As one of many collections of correspondence housed at the University of British Columbia, the Florence Nightingale Letters collection demonstrates the enjoyment of exploration through the life and thoughts of such a famous person.
Postcard featuring a drawing of a young Florence Nightingale
Through the timeline browser on the front page of the collection, one has access to letters from as far back as 1845—a letter to an aunt updating her on the goings on of herself and her acquaintances. Thankfully, the full text of the letters is searchable and readable below the images themselves—as examples like this one, while beautiful, are not as helpful to the modern eye.
In perusing the collection, I personally was struck most by this post script from a quick note in 1986: “I do not think he had heard of the nefarious Cistern doings”. Nefarious doings!
We hope you’ll enjoy this correspondence and other text-based collections—a truly unique glimpse into a life not our own.
