Mary Ellen O'Connor, Freed to Care, Proud to Nurse: 100 Years of the New Zealand Nurses Organization.

Brigden, Cathy

Mary Ellen O'Connor, Freed to Care, Proud to Nurse: 100 Years of the New Zealand Nurses Organization, Steele Roberts, Wellington, NZ, c2010. pp. 310. NZ $59.99 hardcover.

This handsome volume traces the 100-year history of the New Zealand Nurses Organization (NZNO) and its predecessor unions. Filled with fascinating biographies of activists and leaders, personal stories and significant events, the union's history is interwoven with the development of the nursing profession in New Zealand. The decision to establish an archive and research library in the early 1980s, which includes the full run of the union journal, Kai Tiaki Nursing New Zealand, from 1908 onwards, has provided rich sources to inform the narrative. The book is also a visual delight with photos, cartoons, posters, leaflets and artwork providing a rich sense of nursing life and the role of the NZNO: particularly noteworthy are the beautiful colour plates, including the union- sponsored stained glass windows in the Wellington Hospital Nurses Memorial Chapel.

CATHY BRIGDEN

RMIT University