Five years before her work as a nurse in the Crimean War (1854–1856) brought her international fame as the saintly “Lady with the Lamp,” Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) was a young Englishwoman ready to buck convention. At 29, she was attractive, well-traveled and well-read, and had already turned down several offers of marriage. Ardently believing that God had called her to a life of service, she found herself drawn to nursing—work that in the mid-19th century was popularly associated with drunkenness and promiscuity. Her wealthy parents were appalled, and the resulting tension within the Nightingale household affected Florence’s health. When […]
