New workshop – ‘The Home in Modern History and Culture’ – 27 Jan 2020
October 21, 2019
The project team is pleased to be able to confirm the date of Monday 27 January 2020 for our second academic workshop, to be held at the University of Nottingham, Council Room, Trent Building. This workshop, the second in our series of three, explores the theme of Home and its applicability as a prism through …
Finding Florence Nightingale Across the Atlantic – by Steph Meek
October 1, 2019
Steph Meek, an AHRC-funded PhD Researcher at the Universities of Exeter and Reading, recently discovered two previously unknown letters by Florence Nightingale during a research visit to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In the post below Steph explains how the letters shed light on the Victorian lending libraries to which Nightingale subscribed on behalf …
In Pursuit of Nightingale – by Katharine McMahon
July 3, 2019
Katharine McMahon is the latest guest contributor to our blog. Katharine’s novel The Rose of Sebastopol follows a thwarted disciple of Nightingale, Rosa, through her trials in the Crimea. It was selected for the Richard & Judy Book Club in 2008 and went on to become an international bestseller. In this post, Katharine recalls her …
Periodic Wallpaper
June 17, 2019
Our project is featured in the latest issue of the University of Nottingham magazine Vision, which marks the 150th anniversary of the Periodic Table of Elements. It was Nottingham’s Professor Sir Martyn Poliakoff that helped inspire the worldwide recognition of this landmark in the history of science. The issue features a range of projects from …
The First BME Nurse in the NHS – by Professor Lynn McDonald
May 16, 2019
In our latest guest blog, Professor Lynn McDonald, editor of the Collected Works of Florence Nightingale and co-founder of the Nightingale Society, outlines the little-known story of Kofoworola Abeni Pratt, the first black nurse to work in the NHS. Mrs “Rola” Pratt was an outstanding nursing leader. When the Windrush Empire arrived in the U.K. in …
‘We’re in an incredibly privileged position, to be able to care for people’ – interview with Sir Stephen Moss
April 15, 2019
Sir Stephen Moss is a nurse who has had a distinguished career in NHS management. He spent seven years as Director of Nursing at the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary before moving to the Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham in 1984, where he worked for 20 years. He also worked as a Commissioner on the first NHS …
Nightingale and big data – BBC video
April 8, 2019
Just thought I would share this BBC video from last week on Florence Nightingale and Big Data. It does a good job of highlighting Nightingale’s passionate interest in statistics and evidence-based policy making. The video might also have mentioned that Nightingale went out of her way to generate data where none existed for her to …
Writing About Florence Nightingale: Annie Matheson’s 1913 Biography
March 19, 2019
Our second guest blog comes from Val Wood, a former nurse and nurse educator and supporter of a number of historical and heritage initiatives across Nottinghamshire. Val is chair of Nottingham Women’s History Group. Right: Cover of Matheson’s book, published 1913 by Thomas Nelson & Sons, London. Image courtesy of Rowena Edlin-White. Over fifty biographies …
‘Mythical Florence’: Where Does the Lady with the Lamp Stand Today?
February 26, 2019
In this piece for the AHRC, also published on their blog, Dr Jonathan Godshaw Memel describes Nightingale’s uncomfortable relationship with public representations of herself. Florence Nightingale remains curiously familiar to us today. Whether or not she intended it herself, her fame has lasted well beyond her lifetime. But where do depictions of the Lady with …
‘Locating Health’ workshop review
February 5, 2019
Many belated thanks to everyone who came along to our first academic workshop, entitled ‘Locating Health‘, which ran at the University of Nottingham on 11 January. It was a really great day, and I know I certainly learned a lot from a fascinating set of papers! I have written a review of the event which …
