Colonial Recruitment Poster: Doctors in Fiji
NUNNEY, John (1897-1966). Learning to be Doctors in Fiji. British Information Service, [1945]. Printed by Alf Cooke Ltd, Leeds and London. 506 mm x 760 mm. Light creases from old folds; a very attractive copy.
A color offset lithograph poster by John Nunney, a prolific artist who executed a number of patriotic posters during World War II. Produced just before the slow fall of the British empire, the poster was likely prepared for distribution in schools by the Central Office of Information for the Colonial Office. It depicts Pacific Islanders studying medicine under the tutelage of a white doctor. The muted tones of the interior scene contrast starkly with the vibrant colors of the world outside of the window.
The legend under the image reads:
Throughout the British Colonial Empire much is being done to improve and maintain the health of the people. This important work is carried on not only by Europeans but also by local men and women who are trained to become doctors or nurses. Here are medical students at work under the supervision of a British doctor in the Central Medical School at Suvam, capital of the Colony of Fiji. They are not all Fijians; some come from other and far-distant Pacific islands. They will go home to heal the sick, to prevent the spread of diseases, and to raise the standard of health among their peoples.
Recent scholarship has explored the moral contradictions of bundling health care and education with cultural indoctrination in the context of American and European imperialism. This striking graphic offers extensive opportunity for analyzing the complex dynamics of class, race, gender, and nationality in the medical pedagogy of the South Pacific.
Although undated, the poster is enumerated among the Consolidated List of Government Publications for 1945 (p. 364). It is very rare. We have located only three copies worldwide.
Selected References
- Arnold, D. 1988. Imperial medicine and indigenous societies. Manchester UP.
- Brewster, D. 2010. The turtle and the caduceus: how pacific politics and modern medicine shaped the medical school in Fiji, 1885-2010. Xlibris.
- Brown, ER. 1979. Exporting medical education: Professionalism, modernization and imperialism. Social Science & Medicine 13: 585-595.
- Cameron-Smith, A. 2010. Australian Imperialism and International Health in the Pacific Islands. Australian Historical Studies 41: 57-74.
- Mangan, JA. 1988. 'Benefits bestowed'?: education and British imperialism. Manchester UP.
- MacNaught, TJ. 2016. The Fijian Colonial Experience: a study of the neotraditional order under British colonial rule prior to World War II. ANU Press.
- Stuart, A. 2006. We are all hybrid here: The Rockefeller Foundation, Sylvester Lambert, and health work in the colonial South Pacific. Health and History 8: 56-79.
- White, CM. 2006. Moving up the ranks: chiefly status, prestige, and schooling in colonial Fiji. History of Education Quarterly 46: 532-570.
Product tabs
$0
$2,350
Earn 0Reward points
Recommend this product

Colonial Recruitment Poster: Doctors in Fiji
Related products
The complex cultural politics of a Kilkenny Fair
[Ó Gibealláin, Athanáis O.F.M. (1917-1992)]. Feis Chille Cainnigh. Poster, ca. early 1950s[?]. 45 cm x 50 cm. The poster, once folded has been mounted...
view details
$0
View details
The Eucharist in Stereo
$4,750
$4,750
The Eucharist in Stereo
Keith, George A., S.J. (1883 – 1960) The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Meadville, Pa.: Keystone View Co., [ca. 1930]. 100 sequentially-numbered stereov...
view details
$4,750
View details
$1,250
A large photograph from Finocchio's featuring Elton Paris, Lavern Cummings, Lucian Phelps and other drag legends
Paris, Elton (1922 – 2007), et alia. Large original photograph of eight drag performers at Finocchio's Club, circa mid 1960s, 11 x 14 in. Very good or...
view details
$1,250
View details
$5,000
Winslow Homer. Hardy Lee, His Yacht (1857). His rare comic album
[HOMER, Winslow] Charles Ellery STEDMAN, Mr. Hardy Lee, his yacht: being XXIV sketches on stone, by Chinks. Boston: A. Williams, 1857. [24] leaves : ...
view details
$5,000
View details
$1,750
Boston broadside blasting beer: an experimental printing in black and gold
Dod, John (ca. 1549-1645). Sermon on Malt. Boston: [Isaac R.] Butts, [ca. 1840]. Broadside, 24 x 19 cm. Printed in gold ink on paper with a glossy bla...
view details
$1,750
View details
Zarafamania!
