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Florence Nightingale Museum
back to sights listingFlorence Nightingale Museum takes its name from Florence Nightingale. It possesses the collection of examples, books, notes, records about activities etc of the world known nurse. This collection of artifacts and everything, that is connected with Florence Nightingale was saved and kept at St Thomas' Hospital and the Nightingale Training School. After the foundation of The Florence Nightingale Museum Trust in 1984 the collection moved from the hospital and school to the care of the charity specially established for the preservation and wider display of the collection.
The collection has been known variously as the `Nightingale relics', `the treasures' and the `Nightingalia'. Collecting began during the Matronship of Miss (later Dame) Alicia Lloyd-Still (1913-1937), and over the following half century there were a small number of acquisitions, mainly around the centenaries in 1954 and 1960.
Parts of the collection were displayed at the Festival of Britain in 1951. The Crimean centenary in 1954 provided another opportunity for the collection to be viewed at the Royal College of Surgeons and the centenary of the Nightingale Training School in 1960 saw a special exhibition in the Doulton Hall in Lambeth. The collection was packed away in the late 1960s and was not available for viewing during the period leading up to the opening of the new North Wing at St. Thomas' Hospital in 1976.
It was Miss EM McInnes, the servant of the Hospital archive, who catalogued and numbered the collection in 1965. At that time the collection was mainly stored in the `Treasure Room' of Riddell House, the nurses' home since 1937. Miss Sheila Garrett controlled the repeated enlisting and packing of the collection by Miss Kathleen Woodhead in May 1967. In 1968 the archives of the Nightingale Training School and the papers and pictures in the Nightingale Collection were deposited at the Greater London Record Office (known since 1997 as the London Metropolitan Archives). Henceforth the divided collection was known as Nightingale Collection Part I (archives) and Nightingale Collection Part II (artifacts). In 1976, the Hospital's first Art Historian, Patricia Mowbray, drew up an inventory of the Nightingale Collection Part II (p.43), with 15 sections including `Items belonging to Miss Nightingale or associated with her' (pp.1-6) and `Items connected with the Crimean War (pp.16-17).
Florence Nightingale
(May 12, 1820 - August 13, 1910)
Florence Nightingale was born in Italy on 12 May 1820 and was named Florence after the city where she was born. Her parents, William Edward and Frances Nightingale were a wealthy couple, who had toured Europe for two years on their honeymoon. During their travels their first daughter, Parthenope, was born in Naples (Parthenope being the Greek name for the ancient city), followed one year later by Florence. On returning to England the Nightingales divided their time between two homes. In the summer months they lived at Lea Hurst in Derbyshire, moving to Embley in Hampshire for the winter. Lea Hurst is now a retirement home and Embley is now a school.
Florence Nightingale's greatest life achievements were amazing considering that most Victorian women of her age group did not attend universities or pursue professional careers.
Florence and Parthenope were taught at home by their Cambridge University educated father, William Nightingale, who believed women, especially his children, should get an education. So Nightingale and her sister learned Italian, Latin, Greek, history, and mathematics. Florence in particular received excellent early preparation in mathematics from her father and aunt, and was also tutored in mathematics by James Sylvester. She was an academic child, while her sister excelled at painting and needlework. Florence grew up to be a lively and attractive young woman, admired in the family's social circle and she was expected to make a good marriage, but Florence had other concerns. In 1837, whilst in the gardens at Embley, Florence had what she described as her 'calling'. Florence heard the voice of God calling her to do his work, but at this time she had no idea what that work would be.
Florence developed an interest in the social questions of the day, made visits to the homes of the sick in the local villages and began to investigate hospitals and nursing. Her parents refused to allow her to become a nurse as in the mid-nineteenth century it was not considered a suitable profession for a well educated woman. While the family conflicts over Florence's future remained unresolved it was decided that Florence would tour Europe with some family friends, Charles and Selina Bracebridge. The three traveled to Italy, Egypt and Greece, returning in July 1850 through Germany where they visited Pastor Theodor Fliedner's hospital and school for deaconesses at Kaiserswerth, near Dusseldorf. Florence's desire to have a career in medicine was reinforced when she met Elizabeth Blackwell at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London. Blackwell was the first woman to qualify as a doctor in the United States. Blackwell, who had to overcome considerable prejudice to achieve her ambition, encouraged her to keep trying and in 1851 Florence's father gave her permission to train as a nurse. Florence, now thirty-one, went to Kaiserwerth, Germany where she studied to become a nurse at the Institute of Protestant Deaconesses. This enabled Florence Nightingale to take a vacancy as Superintendent of the Establishment for Gentlewomen during illness at No. 1 Harley Street, London in 1853.
