The Wayne State University Florence Nightingale Collection contains a variety of works by and about Florence Nightingale. It includes copies of the major works written by her, the two definitive biographies, a sampling of the various books written bout and inspired by her, some representative letters, and a few pieces of memorabilia. As detailed here, the collection is essentially the one assembled by the late Dr. Otto Fischer, of Detroit, for whom it represented a happy conjunction of his profession, medicine, and his avocation, book-collecting. It was acquired from him in 1961 through the joint effort of the College of Nursing and the University Library. In addition to the books and letters listed on the following pages, the collection includes some Nightingale pictures, mostly reproductions, a twentieth century re-recording of her voice as transcribed on an Edison cylinder sometime about the turn of the century, and a few letters of people who were in some way associated with her but which are neither addressed to nor relevant to her.

Information on the books in this collection can be found in the catalog. The other materials from this collection are described in this finding aid.

A portion of this collection has been digitized and is available in WSULS Digital Collections.

The Florence Nightingale Collection contains a variety of materials, including correspondence. The letter below regards prisoners that Nightingale was assisting.

[Transcription: Two blue bundles are for two prisoners,Invalids, whom I was requested to providewith clothes - a man of the R. Artillery &one, I believe, of the 89th.SirShould you have no objection tothe distribution, I venture to requestthat you will be good enough toallow those P Invalids who have notreceived their "bundles", especially thoseupon the enclosed List, to receive thebundles I send.Also, I send a few prs slipperswhich will be useful to some - &some newspapers &c for the Invalids.Begging to apologize to you,Sir, for the trouble I am givingI remain, SirYour obedt servt15/7/56 Florence NightingaleDr. McPhersonin Medical Charge {archivist: 6/6/- with {illeg por?} 38]

Florence Nightingale, who was born in 1820 and died in 1910, lived through the entire Victorian Age and beyond. Hampered and hemmed in as she felt herself to be by the customs of her day, her extraordinary intelligence and driving will found means by which she could work toward her objectives, although these were not objectives regarded sympathetically either by her family or by the much larger circle of influential people in the society among whom her family moved. Love of study, especially of mathematics and the new science of statistics, was lifelong, and these tastes alone tended to set her apart from her contemporaries. She also had an enormous talent for administration which could be exercised and developed without suspicion in a large Victorian household. The two great concern of her adult life, however, reform of hospital nursing and the health of the British soldier, were hard for others to view with sympathy and understanding. Her interest in nursing the sick dated from childhood. Her great desire to improve the hygiene of living of British soldiers derived first from her experience with the army of Turkey during the Crimean War, but increased in intensity when study of conditions under which soldiers lived in peacetime revealed to her how and why they so frequently died.

Although she lived for many years in seclusion as a semi-invalid, her work for reformation went on continuously and was carried out through her pen. The objectives of reform of hospital nursing and improvement of health in the British Army were in a considerable measure achieved. The accomplishment gave Miss Nightingale but slight satisfaction; her meager achievement was matched only by impatience with what she felt to be the inadequacies of others who worked with her toward the same ends.

Few women have exerted so far-reaching and enduring an influence on so many. Intelligence of the level that was hers is rare in men or women, but there is little evidence that this brilliant driving woman ever recognized that fact. Time and circumstances, however, were right for the reforms that Florence Nightingale pressed. She had a public ready and able to learn, as well as acquaintances in public life to effect the action necessary for change. Even though Miss Nightingale failed to appreciate that all men could not match her pace, and so derived little joy from their work for her or from her own labors, patients in hospitals and soldiers in barracks or field have not yet ceased to benefit from the work accomplished during her long life.