Why Nightingale?  Why now?

She was also an expert communicator,
​networker and innovator!

After returning home from her famous achievements during the Crimean War (1854–1856), Nightingale continued — for nearly four decades — to work on the global challenges of her time. 
Her 'Notes on Nursing' became a best-selling book for the general public. Initially written as a 'self-help book'  for a wide-readership of women caring for their families at home, the first edition of this book sold 50,000 copies within three weeks of its release. This book later became a nursing textbook, widely appreciated, still today. Indeed, she was an expert communicator, networker and innovator — collaborating with Thomas Edison to promote his 'wax recording' machine to capture the sound of voices for the first time. From this experiment, her voice is still available to us online.  Nearly 14,000 of Nightingale's own hand-written letters are still available in collections around the world. She collaborated with journalists in her time and, herself, wrote widely-read magazine articles and 'Letters to the Editor.'

In her time, Florence Nightingale was famous as the 'Lady with the Lamp'  who nursed wounded and dying British and Turkish soldiers during the Crimean War in the 1850s. She is also most-often remembered as the philosophical founder of modern nursing and she also ranks among the most brilliant of sanitary, medical and health care reformers in history — working on an awesome global scale for many more years.

Why Nightingale? Why Now? Part 3 on Deva-Marie's Bio page >>>

Why Nightingale? Why Now? Part 4 on our UN Goals webpage >>>

She envisioned what a healthy world might be and worked tirelessly to both articulate and realize her vision!

Her legacy resonates today as forcefully as during her lifetime.

Today, we recognize Nightingale’s work as both global nursing and global health advocacy. She identified what we would call 'environmental health determinants' — clean air, water, food, houses, etc —  and 'social health determinants' — poverty, women's rights, education, family relationships, employment — local to global. 

​She envisioned what a healthy world might be and worked tirelessly to both articulate and realize her vision. She was a genius of both intellect and spirit and her legacy resonates today as forcefully as during her lifetime. 

Video & Photo Credits: Videos recorded in 2019 at 'Deerhaven Lodge' near Riding Mountain National Park, in Manitoba, Canada, from NIGH's archives. Upper right image is a sculptural demonstration of Nightingale and her lamp with a Crimean War soldier from original displays at the Florence Nightingale Museum in London. Photographer: Jane Stuart, 2002, from NIGH's archives