The 2022 exhibition Pioneers Who Persevered: Black Nurses in Segregated Bermuda documented the women who sustained healthcare while facing racial barriers within the profession.
Presented at the Bermuda Society of Arts, the exhibition combined physical displays with a new digital resource developed by the Department of Culture.
Ten stories accessible through the gallery
Visitors could scan QR codes installed with the exhibition to open accounts of major moments in Bermuda’s history and the experiences of Black nurses during the first half of the 20th century.
The project examined exclusion from professional opportunities and the role of the Cottage Hospital Nursing Home as both a training school and a place of employment.
The digital format allowed the exhibition to extend beyond the gallery and preserve oral histories collected by the Department of Culture.
Research across film, oral history and exhibition
The presentation followed the documentary Healthcare Heroines, which introduced several of the nurses’ stories. The exhibition and website expanded that work, acknowledging that many recorded testimonies could not be included in a single film.
Veteran journalist and former nurse Meredith Ebbin served as principal researcher, assisted by Randy Williams and Maryann Farkas. Burnt House Productions filmed and edited the documentary.
The project formed part of Bermuda’s Emancipation observances under the theme Restoring Community: Healing Together.
Pioneers Who Persevered treated the nurses not as marginal figures in a general healthcare history but as professionals whose labour and resistance required dedicated documentation.