This model of a "Green Lady" was gifted to the Heatherbank Museum of Social Work at Glasgow Caledonian University after appearing in an NHS exhibition there called Cod Liver Oil and Orange Juice in 1990.
"Green Ladies", so called because of the colour of their uniform, were health visitors employed by Glasgow Corporation to give support to mothers in their homes. They offered advice on feeding, particularly advocating breast-feeding, hygienic food preparation and domestic cleanliness and tidiness. They often became trusted friends of families.
However, Green Ladies were not always well received in homes. Some mothers resented what they considered to be an invasion of privacy and health visitors were popularly believed to look under beds and inside cupboards and to be quick to criticise. Word would quickly pass around a neighbourhood when a Green Lady was spotted in the vicinity. Green Ladies disappeared from the streets with the coming of the National Health Service in 1946.
Reference: Heatherbank Museum of Social Work, Museum interiors
Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow Caledonian University, Research Collections, Heatherbank Museum of Social Work
Keywords:
babies, bicycles, breast-feeding, children, Glasgow Caledonian University, green ladies, health visitors, Heatherbank Museum of Social Work, hygiene, mothers, National Health Service, social welfare, uniforms
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