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Columbia University Health Sciences Library
New York
United States

click to zoomFlorence Nightingale (1820–1910)
Letter to Mrs Jackson, from the Barracks Hospital, Scutari, Turkey,
November 25 1855

Courtesy of the Auchincloss Florence Nightingale Collection, Columbia University Health Sciences Library

 

Florence Nightingale
1820–1910

During the Crimean War of 1854–1856, reports of the horrific hospital conditions facing the British Army caused a public outcry in England. In response, the Secretary-at-War asked Florence Nightingale to lead a team of nurses to Scutari, in Turkey. Upon her arrival, and faced with a high rate of preventable deaths, Nightingale worked tirelessly to treat wounded soldiers, instil nursing discipline and improve hospital conditions. In this letter written from the Barrack Hospital, she tells a grieving mother about her son's last days.

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A.A. Turner
Portrait of Florence Nightingale 1867
Courtesy of the Auchincloss Florence Nightingale Collection, Columbia University Health Sciences Library

Nightingale stayed at the Front until the last British soldier left, her efforts making her a national heroine in England. Upon her return from Turkey, Nightingale immediately threw herself into the work of writing reports about the war, nursing, sanitation and hospital reform. But within two years she took ill, and was an invalid for the remaining 53 years of her life. She saw visitors one at a time by appointment, and communicated mainly through letters, of which nearly 14,000 survive.

Cartes-de-visite were small, mass-produced cards which featured photographic portraits of notable people. They were very popular in the mid-nineteenth century and were frequently kept as souvenirs. The publication of cartes-de-visite featuring Nightingale's portrait attests to her fame. The version on display, though produced in New York and signed by Nightingale in 1867, was most likely taken in London soon after her return from the Crimea.