Florence Nightingale, The Lady With the Lamp

After the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1854, nurse Florence Nightingale was appointed to oversee female nurses to be dispatched to military hospitals in Turkey to help with increasing casualties. She and 38 nurses arrived at the Barrack Hospital in Scutari on November 4, 1854. Nightingale had been trained as a nurse–against the belief that nursing was not a suitable profession for women–before serving as Superintendent of the Establishment for Gentlewomen during Illness in London in 1853. At Scutari, soldiers appreciated her kindness and devotion as a nurse. Among other things, she later became known for her ideas about hospital reform and for creating reading rooms in hospitals. In 1907, she was the first woman to be awarded the Order of Merit. She died at the age of 90, at home in London in 1910.

Image: Library of Congress

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