Florence Nightingale Museum

As part of my current placement, I had to attend a meeting at the Florence Nightingale Museum. It's not at all easy to find, as it's almost underneath St Thomas' Hospital (opposite Big Ben and across the river).

I really wanted to do a blog post on this, as it's one of those small Museums that manages a small collection well, and should definately be visited!

After entering in at the reception (£7.80 per adult ticket), you are allowed to go through to the main room, which we were told is divided into 3 "circles". It's confusing when you first walk in to say the least:

Why are there hedges everywhere?! But once you look at the panels embedded within the fake topiary, you realise it is the exhibition's way of dividing Florence Nightingale's life up:

The first section is the fake hedge bit, designed to represent her upbringing (which was surprisingly wealthy). We are told through a series of panels that the young Florence Nightingale was expected to fulfil the roles of a traditional Victorian woman, and she was taught to sow and look after a household:

Ultimately, her faith led her to what she felt was her calling: nursing. Much to the horror of her parents (it was seen as a lower class career) she trained in London and was qualified when the Crimean War broke out in October 1853. Florence had become a highly respected hospital superintendent, and when reports came back to England about the horrible conditions the wounded were facing, she went out along with 38 other nurses she had trained, to the Crimea in 1854. It is at this point that the Museum changes to the next "zone":

The tiles themselves look slightly Ottoman-like, and inside them are holes where you can look through and see black and white images of either the war or the pests around it. Round the corner of the "circle" it is made up of bandages with the panels embedded in them:

It's certainly a very unique way of laying out the part of Florence's life where she fulfilled her calling, and the display cases with her notes on nursing or items from the war are all through this as well:

There were two things that struck me during this part of the exhibition. The first was that it is really not clear what order to read the panels in as they aren't numbered. I found myself reading about Florence becoming the lady with the lamp, and then the very next panel was on her first arriving in the Crimea! Very confusing. It did however make it clear that it was due to Florence's management of the hospitals and her care of wounded soldiers that made her so famous.

The second thing was that the exhibit is largely aimed at children. There were lots of interactive parts, such as a digital ledger or this rather snazzy quiz, which I failed multiple times:

The holes in the side of each section were also low down, so were sadly too low for most adults. Although the more graphic ones had warnings on them, while I was there a group of children in yellow jackets were running around, and I heard a squeal from next to me: "Look! A skeleton! A skeleton through this hole!". It's fair to say these warnings won't deter everyone then...

When the children were finally subdued by a woman dressed as Florence Nightingale, I reached the final section that was made to look like a library to symbolise her life after the Crimean War. In the middle was a rather interesting sculpture made out of pages of her notes on nursing and shaped like a bed:

So nearly sat on it!

Lovely Guardian image (far better than anything I could take!)

Here there are more cases filled with versions of her notes on nursing, and her outfits from both the Crimea and during the later period of her fame:

To the side was a little room with an additional exhibition on nursing in World War One, which I sadly didn't get a photo of. But later on in the year there is going to be an exhibition on Edith Cavell (please google her, she is so important!). As for the final part of the Museum, there was also some rather odd cultural versions of her featured:

Hmm...

The Verdict:

The Florence Nightingale Museum is a perfect example of a little Museum that uses a small collection brilliantly. Despite being confusing at times, I did learn far more than I expected to and had a much stronger appreciation of nursing during the whole of the Crimean War. I would definitely recommend visiting this fascinating Museum during this important year for remembering those who served in War!

http://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk