Florence Nightingale

(1820 - 1910)

Named after the Italian city of her birth, the English nurse Florence Nightingale was able to read and write French, German, Italian, Greek, and Latin. At the age of sixteen she received a “call from God” that eventually led her in 1854 to lead a group of nurses to Scutari during the Crimean War. She reformed sanitation practices in the wards, working late into the night and earning the nickname “Lady of the Lamp.”