Florence Nightingale: The hygiene pioneer

Florence Nightinale at Embley Park in 1858, near Romsey, Britain | The show at the Florence Nightingale Museum within London’s St Thomas’ Hospital marks the bicentenary of Nightingale’s birth into a wealthy family, and tells the story of how she fought her family’s opposition and social constraints to become the world’s most famous nurse.

St Thomas’ is one of a handful of hospitals in Britain with a specialist ward for the treatment of coronavirus patients.

An illustration shows Florence Nightingale at Scutari Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey. | Nightingale became famous after she and a small team of nurses traveled to modern-day Istanbul to treat British soldiers wounded in the Crimean War, in which British, French and Ottoman forces fought the Russian Empire.

The lamp she used to tour the wards at night is on show at the exhibition, as is the nurses’ uniform she created.

'If Florence Nightingale herself was here, she would be supporting all that’s being said at the moment. She was absolutely into infection control, hand washing, being very observant,' said Yvonne Moores, Chair of the Florence Nightingale Foundation and Britain’s former national Chief Nursing Officer.

Florence Nightingale and her Nightingale School trainees in an unknown location. | “She would also, bearing in mind her very, very long career, be encouraging people that have retired ... to think about the role that they might be able to play in coming back.”

Nightingale died at the age of 90 in 1910, continuing to work and to write late into her life.

A handout illustration shows a young Florence Nightingale with her pet owl, Athena.

A handout illustration shows a young Florence Nightingale in an unknown location, drawn by her cousin Hilary Bonham-Carter.