This study aimed to identify the profile of the woman/nurse and analyze representations of nursing in the context of Americanization in the press. The sources used were images and interviews published in the Journal of the Brazilian Red Cross during the Second World War (1942-1945) under the auspices of the Vargas era. The findings were analyzed according to the assumptions of social history, highlighting the singularities and daily lives of individuals or social groups and amplifying reflection on the sociopolitical context. Through this analysis we can infer that the images, as well as the articles published in the journal cited above, show nurses to be heroes: patriotic and "Angel caregivers" by using supportive adjectives or those of social adhesion "massified" to war, and at the same time to the dictatorial Getúlio Vargas government (1930-1945). We believe that reflecting on Nursing's past implies not only to evoke the memory of care, but to better understand the history of professional identity.
History of nursing; Press; Red Cross
