maltese cross in the center. The new cap and pin were first worn by the graduates of the 1967 class and continued to be used until the last graduating class in 1982.
Oral Histories from Grady School of Nursing
Geneva Cox Boykin Oral History
In our interview with Geneva Boykin, she discussed the Grady student nursing uniform.
