The Florence Nightingale Museum is inviting visitors to shape the ever-changing image of the mother of modern nursing with a new exhibition, which has brought Florence Nightingale’s story ‘home’ to Derbyshire. The new, interactive exhibition, led by Nightingale's own words, is now open at Cromford Mills, near her childhood home, Lea Hurst.

In August 1856, Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) became famous in an instant as she returned home to Derbyshire after nursing soldiers at the Crimean War and sealed her image as the ‘Lady with the Lamp’. The Florence Nightingale Museum has now opened Florence Nightingale: A Living Portrait, an immersive new exhibition, which invites visitors to explore, question, and ultimately shape, the enduring public image of a pioneering figure in nursing history.

The exhibition takes place at Cromford Mills in the beautiful Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site in Derbyshire, the part of the country where Florence Nightingale spent much of her childhood and first nurtured her passion for nursing. Cromford Mills is an internationally significant site as the place of the first successful water-powered cotton-spinning mill, a cornerstone of the Industrial Revolution, built in 1771 by ‘the father of the factory system’, Sir Richard Arkwright. Adding to the Florence Nightingale family connection, the financial support of her great-uncle, Peter Nightingale, was key to enabling Sir Richard Arkwright to develop Cromford Mills.

Florence Nightingale: A Living Portrait runs until 3 November 2024. More information at www.cromfordmills.org.uk

Florence Nigtingale - A Living Portrait at Cromford Mills. Credit @mrgjmc

placeholder image — Florence Nigtingale - A Living Portrait at Cromford Mills. Credit @mrgjmc

The image-led, interactive exhibition considers how Florence Nightingale is perceived in 2024. Looking beyond the familiar ‘Lady with the Lamp’ image, it celebrates the sheer scope of the work, character, passions and achievements which continue to make Nightingale a totemic international figure; from modern hospital architecture and ward design to nurse training, hygiene practices, infection control, evidence-based healthcare, compassionate patient treatment and statistical research, Nightingale's visionary ideas have shaped contemporary healthcare practices worldwide.

The exhibition introduces visitors to Florence Nightingale, through her own words, before showing how others have perceived her. Visitors can spend time considering different perceptions of Nightingale, over four themed interactive areas - Angel, Hero, Feminist and Rebel - answering questions about their own views of Nightingale and how they might have acted if faced with the challenges she encountered. Finally, they encounter a 'living portrait' of Florence Nightingale, which will be shaped in in real time as the exhibition gathers the views and opinions of its audiences.

Following its run at Cromford Mills, the exhibition will tour further afield, with dates to be announced soon.

Katie Edwards, General Manager of the Florence Nightingale Museum, said, “While Florence Nightingale is justly celebrated, she is also underestimated. Most of what people know may well be true, but they probably don’t know the half of it. I’m sure that visitors will come to the exhibition with their own images and views - and we want to hear them - but we hope that they will leave with a fully-rounded picture of a woman who was much more than the ‘Lady with the Lamp’. The exhibition was inspired by the fact that Florence Nightingale’s public image seems to change with the times, and we are keen to find out how people see her in 2024.”

Florence Nigtingale - A Living Portrait at Cromford Mills.

Derbyshire had a major impact on Florence Nightingale; she spent most of her childhood there, at Lea Hurst, growing up amid a family built on Christian charity and philanthropy. In her twenties, Nightingale began bringing medicine, food and bedding to its poor villagers. In 1846, she wrote: 'O happy six weeks at the Hurst, where I found my business in this world. My heart was filled. My soul was at home. I wanted no other heaven. May God be thanked, as He never yet has been thanked, for that glimpse of what it is to live!'.

Eilis Scott, Chief Executive of Cromford Mills, said, “Our new partnership is bringing together the stories of two families whose ideas changed the world. The Derwent Valley was a crucible of new thinking and ideas, and this place created some of the best-known figures in national and global history. The stories of the Arkwright and Nightingale families converge here, which is why Cromford Mills is such an important setting for the exhibition.”

VISITOR INFORMATION

Florence Nightingale: A Living Portrait at Cromford Mills, Mill Lane, Derbyshire DE4 3RQ.