Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Florence Nightingale
-
Standard Name: Nightingale, Florence
Birth Name: Florence Nightingale
Nickname: Flo
Nickname: The Lady-in-Chief
Nickname: The Lady of the Lamp
Nickname: Commander-in-Chief
Nickname: Wild Ass of the Wilderness
FN
's fame began when she headed nurses in the Crimean war. After the war, she worked to reform health care and promoted sanitation at home and abroad. To this end she composed speeches, government reports, statistical analyses, articles, and pamphlets. She travelled extensively in her youth, producing many letters which were later collected and published. She also wrote theology, including the work which contains her feminist fragment Cassandra. Although FN
was a versatile, political, and prolific writer (she produced over two hundred literary works during her career), she is remembered almost solely for her nursing work.
Brothers, Barbara, and Julia Gergits, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 166. Gale Research.
ECW
once rescued Evelyn
while he was serving in the Crimean War. He was afflicted by typhoid fever when she insisted on visiting him in a hospital. Florence Nightingale
, who ran the hospital, said...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Amabel Williams-Ellis
Her exemplars represent the arts, science, politics, religion, and service to humanity. Two of the nine are female— Sarah Siddons
and Florence Nightingale
.
She produced the book after a meeting with Davis in 1856 that took place under circumstances which led the writer to appreciate more fully the extraordinary character and history of Elizabeth Davis.
Beddoe, Deirdre et al. “Introduction”. The Autobiography of Elizabeth Davis, Honno, p. ix - xix.
ix
The book...
Intertextuality and Influence
Jane Williams
In offering an alternative to the official account of the war and the hagiography surrounding Nightingale
, as well as in seeking to improve the material circumstances of its subject, the book resembles that of...
Uglow, Jennifer S. Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories. Faber and Faber.
219
Wedgwood, Barbara, and Hensleigh Wedgwood. The Wedgwood Circle, 1730-1897: Four Generations of a Family and Their Friends. Studio Vista.
258
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Marina Warner
In Our Lady of the CountercultureMW
writes of her own early search for heroinism from heroines like Eleanor of Aquitaine
or Florence Nightingale
(featured in the young people's comic Girl) through scandalous women...
Textual Production
Joanna Trollope
From this time on, JT
sometimes published a new book as Caroline Harvey, and sometimes reassigned to her pseudonym works first issued under her own name. Leaves from the Valley, for instance (whose...
Literary responses
Sarah Trimmer
ST
's work made a great impact. She was one of the twenty-four most-reviewed women writers of 1789-90.
Hawkins, Ann R., and Stephanie Eckroth, editors. Romantic Women Writers Reviewed. Vol. 3 vols., Ashgate Publishing Company.
Several are based on historical or biblical material. The title play, named after a district of Edinburgh, features the actual Duncan Forbes
, a local Whig who was remembered for showing compassion and clemency to...
Here MS
writes grippingly of her own life, and illuminatingly about myriad subjects of public or cultural interest: the lives, customs, and deaths of newspapers, the conspiracy of silence about sex which had not dissipated...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Harriet Smythies
Towards the end of this poem about the Crimean War, HS
calls on the women of England. She regards them as formed with gentle hands / To minister to suffering,
Smythies, Harriet. Sebastopol.
19
but she nevertheless...
Friends, Associates
Felicia Skene
From her youth FS
was accustomed to mixing with distinguished people. Sir Walter Scott
, a friend of both of her parents, found her youthful company a relief when he was old and ill. In...
Occupation
Felicia Skene
Some of these nurses, trained by FS
, later went to Crimea with Florence Nightingale
during the Crimean War.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder.
Sutherland, John. The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford University Press.
Education
Penelope Shuttle
Some sources say that PS
attended a secondary modern school in Staines (that is one with non-academic aims and expectations). But attendance at a private school is strongly implied by her poem about a girls'...
Timeline
1825: Frances Parkes (Mrs. William Parkes 1786-1842),...
Women writers item
1825
Frances Parkes
(Mrs. William Parkes 1786-1842), published a highly successful domesticconduct book whose lengthy title begins Domestic Duties; or, Instructions to Young Married Ladies.
1840: The Society of Protestant Sisters of Charity...
September 1854: The British landed in Crimea, unopposed by...
National or international item
September 1854
The British landed in Crimea, unopposed by the Russians they had come to make war with. They went on to lay siege to Sebastopol that October and to win important victories at Balaklava (25...
12 October 1854: W. H. Russell began reporting in The Times...
National or international item
12 October 1854
W. H. Russell
began reporting in The Times on army medical service in the Crimean War, specifically on the confusion, mismanagement, and maladministration which he saw at the scene of action.
Cohen, Emmeline W. The Growth of the British Civil Service 1780-1939. Archon Books, http://U of G.
