Florence Nightingale exhibition presents nursing pioneer who told us to wash hands

A handout illustration shows a young Florence Nightingale in an unknown location, drawn by her cousin Hilary Bonham-Carter. Photo: Reuters

Victorian Britain took Florence Nightingale into its heart as the “Lady with the Lamp” who tended wounded soldiers, but a new exhibition shows her as a tough pioneer whose principles on hygiene underpin nursing today as the world battles coronavirus.

The show at the Florence Nightingale Museum within London’s St Thomas’ Hospital marks the bicentenary of Nightingale’s birth into a wealthy family, and tells the story of how she fought her family’s opposition and social constraints to become the world’s most famous nurse.