How Swiss Solidarity Funding Rebuilt Dutch District Nursing – An Archival Rediscovery

Abstract

Images of the 1953 North Sea flood that affected the coastal areas of the United Kingdom, Belgium, and the Netherlands are etched in many people’s memories. Photographs and film footage brought this disaster vividly to life, making its terrifying scale visible. Iconic images include vast waterscapes with only a single farmhouse or tree remaining, as well as families on rooftops or in small boats as rescue approached. These are all representative of the visual narrative of the North Sea flood.

Among the materials related to district nursing in the collection of the Museum for Nursing in the Netherlands, photographs were found that did not depict the disaster itself, but rather the reconstruction of district buildings that formed the backbone of health care infrastructure in the Dutch province of Zeeland. At first glance, these photographs do not seem emblematic of the flood. On closer inspection and after further research, however, they reveal a surprising reconstruction story. An article in the August 1956 issue of the Groene Kruis’s monthly journal provides additional clarity.