Discover the woman behind the icon at this museum dedicated to the life of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing.
Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) is recognised as the founder of modern nursing in the UK, and was an icon in her own lifetime.
The Florence Nightingale Museum in London tells the story of her life and legacy, and celebrates nursing today.
What to see at the Florence Nightingale Museum
The museum explores Nightingale’s Victorian childhood, how she fought against her parents’ wishes to become a nurse, her work during the Crimean War and how she campaigned for better healthcare for ordinary people around the world.
Highlights from the museum’s collections include Nightingale’s pet owl Athena, who she hand-reared and who became her constant companion, and her medicine chest.
Don’t miss
At the museum you can see the actual lamp Florence Nightingale carried with her as she walked among the beds of wounded men in the war – which earned her the nickname 'The Lady with the Lamp'.
The museum also has a rare ‘Register of Nurses’ which lists women who served under Nightingale in military hospitals in Turkey and the Crimea.
Tell me something I don’t know.
The Florence Nightingale Museum is currently crowdfunding through Art Happens to raise funds for an exhibition celebrating the bicentenary of her birth. The exhibition will bring Nightingale to life in the 200 objects, places and people who made her what she was, and will also look at how her legacy lives on, inspiring leaders and campaigners today.
