The Florence Nightingale Museum in St Thomas' Hospital, London, "aims to deepen visitors' understanding of Florence Nightingale's achievements and the relevance of her legacy to nursing and healthcare today. The Museum has its origin in a collection of 'Nightingalia' that various matrons of St Thomas' Hospital assembled in the years after her death. The Nightingale collection was first displayed for the Crimean centenary in 1954 at the Royal College of Surgeons in London and then at the centenary of the Nigthingale Training School for Nurses, 1960, and the 150th anniversary of Florence Nightingale's birth in 1970. In the 1970s the then matron and hospital administrator of St Thomas' decided to widen access to the collection, which ultimately led to the creation of the museum on the site of the original Nightingale Training School.
The Florence Nightingale Museum Trust was created in 1982 to safeguard the collection and make it accessible to the general public and researchers. The Florence Nightingale Museum, which was designed by Robin Wade Associates, was formally opened by HRH Princess Alexandra in February 1989.
To mark the centenary of Florence's death, the museum was modernised and redesigned by the award-winning practice Kossmann.dejong, Amsterdam. It was re-opened, once again by HRH Princess Alexandra, in May 2010"1.
The Museum holds items owned and associated with Florence Nightingale, the Crimean War, nursing and Florence Nightingales legacy.
More info and images in the Museum's official website.
- Photos by Luca Borghi (August 2011), courtesy of the Florence Nightingale Museum
- Locate the item on this Google Map
Related items:
- 1896 nurse's uniform
- Alexis Soyer's army stove
- 'Building Healthy Hospitals' showcase
- First male-student in Nightingale Training School for Nurses
- Florence Nightingale's bust by John Steell
- Florence Nightingale's dress
- Turkish lantern
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