Nightengale's life on display

[cougarnurse]

Thought this was interesting, if you can make it: Nightingale's life

Florence Nightingale is best known for having founded modern nursing and helping to improve the care provided by hospitals. To celebrate her contributions to medicine, the Karpeles Manuscript Museum is opening a new exhibit that includes some two dozen manuscripts chronicling her life and work.

Nightingale was raised in England during the Victorian era and decided to seek a career in nursing. Her family disapproved because, at that time, the field of nursing consisted of religious women or untrained helpers of low repute. She saw her calling, however, and rebelled against the traditional roles of wife and mother.

By the time she died in 1910, Nightingale had made nursing an organized and respectable profession. She also helped improve health care in the military through her work during the Crimean War, setting a foundation for high sanitary standards in medicine.

The exhibit will be on display Friday through August at the museum at 68 Spring St. Hours are 11 a.m.- 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. For more information, call 853-4651.