Letters from Florence Nightingale to Flora Masson
Contains records with digital mediaDetails
Type of record: Archive
Title: Letters from Florence Nightingale to Flora Masson
Classmark: BC MS Misc. Letters 1 Masson/Nightingale
Creator(s): Nightingale, Florence (1820-1910)(); Masson, Flora (1857-1937)()
Date(s): c.1880-1910
Language: English
Size and medium: 9 items
Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/504682
Collection group(s): Medical Collections
Description
Contains 8 letters and 1 bundle of partial letters and autographs by Florence Nightingale, sent to Flora Masson. Mainly personal correspondence, but also includes a reference Nightingale provided for Flora Masson for her application to the role of Matron at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford.
Biography or history
Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), was famous for transforming the nursing profession and her reforms still influence nursing practice today. She is particularly well-known for her work during the Crimean War (1853-1856) as the 'Lady of the Lamp', organising the nursing of wounded soldiers. She established the first ever professional training school for nurses in 1860, at St Thomas' Hospital, London, and throughout her life campaigned extensively for improvements to health standards.
Sources: Monica E. Baly, H. C. G. Matthew, ‘Nightingale, Florence (1820–1910)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2011 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/35241, accessed 1 July 2016]
'Biography of Florence Nightingale', Florence Nightingale Museum website: http://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/resources/biography/ [accessed 1 July 2016]
Flora Masson (1857-1937), was a nurse and author from Edinburgh. She was the daughter of Professor David Mather Masson (1822-1907), Chair of English at the University of Edinburgh.
Masson's career in nursing began at St Thomas' Hospital, London, where she undertook her training. She went on to become Matron at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, and the Eastern Fever Hospital, Homerton, London. She was a good friend of Florence Nightingale, who acted as her reference in her application to the Radcliffe Infirmary.
During the First World War Masson was Matron of the Red Cross Hospital at Rosewell; her services were awarded with a Royal Red Cross, 1st Class.
She later returned to Edinburgh to further pursue her writing career, editing some of her father's works before his death in 1907. She wrote a number of books, and some of her work related to the Brontë's. She died in Edinburgh in 1937.
Source: Obituary in the Glasgow Herald, 'The Late Miss Flora Masson An Edinburgh Authoress', 4 Oct 1937.
Provenance
The catalogue description for this file represents only one section of this collection, the rest has not currently been catalogued to this level of detail.
System of arrangement
The letters are arranged in chronological order.
Access and usage
Reproduction
Access
This part of the collection is fully accessible and not subject to protection under the Data Protection Act
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