110
30 January 1855: Public outrage against Lord Raglan, who commanded...
National or international item
30 January 1855
Public outrage against Lord Raglan
, who commanded Britain's forces in the Crimean War, culminated in a Parliament
ary inquiry that brought down Lord Aberdeen
's government and enabled various reforms.
By mid-April 1856: Frances Margaret Taylor published as a Lady...
Women writers item
By mid-April 1856
Frances Margaret Taylor
published as a Lady VolunteerEastern Hospitals and English Nurses: the Narrative of Twelve Months' Experience in the Hospitals of Koulali and Scutari.
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.
1 August 1863: Queen Victoria, in a letter to The Ladies...
Building item
1 August 1863
Queen Victoria
, in a letter to The Ladies of England, denounced the crinoline, calling it an indelicate, expensive, dangerous, and hideous article.
August 1863: The Times argued for the regulation for ...
Building item
August 1863
The Times argued for the regulation for prostitutes.
24 October 1868: With the support of Lady Georgiana Fullerton,...
31 December 1869: The Daily News published the Ladies' Protest,...
Building item
31 December 1869
The Daily News published the Ladies' Protest, a document signed by 124 women which outlined their arguments for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts.
1876-1878: More than six million people died from drought,...
National or international item
1876-1878
More than six million people died from drought, famine, and disease during a major famine in India.
January 1877: A meeting between Emma Robarts and Lady Kinnaird...
Building item
January 1877
A meeting between Emma Robarts
and Lady Kinnaird
resulted in the decision to merge the Prayer Circles or Unions started by the former with the Nurses' Home organized by the latter; the union became the...
May 1893: The Royal British Nurses' Association, which...
National or international item
May 1893
The Royal British Nurses' Association
, which added the word Royal to its name in 1891, became the first association of professional women to be granted a charter of incorporation; however, they were not granted...
5 January 1907: Baroness Angela Burdett-Coutts (who died...
Building item
5 January 1907
Baroness Angela Burdett-Coutts
(who died of bronchitis on 30 December 1906) became the last person laid to rest at Westminster Abbey.
Texts
Nightingale, Florence. “A Missionary Health Officer in India”. Good Words, pp. 492 - 496; 565.
Nightingale, Florence. Cassandra and Other Selections from Suggestions for Thought. Editor Poovey, Mary, New York University Press, 1993.
Nightingale, Florence. Ever Yours, Florence Nightingale. Editors Vicinus, Martha and Bea Nergaard, Harvard University Press, 1989.
Nightingale, Florence. Ever Yours, Florence Nightingale. Editors Vicinus, Martha and Bea Nergaard, Harvard University Press, 1990.
Nightingale, Florence. Florence Nightingale in Rome. Editor Keele, Mary, American Philosophical Society, 1981.
Nightingale, Florence. Florence Nightingale to Her Nurses. Editor Nash, Rosalind, Macmillian, 1914.
Nightingale, Florence. “Health Lectures for Indian Villages”. India, Vol.
new series 4
, No. 10, pp. 305-6.
Nightingale, Florence. Health Teaching in Towns and Villages: Rural Hygiene. Spottiswoode, 1894.
Nightingale, Florence. “Hospital Statistics”. Programme of the Fourth Session of the International Statistical Congress, Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1860, pp. 63-71.
Nightingale, Florence. How People May Live and Not Die in India. Emily Faithfull, 1863.
Nightingale, Florence, and William Rathbone. “Introduction”. Sketch of the History and Progress of District Nursing, Macmillan, 1890.
Poovey, Mary, and Florence Nightingale. “Introduction”. Cassandra and Other Selections from Suggestions for Thought, edited by Mary Poovey and Mary Poovey, New York University Press, 1993.
Nightingale, Florence. Introductory Notes on Lying-in Institutions. Longmans, Green, 1871.
Nightingale, Florence. “Ladies Home, 90, Harley Street”. Times, p. 6.
Nightingale, Florence. Letters From Egypt. Spottiswoode, 1854.
Nightingale, Florence. Life or Death in India. Spottiswoode, 1874.
Nightingale, Florence. Metropolitan and National Nursing Association for Providing Trained Nurses for the Sick Poor: On Trained Nursing for the Sick Poor. Cull, 1876.
Nightingale, Florence. Note on the Aboriginal Races of Australia. Emily Faithfull, 1865.
Nightingale, Florence. Note on the Supposed Protection Afforded Against Venereal Disease. Privately printed, 1863.
Nightingale, Florence. Notes on Causes of Deterioration of Race. Privately printed, 1860.
Nightingale, Florence. Notes on Hospitals. Parker, 1859.
Nightingale, Florence. Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency, and Hospital Administration of the British Army. Harrison, 1858.
Nightingale, Florence. Notes on Nursing. Harrison, 1859.
Nightingale, Florence. Notes on Nursing. D. Appleton, 1861.
Nightingale, Florence. Notes on Nursing. Cambridge University Press, 2010, http://www.cambridge.org/series/sSeries.asp?code=CLOR.