Nurses' Voices from the Archives

The West Yorkshire Nursing Oral History Collection (WYNOHC) provides a valuable local history resource relating to general nurses working within hospital and community settings in the two West Yorkshire towns of Halifax and Huddersfield. Little is known about the historical development of the nursing profession in these towns, reflecting a relative gap in the literature about provincial and regional nursing histories and the lives and work of 'ordinary' nurses. The WYNOHC, located at the University of Huddersfield Archives, therefore provides a valuable source of information.1 However, the richness of the data provides for a wider audience than just nurses, as it contains historical details not only of nursing and health care but places these within the social context of the twentieth century with information about nurses' family life, education, religion and social activities. The nurses discuss their childhood and school years as well as their work experiences, which provide details of the local history of the towns with examples of public transport, the introduction of the motor car, shopping and entertainment.