Florence Nightingale: The Mysteries Behind Her Iconic Photographs
Florence Nightingale apparently loathed having her photograph taken. There are consequently relatively few photographic portraits of her and even fewer around the time of the Crimean War when her name was on every pair of lips; the legend of the Lady with the Lamp was born and the attention of a nation was turned towards a hospital in Scutari, Turkey, where she tended the sick and the wounded. These rare photographic images of Florence Nightingale are so famous and familiar – iconic even – that we take them for granted. Over the years they have been used on stamps, postcards, trading cards, T-shirts, mugs, erasers, cigarette cards, cigar bands (!), etc. Between 1975 and 1994 millions of copies of one of these scant portraits even found their way in everybody’s pockets in the shape of a ten pound banknote issued by the Bank of England.
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In January 1855, it was the turn of The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine, published by Messrs. Clarke and Beeton, to offer their readers “a portrait of that true heroine, Florence Nightingale.” On 3 February, the Weekly Gazette issued “a portrait of Miss Nightingale, and a view of the landing of the wounded at Scutari.” On 10 February Cassell’s Illustrated Family Paper also had a woodcut of Miss Nightingale to show its readers (see illustration). In June 1855 the third “and cheap” edition of The History of Woman, by S. W. Fulton, included a portrait of Florence Nightingale.
Portrait of Miss Nightingale. Woodcut. Cassell’s Illustrated Family Paper, 10 February 1855, p.48. Author’s collection.