Florence Nightingale served as a nurse during the Crimean War from 1854-56. Her experiences there led her to introduce practices to improved medical care in the army and to enhance the professional training of nurses.

Nightingale gained the name 'The Lady of the Lamp' from a phrase in 'The Times' reporting the situation in the Crimea at the time:

"She is a 'ministering angel' without any exaggeration in these hospitals, and as her slender form glides quietly along each corridor, every poor fellow's face softens with gratitude at the sight of her. When all the medical officers have retired for the night and silence and darkness have settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds."

The phrase was taken up by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his poem 'Santa Filomena' (1857):

"Lo! in that house of misery
A lady with a lamp I see
Pass through the glimmering gloom,
And flit from room to room."

This upload is an audio recording from a wax cylinder made on the 30th of July 1890. There were in fact two slightly different recordings made, the first presumably a trial run.

In this historic recording, Florence Nightingale says:

'When I am no longer even a memory, just a name, I hope my voice may perpetuate the great work of my life.

God bless my dear old Comrades of Balaclava and bring them safe to shore.

Florence Nightingale'

Enjoy!

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