Florence Nightingale Papers
Florence Nightingale papers. A collection of over 300 letters from Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), the founder of modern nursing. The earliest letter dates from 1830, the last from 1900, with the bulk from 1851 to 1890. The letters are written to a variety of correspondents: family; friends; neighbors; professional colleagues; government officials; et al. They cover a variety of topics, including: a visit to Madame Recamier’s salon in Paris at the age of 18; conditions in the hospitals, with the nurses, and of the soldiers in Scutari and Balaclava during the Crimean War; sanitary conditions in England and India; hospital design; her nursing philosophy; her writings; England's Poor Laws; trainings for nurses at St. Thomas Hospital; charitable contributions and educational advice to residents of the school and parish at Lea, the location of the Nightingale country home; letters to philosopher John Stuart Mill; her appointment at Girton College; and correspondence related to her personal life and health.
In addition to letters from Florence Nightingale to numerous recipients, other related letters are also included in the collection. Notable correspondents include: Nightingale’s older sister, Frances Parthenope Verney (1819-1890), known in her own time for her reform-themed stories and novels; Sidney Herbert (1810-1861), the British statesman who asked Nightingale to lead a team of nurses to Scutari during the Crimean War and later became her staunchest political ally; and reformist lawyer and scholar J. Richard Beste (1806-1885), the father of Sister Mary Martha, who nursed under Nightingale in Crimea. There are several letters from her close friends Charles Holte Bracebridge (1799-1872) and Selina Bracebridge (1800-1874), who traveled throughout Europe with Nightingale and worked with her in Crimea. Also present are letters from British politician Charles Pelham Villiers (1802-1898) to journalist and social reformer Joseph Charles Parkinson (1833-1908) about the Poor Law. In addition, the collection includes letters from some Nightingale researchers describing their work and occasionally their discovery of previously-unknown letters from Nightingale. Besides correspondence, the collection also contains supplementary material, such as photographs; slides; memorabilia; and research material, printed material, and manuscript material donated to the Center by researchers who used the Nightingale papers.
The majority of the Florence Nightingale papers are available online at the Boston University Digital Library.
Other Archival Collections
L. Anita Guancione papers. Material from L. Anita Guancione (?-1997), who first registered as a nurse in 1919, including some medical instruments.
Artie-Sue Kerley papers. Material from mental health nurse Artie-Sue Kerley, including her educational material from the 1920s.
Grace Laurence Nieman papers. Lecture notes taken by Grace Laurence Nieman while she was a student nurse at the Presbyterian Hospital School of Nursing in Chicago in 1918.
Annie W. Hurlbutt Read papers. Lecture notes taken at McLean Asylum, now McLean Hospital (1885-1886); papers based on lectures taken at Boston Training School (later renamed the Massachusetts General Hospital School of Nursing) (1890); and other material from nurse Annie W. Hurlbutt Read (1877-1968).
Linda Richards papers. Educational materials, personal papers, published works, and other materials from Linda Richards (1841-1930), recognized as America's first professionally trained nurse and a pioneer in nursing education and practice.
Eliza F. Wadsworth papers. Lecture notes, letters, and other material from the nursing student, dating from the late nineteenth century.
Chautauqua School of Nursing collection. Printed lectures from the correspondence courses, dating from ca. 1923 to 1927; some of the items are reprints of material originally published in the 1910s.
Female Medical Education Society and New England Female Medical College collection. Records primarily documenting the administrative history of both institutions, precursors of the Boston University School of Medicine, dating from 1848 to 1895.
New England Hospital for Women and Children collection. Records documenting the history, operations, educational programs, administration, and alumni activities of the New England Hospital for Women and Children, founded in 1862, and its nursing training school established in 1872, one of the earliest formal nursing education programs in the United States.
Waltham Training School for Nurses collection. Manuscripts, printed material, photographs, memorabilia, correspondence, and professional material from the nursing school founded in Waltham, Massachusetts in 1885; includes some originals and several copies of letters to and from Florence Nightingale.
Nursing History
Anne L. Austin papers. Material from nurse, consultant, and historian Anne L. Austin (1891-1986), whose work was instrumental to the creation of the History of Nursing Archives at Boston University.
Virginia M. Dunbar papers. Material from nursing educator Virginia M. Dunbar (1897-1986), including her extensive research and collected documentation regarding the history of medicine, nursing, and hospitals.
Stella Goostray papers. Writings, research, correspondence, and other material from nursing educator, administrator, and historian Stella Goostray (1886–1969), including her extensive research on Florence Nightingale and nursing history.
Mary M. Roberts papers. Materials from nurse, administrator, and nursing historian Mary M. Roberts (1877-1959), longtime editor of the American Journal of Nursing; her papers include her scholarship and research on the history of nursing.
Louise White papers. Material from nursing educator Louise White (?-1980), including her large collection of visual materials depicting the theory and practice of medicine and nursing throughout history.
American Association for the History of Nursing collection. Institutional records, correspondence, photographs, and other records documenting the history and activities of the AAHN, (as well as the International History of Nursing Society), from its origins in 1978 to the present.
Journal of Nursing History collection. Material regarding the journal, published by the Nursing Archives Associates of Boston University from 1985 to 1988.
