Florence Nightingale: A Living Portrait at Cromford Mills

Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) was a game-changing figure in nursing and healthcare reform. Known as the ‘Lady with the Lamp’, she became famous for her compassionate care of wounded soldiers during the Crimean War and her meticulous work as a statistician, pioneering sanitation in healthcare. Nightingale spent most of her childhood at Lea Hurst, just over two miles away from Cromford Mills.

It was during her time in Derbyshire that her vocation as a nurse became apparent: ‘The first idea I can recollect when I was a child was a desire to nurse the sick’. Despite her family’s opposition, Florence Nightingale pursued her passion, training as a nurse. During the Crimean War, she reduced mortality rates through sanitation improvements and, back in England, she continued her advocacy for healthcare reform. In 1860, she established the Nightingale Training School for Nurses at St Thomas’ Hospital in London, revolutionising nursing education worldwide.

This new exhibition takes a closer look at Florence Nightingale’s complex character, getting behind the idealised image of the ‘Lady with the Lamp’. Over the decades, she has been given many labels: angel, hero, feminist, rebel. Each of these lenses is a mystification of Nightingale. She may have been all these things – or none. This is your chance to put yourself in her shoes, analysing her decisions and her achievements.