$65
$65
Zarafamania!
Chalon, Alfred Edward (1780-1860). La Giraffe, dèdiée sans permission à Mademoiselle Chalon 1828. [London: The Graphic, 1889] 8pp., printed on rectos ...
view details
$65
View details
$6,000
Original painting of the American bark Fury, with the captain’s ledgers
Wilson, Samuel H. (1836 – 1888). Ledgers of disbursements for the bark Fury and other vessels under his command, 1865 – 1887. 140 numbered pages, cont...
view details
$6,000
View details
$0
Imprisoned with the dead: the only recorded copy of an American penny dreadful
[Harrison, Monroe Burt (?)]. Imprisoned with the dead, or the fate of Count Bluebeard's wives, an interesting story from the personal experiences of d...
view details
$0
View details
$95
Jazz monologues signed by Civil Rights artist Tracy Sugarman
Sugarman, Tracy (1921 – 2013) and George T. Simon (1912 – 2001), The Feeling of Jazz. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1961. First edition. 4to. Very g...
view details
$95
View details
$650
Visionary designs for a Manhattan Project
[VASSILIEVE, Nicholas (1875-1958)] New York City Planning Commission. A Plan for Manhattan Civic Center and related improvements. [New York, 1948]. 29...
view details
$650
View details
$12,000
James Harrington, The Common-Wealth of Oceana: A rare variant of the first edition
HARRINGTON, James (1611-1677). The Common-Wealth of Oceana. London : Printed for D. Pakeman, and are to be sold at his shop at the Rainbow in Fleet-st...
view details
$12,000
View details
A most exquisite corpse
Price on Request
A most exquisite corpse
Lise Deharme (1898–1980), Paul Éluard (1895–1952), Georges Hugnet (1906–1974) and Raymond Queneau (1903–1976). Cadavre exquis, [Paris], circa 1925-193...
view details
Price on Request
View details
$1,250
Take Me Out to the (Other) Ball Game!
Providence Cricket Club. Team Photograph, 1909 Season. Large photograph (10½ x 13½ in.) mounted on cardstock to 15¾ x 20 in. The backing is in rather...
view details
$1,250
View details
$1,250
A synagogue scene by Sir Frank Brangwyn
Sir Frank Brangwyn, RA RWS RBA (British, 1867–1956). Sermon in the Synagogue, circa 1900–1910. Brush and brown ink over pencil, brown wash, white wash...
view details
$1,250
View details
$3,250
W. Heath Robinson. Bill the Minder. His magnum opus. Signed, limited edition, in vellum
Robinson, W. Heath (1872-1944). Bill the Minder. London: Constable & Co. Ltd, 1912. First edition. Large 4to. Bound in publisher's full white vell...
view details
$3,250
View details
$1,250
Thomas Bewick. Poems by Goldsmith and Parnell (1795), with an unrecorded suite of plates.
[Bewick, John and Thomas]. Poems by Goldsmith and Parnell. London: W[illiam] Bulmer, 1795. First edition thus. 4to. xx+76 pp. Some light foxing, else ...
view details
$1,250
View details
$2,000
Mel Lyman, Boston Avatar: A nearly complete run of underground publications
[Lyman, Mel] Avatar 1, 3-24 (June 9/22, 1967-April 26/May 9, 1968) [with] American Avatar 1-4 (October 1968-Summer 1969; all published) [with] Pluto #...
view details
$2,000
View details
Microart by Bruno Munari
$6,500
$6,500
Microart by Bruno Munari
Munari, Bruno (1907–1998). Four original constructions sent as holiday cards, a TLS, and two broadsides from the files of his translator, Maria Cimino...
view details
$6,500
View details
$1,750
Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe, Illustrated Handkerchief Set (ca. 1820s)
[DEFOE, Daniel]. The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, 1st and 2nd series. Two linen handkerchiefs printed in sepia. [England?], ca. 1820s-1830s...
view details
$1,750
View details