# data[].attributes.body
Florence Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820, in Florence Italy. She was the youngest of two kids and her parents were Frances and William Shore Nightingale. Florence grew up living in the elite social class. While her mother's interest was to move up the social standing Florence preferred to avoid being the center of attention whenever possible. Florence often had disagreements with her mother.

# data[].attributes.body
From a very young age, Florence was active in philanthropy. She also tended to the needs of the ill and poor people in the village near her family's estate. By the time she was 16 years old, it was clear to her that she wanted to be a nurse. She had received a "calling" from God to go into the nursing field to help the poor and the sick.

# data[].attributes.body
In 1844, Florence enrolled as a nursing student at the Lutheran Hospital of Pastor Fliedner in Kaiserswerth, Germany. She then returned to London, where she took a nursing job in a Middlesex hospital for an ailing governess. Her performance there impressed her employer so much that she was promoted to the superintendent within just a year of being hired. Florence made it her mission to improve hygiene practices, and significantly lowering the death rate at the hospital in the process.

# data[].attributes.body
In October of 1853, the Crimean War broke out. The British Empire was at war against the Russian Empire for control of the Ottoman Empire. Thousands of British soldiers were sent to the Black Sea, where supplies quickly diminished. By 1854, no fewer than 18,000 soldiers had been admitted into military hospital. In late 1854, Nightingale received a letter from Secretary of War Sidney Herbert, asking her to organize a corps of nurses to care for the sick and fallen soldiers in the Crimea. She quickly put together a team of 34 nurses and sailed with them to the Crimea just a few days later. Nightingale cared for the soldiers all day and night. At night she moved through the dark hallways carrying a lamp to look after the soldiers. The soldiers called her “the Lady with the Lamp.” Her work reduced the hospital’s death rate by two-thirds.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Image of the Middlesex Hospital in London that Florence Nightingale attended too.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Image of Nightingale at night carrying a lamp to check on injured soldiers. 

# data[].attributes.body
In August 1910, Florence Nightingale became ill but recovered. A week later, on the evening of Friday, August 12, 1910, she again was not well. She died unexpectedly at 2 p.m. the following day, Saturday, August 13, 1910, at her home in London. The "Lady with the Lamp" was laid to rest in her family's plot at St. Margaret's Church, East Wellow, in Hampshire, England. The Florence Nightingale Museum, which sits at the site of the original Nightingale Training School for Nurses, houses more than 2,000 artifacts commemorating the life and career of the " the Lady with the Lamp." To this day, Nightingale is widely known and admired as the pioneer of modern nursing.

# data[].attributes.body
With the support of Queen Victoria, Nightingale helped create a Royal Commission into the health of the army. She became the first female member of the Royal Statistical Society and was named an honorary member of the American Statistical Association. Nightingale decided to use the money to further her cause. In 1860, she funded the establishment of St. Thomas’ Hospital and the Nightingale Training School for Nurses. Young women aspired to be like her. Even women from the wealthy upper classes started enrolling at the school. Thanks to Nightingale, nursing came to be viewed as an honorable occupation. While at Scutari, Nightingale had contracted “Crimean fever” and never fully recovered. By the time she was 38 years old, she was homebound and bedridden. She was bedridden for the rest of her life. Nightingale continued her work from her bed. In Mayfair, she remained an authority and advocate of health care reform, interviewing politicians and welcoming distinguished visitors from her bed. In 1859, she published Notes on Hospitals, which focused on how to properly run civilian hospitals.

# data[].attributes.body
“Florence Nightingale.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 6 May 2021, www.biography.com/scientist/florence-nightingale. History.com Editors. “Florence Nightingale.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 9 Nov. 2009, www.history.com/topics/womens-history/florence-nightingale-1.

# data[].attributes.body
I chose to research Florence Nightingale because I was interested in learning more about the health conditions in her time and how she contributed to the Industrial Revolution.  Also, my mother and grandmother are nurses and I have been thinking about nursing as my career choice.  I wanted to learn more about her experiences.