In a year Britain, France and Turkey declared war on Russia. The allies defeated the Russians at the battle of the Alma in September but reports in The Times criticised the British medical facilities for the wounded. In response, Sidney Herbert, the Minister at War, who knew Florence Nightingale socially and through her work at Harley Street, appointed her to oversee the introduction of female nurses into the military hospitals in Turkey. On 4 November 1854, Florence Nightingale arrived at the Barrack Hospital in Scutari, a suburb on the Asian side of Constantinople, with the party of 38 nurses. Initially the doctors did not want the nurses there and did not ask for their help, but within next days after British soldiers arrived from the battle of Inkermann and the nurses were fully stretched. They began going down with cholera and malaria. Within a few weeks an estimated 8,000 men were suffering from these two diseases.
During Nightingale's time at Scutari, she collected data and systematized record-keeping practices. Nightingale was able to use the data as a tool for improving city and military hospitals. Nightingale's calculations of the mortality rate showed that with an improvement of sanitary methods, deaths would decrease. The mortality rate at the hospital was 42.7 percent of the cases treated. When Nightingale's sanitary reform was implemented, the mortality rate declined. Nightingale took her statistical data and represented them graphically. She invented polar-area charts, where the statistic being represented is proportional to the area of a wedge in a circular diagram. The 'Lady-in-Chief', as Florence was called, wrote home on behalf of the soldiers. She acted as a banker, sending the men's wages home to their families, and introduced reading rooms to the hospital. In return she gained the undying respect of the British soldiers. The introduction of female nurses to the military hospitals was an outstanding success, and to show the nation's gratitude for Florence Nightingale's hard work a public subscription was organized in November 1855. The money collected was to enable Florence Nightingale to continue her reform of nursing in the civil hospitals of Britain.
For her contribution to Army statistics and comparative hospital statistics in 1860 Florence Nightingale became the first woman to be elected a fellow of the Statistical Society. In 1865 she settled at 10 South Street, Mayfair, in the West End of London and apart from occasional visits to Embley, Lea Hurst and to her sister at Claydon House she lived there until her death.
Nightingale Training School for Nurses
Florence Nightingale's greatest achievement was to raise nursing to the level of a respectable profession for women. In 1860, with the public subscriptions of the Nightingale Fund, she established the Nightingale Training School for nurses at St Thomas' Hospital. Mrs Sarah Wardroper, Matron at St Thomas', became the head of the new school. The probationer nurses received a year's training which included some lectures but was mainly practical ward work under the supervision of the ward sister. "Miss Nightingale", as she was always called by the nurses, scrutinized the probationers' ward diaries and reports.
From 1872 Florence Nightingale devoted closer attention to the organization of the School and almost annually for the next thirty years she wrote an open letter to the nurses and probationers giving advice and encouragement. On completion of training Florence Nightingale gave the nurses books and invited them to tea. Once trained the nurses were sent to staff hospitals in Britain and abroad and to establish nursing training schools on the Nightingale model. In 1860 her best known work, Notes on Nursing, was published. It laid down the principles of nursing: careful observation and sensitivity to the patient's needs. Notes on Nursing has been translated into eleven foreign languages and is still in print today.
Although Florence Nightingale was bedridden for many years, she campaigned tirelessly to improve health standards, publishing 200 books, reports and pamphlets. In recognition of her hard work Queen Victoria awarded Miss Nightingale the Royal Red Cross in 1883. In her old age she received many honours, including the Order of Merit (1907), becoming the first woman to receive it. Florence Nightingale died at home at the age of 90 on 13 August 1910 and, according to her wishes, she was buried at St Margaret's, East Wellow, near her parent's home, Embley Park in Hampshire. Florence Nightingale's farsighted reforms have influenced the nature of modern health care and her writings continue to be a resource for nurses, health managers and planners.
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