We are celebrating two hundred years since the birth of Florence Nightingale. Her revolutionary work pioneering nursing during the Victorian period transformed healthcare globally. Lotherton has been working with Leeds General Infirmary and The Florence Nightingale Museum on this commemoration of the ‘Nation’s Heroine’.
On 12 May 2020, we will mark International Day of the Nurse along with Florence Nightingale’s 200th birthday.
This film by the Florence Nightingale Museum, London, introduces you to the life of Florence Nightingale. It was filmed at Embley Park, Hampshire – Florence’s childhood home.
Florence Nightingale’s vision, thoughts and research not only developed nursing, but inspired change in healthcare and the development of healthy housing and hospitals.
Her letters and publications influenced prominent academics, politicians and engineers all over the world to investigate reform in sanitary conditions, education, health promotion and disease prevention.
Here is the writing desk Florence Nightingale used at Waverley Abbey, the home of her cousin, Marianne Nicholson. The desk was passed down the Nicholson family to Gwendolen Gascoigne of Lotherton Hall and is now part of the Lotherton collection.
On 7 February 1837 Nightingale received her ‘call to service’ to do work for God, she wrote: ‘God spoke to me and called me to His service’. The voice didn’t say what form the service would take, but it was from this point that Nightingale started to pursue nursing with a greater conviction. This experience was the reason and what gave her faith and strength to carry on regardless of opposition throughout her whole life.
She sent this as a letter to Marianne Nicholson as soon as it happened.
Traditionally the story is that she had the vision sat on her seat in the garden under the cedars of Lebanon trees, but later she revealed to family it happened in her bedroom.
The letter is owned by William Copeland, Great great nephew of Marianne Nicholson and is on loan to Lotherton.
In this short clip you can see the writing desk in situ at Lotherton, along with two dresses featured in the display.
Tsuda Umeko (born Tsuda Ume) pioneered education for women in Japan during the Meiji period which spanned the years 1868–1912.
Barbara Rose records in her biography that, “Ume was especially gratified when Florence Nightingale — as popular
in Japan as she was in England — granted her request for an interview.”
‘I would rather have seen her than royalty itself,’ Ume confessed. ‘I spoke of the future prospects of our [Japanese] women and how their work was gradually broadening out. She said ‘It was quite the same in England forty years ago, women had such narrow lives. Nothing was expected of them by their parents. I am sure it was so with my mother.’
Tsuda Umeko and Women’s Education in Japan, Barbara Rose, 1992.
Florence Nightingale broke away from the constraints of the domestic sphere and her influence extended far beyond the borders of England. Likewise, Ume moved beyond the restrictions of Japanese society to achieve her goals.
On the 26 August 1851 Marianne Nicholson married Douglas Galton.
Captain Douglas Galton was the father of Gwendolen Gascoigne of Lotherton Hall. He was an important Victorian engineer who from 1869 to 1875 was the Director of Public Works and Buildings.
Douglas Galton became Nightingale’s right-hand man on hospital design. He would consult her when designs and plans were submitted to him. Galton incorporated her recommendations to make sure that the buildings would be fit for both the sanitary needs of the patient and the need for nurses to work efficiently.
Laura Nicholson was Marianne Nicholson’s younger sister. Marianne was Gwendolen Gascoigne’s mother. Laura was affectionately nicknamed Lolly by the family. She married her cousin John Bonham Carter.
In her teenage years music remained Florence Nightingale’s abiding passion, and being able to share it with Marianne Nicholson only intensified her pleasure. On returning from Paris in 1839 to attend the Queen’s birthday drawing room, Marianne, together with her parents and younger sister, Laura, had joined the Nightingales at the Carlton Hotel in Regent street, London.
Here their rooms reverberated noisily to the sound of piano, voice and the pounding of dancing feet. Florence had ‘quite lost her voice in that horrid Parisian climate’, but Marianne possessed exceptional musical gifts, including a thrilling soprano, and ‘one unlucky piano never stopped’ as she, Florence and Laura practised for hours at a time, with ‘4 masters between them’.
As a caring gesture, and as part of the 2020 Florence Nightingale bicentenary, members of NET and other knitting groups in the community surrounding Lotherton Hall have been knitting little Florence Nightingales.
These knitted figures will have an encouraging and caring message attached to them like “remember you’re loved” or “somebody cares”. These lovely little characters are going to be placed around the Lotherton estate and local community during the Nurse’s Picnic. This celebration of our nurses and community carers will be rescheduled for after the Covid -19 restrictions are lifted.
If anyone else would like to join us knitting these delightful Nightingales please let me know by contacting Assistant Community Curator Stephanie Davies: Stephanie.1.davies@leeds.gov.uk
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Visit MyLearning to discover more about Florence Nightingale and explore resources for KS1 students from home.
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