Profile of the Day: Florence Nightingale

Have you found your connection to the “Lady with the Lamp”? On this day in 1820, Florence Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy. A nursing pioneer, Nightingale is remembered as the founder of modern nursing.

Image: Florence Nightingale / Library of Congress

Nightingale was born to an affluent and elite British family. Growing up, she felt uncomfortable among her family’s social circles and preferred to spend her time helping the poor and ill near her family’s estate. By the age of sixteen, she knew it was her calling to be a nurse despite her parents’ objections.

In 1854, Nightingale was commissioned to gather a corps of nurses to tend to the soldiers in the Crimea during the Crimean War. Appalled by the unsanitary and horrific conditions of the wounded, Nightingale quickly set to work to tend to the soldiers. In the evenings, she would make her way from patient to patient carrying a lamp. These visits earned her the nickname “the Lady with the Lamp” amongst the wounded soldiers. Her work to improve sanitation and services would sharply reduce the hospital’s death rates.

After the war, Nightingale established the first secular nursing school at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London. Today, her birthday is celebrated around the world as International Nurses Day.

Do you have nurses in your family tree? Explore Florence Nightingale’s tree and discover how you’re related to the Lady with the Lamp!

View Florence Nightingale’s Geni Profile