The Florence Nightingale Museum Collection
History of the Collection
Florence Nightingale helped to set up the Nightingale Training School at St Thomas’s Hosptial in 1860. Following the first intake of 15 ‘probationer’ trainee nurses, the school improved and expanded over the following decades, spreading Nightingale’s ideas of nurse training across the world. The school was overseen by the Matrons of St Thomas’s Hospital.
During her time as Matron of St Thomas’s, Dame Alicia Lloyd Still started to collect objects that had belonged to Nightingale or that Nightingale had gifted to some of the nurses who had trained at the Nightingale Training School.
The objects that Lloyd Still collected were held at the Nightingale Training School and came to be known as the ‘Nightingalia’. The objects were used by the probationer nurses as a teaching tool. Later on they were used for a number of exhibitions that marked different anniversaries, such as the centenary of the Crimean War in 1954, the celebrations marking the centenary of the Nightingale Training School in 1960 and the 150th anniversary of Nightingale’s birth in 1970.
The collection transferred to the newly created Florence Nightingale Museum Trust in 1983, who then opened the museum on the site of the Training School in 1989.
Our Collection Today
Since the museum opened in 1989, we have expanded the collection, adding new objects and knowledge to our catalogues.
We have some of our most important objects on display in the museum, telling the story of Nightingale’s life. Inside the museum you can see objects, such as her pet owl, her dress and jewellery and some of the letters and books that she wrote throughout her lifetime.
Alongside the objects that are on display, a large part of the collection is stored away in our collections store. These are some of the more fragile and vulnerable objects that cannot be put on permanent display.
Our collections is constantly developing and we rely on the generosity of donors for us to expand. We are therefore happy to accept new donations into our collection, so please read the below information and get in touch with us to discuss your object. Unfortunately, we are not able to accept every object that is offered to us but we are always happy to recommend other locations that may be interested in your object.
The museum has a collecting policy that we must comply with in order to ensure that we have the proper space and resources to look after objects. Our policy outlines the key subjects and themes that we look for in new objects. These are:
- The life of Florence Nightingale and her legacy
- Nightingale and the Crimean War
- Nightingale’s work on public health reform and community nursing initiatives,
- Nightingale’s work on army health reform & military nursing
- Nightingale’s work on hospital planning and design
- Nightingale’s reform work on midwifery
- Origins of nurse training and the history of the Nightingale Training School
- Statistical work of Nightingale
Please note that we are only able to accept nursing objects that relate to the Nightingale Training School.
If you are thinking of donating an object or objects, please get in touch with us, letting us know the following:
- Description of the object –
- Provenance – where did it come from and how did it come to you.
- History of the object – what is the connection to our collecting policy, where did it come from
- Photographs – this will help us judge condition and potential needs for storage
We will then be able to assess your offer against our collecting policy, if we have the same or a similar object in the collection already and the condition of the object.
Once we have assessed this, we pass on our recommendations to our collections sub-group of our Board of Trustees, who will make the final decision. You will then be notified of the decision. Please note that the sub-group meet every three months, so the process may take a little while.
While we sometimes cannot accept something to be added to our main collection, we may decide that it would fit within our handling collection to be used as an educational resource.
Please do not bring or send objects to the museum without the agreement of the Collections Manager and a prior appointment being made, as we are unable to accept items in this way. Unsolicited postal donations or donations left at the front desk may be returned to senders or depositors. If we cannot return items, they will be held for four months and will be disposed of if not claimed.
The museum welcomes requests from ACE Accredited Museum and similar organisations to borrow objects from the Florence Nightingale Museum collection.
Please contact us ahead of putting in a formal request to discuss the potential loan.
When getting in touch, please provide us with relevant information about the exhibition and some context, including why the object requested is relevant. If you can include UKRG Facilities and Security reports, that will also be helpful.
Formal requests should be made in writing at least six months’ notice. Requests should be sent to the Collections Manager at Florence Nightingale Museum, Gassiot House, 2 Lambeth Palace Road, London, SE1 7EP.