Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) is best-known as the founder of modern nursing. Prior to her innovative work in the field, nursing was seen as lowly work to be completed by servants or less reputable women. Nightingale campaigned relentlessly to establish a respected profession and to improve health standards, publishing more than 200 works in this quest. She was also an accomplished statistician and a dedicated social reformer, focusing much of her work on woman suffrage, midwifery, access to the medical profession, the treatment of sex workers, and medical services for Indian women.
In the exhibition
“A Mission of Mercy”: Florence Nightingale at Shutani. Howard Kelly Collection of Florence Nightingale prints and photographs, History of Medicine Collections, Rubenstein Library. Facsimile.
Florence Nightingale. Suggestions for Thought to the Searchers After Truth Among the Artizans of England. London: Printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode, printers to the Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty, 1860.
All items in this exhibition are from the Lisa Unger Baskin Collection, Rubenstein Library, unless otherwise noted.
On display in the Michael and Karen Stone Family Gallery
January 20 – May 20, 2016
Rubenstein Library, Duke University
Durham, North Carolina