The Death of Florence Nightingale

Editor's note: From its first issue in 1900 through to the present day, AJN has unparalleled archives detailing nurses' work and lives over more than a century. These articles not only chronicle nursing's growth as a profession within the context of the events of the day, but also reveal prevailing societal attitudes about women, health care, and human rights. Today's nursing school curricula rarely include nursing's history, but it's a history worth knowing. To this end, From the AJN Archives highlights articles selected to fit today's topics and times. This month's article, from the September 1910 issue, is a tribute to Florence Nightingale after her August 1910 death at age 90. It's likely that this was a “stop the presses” moment in the early years of AJN, with staff rushing to ensure that the news appeared in the first issue following her death. The writer of this brief commentary—more a eulogy than an obituary—stresses that Nightingale was not a one-dimensional angelic figure. She was a reformer: “The first thinker and writer of her times on hygiene, on hospital and training-school administration, on private and hospital nursing methods, and on the care of the sick poor in their own homes.” In the October issue that year, AJN continued its tribute to Nightingale with detailed descriptions of the funeral procession, the many floral tributes from around the world, and the memorial service at St. Paul's Cathedral in London that was open to the public.