Major Collections
British Library, London: 180 volumes in the Nightingale Collection,
plus letters scattered throughout numerous other collections: Gladstone,
Ripon, etc.;
Claydon House Trust, Bucks: 84 bundles of letters mainly by
Nightingale, 268 bundles of letters to her or by or to members of her
family, plus scattered letters in the Verney Collection.
Wellcome Trust for the History and Understanding of Medicine, London:
14 boxes of original papers, 39 boxes of copies of Claydon material, 18
boxes of copies of material in other collections (for this material,
however, copies were obtained from the original sources).
London Metropolitan Archives, London: Nightingale collection largely
of material from St Thomas’ Hospital, plus letters scattered through
other collections.
Other British and Irish State Archives/Libraries
Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections (at the British Library); Royal
Archives, Windsor Castle; Public Record Office, Kew; India Office,
British Library (Marquess of Salisbury Collection), National Archives of
Scotland (including Earl of Wemyss Collection), National Library of
Scotland, Edinburgh; National War Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh;
Northern Ireland Public Record Office, Belfast; National Army Museum,
Chelsea Hospital, London; National Library of Ireland, Dublin; Convent
of Mercy Archives, Kinsale
British University Archives
Balliol College (including Mallet Family Collection), Oxford
University Bodleian Library; Pusey House, Oxford; Cambridge University
Manuscripts and Archives, Girton College, Trinity College, Cambridge;
University of London; British Library of Political and Economic Science
(Farr Collection), University (Senate House) Library (Seeley Papers),
University College Library (Chadwick and Galton Collections); University
of Wales Bangor; King’s College London
Universities of Edinburgh (Lothian Health Board); Birmingham;
Guildhall University (Fawcett Library) Liverpool; London; Manchester
(John Rylands Library); Nottingham; Durham; Southampton (Palmerston
Papers); Leeds; Bradfield College; University College, London;
British County and City Record Offices/Archives
County Archives of Anglesey, Buckinghamshire, Derbyshire, Flintshire,
Glamorgan, Hampshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Staffordshire, West
Yorkshire; Wiltshire (Pembroke Collection); City Archives of Bristol,
Liverpool (Rathbone and Derby Collections); City of Westminster
Archives; City of Bristol Archives,
British and Irish Hospital/Medical/Nursing Archives
Florence Nightingale Museum, London; Royal College of Nursing
(Edinburgh and London), British Red Cross (Wantage Papers), Royal London
Hospital, Whitechapel; Radcliffe Infirmary (Oxfordshire Health
Archives), Radcliffe Guild of Nurses; Royal College of Obstetricians and
Gynecologists; Royal Liverpool Infirmary (?); Royal College of
Physicians, London; Royal College of General Practitioners, London:
Royal Glasgow Infirmary; Liverpool Medical Institution; Royal College of
Surgeons in Ireland; Royal College of Surgeons of England; Royal
College of Surgeons of Edinburgh; Royal Free Hospital, London; Royal
Hospital for Neuro-Disability; St Bartholomew’s Hospital; Children’s
Hospital, Gt. Ormond St.; University of Ulster, School of Nursing,
Belfast; St Mary’s Hospital Archives; Royal Manchester Children’s
Hospital;
Other British Sources
Lea Hurst RSAS Age Care, Derby; Convent of Mercy, Bermondsey and
Birmingham; Royal Bank of Scotland; Sudeley Castle, Gloucestershire;
Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Royal Institute of British
Architects, London; Grosvenor Chapel, London; 9th/12th Lancers Museum,
Derbyshire; Skaill House, Orkney; Times, London;
Other European Countries
Kaiserswerth Diakoniewerk, Germany; National Archives of Malta; Royal
Library, National Library of Sweden, Stockholm; Kuopio University,
Helsinki, Finland; Ville de Genève; Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin,
Preussischer Kulturbesitz; Württembergische Landesbibliothek;
United States
Library of Congress, Washington, DC; National Library of Medicine
(History of Medicine Division, Bethesda); Columbia University
Presbyterian Hospital School of Nursing, New York City; Radcliffe
College, Cambridge MA (Schlesinger Library); University of Alabama at
Birmingham (Reynolds Historical Library); University of California at
Los Angeles; Emory University (Pitts Theological Seminary), Atlanta GA;
Harvard University (Countway Medical Library, Houghton Rare Books
Library and Pusey House), Cambridge MA; Florence Nightingale Collection
in the History of Nursing Archives at Boston University; Clendening
History of Medicine Library, Kansas University Medical Center;
International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago; UIC (Univesity of
Illinois at Chicago) Midwest Nursing History Resource Center; Duke
University (Rare Book Library and Medical Center Library); University of
Chicago; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD; Yale University and
Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, New Haven; University of
Iowa; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Northwestern
University, Chicago; University of Virginia; University of Maryland;
Wayne State University, Detroit; Cornell Medical Center; University of
Pennsylvania School of Nursing; New York Public Library; Texas Tech
University, Southwest Collection; New York State Library, Albany;
Bellevue Center for Nursing History; United Health Services, Binghamton,
New York; Gannett Healthcare Group; Smithsonian Institution (Dibner
Library)
Canada
Archives of Ontario, Toronto; University of Toronto (Thomas K. Fisher
Rare Book Library); University of British Columbia (Woodward Biomedical
Library), Vancouver; Vancouver General Hospital School of Nursing
Alumnae Association; Mt Sinai Hospital, Toronto; McGill University
School of Nursing Alumnae; Victorian Order of Nurses, Ottawa;
Australia and New Zealand
State Library of New South Wales (Mitchell Library, Sydney); State
Library of South Australia; State Library of Victoria; University of
Sydney; National Library of New Zealand; Auckland Public Library;
Dunedin Public Hospital; Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington; Nelson
Hospital, New Zealand;
Other Countries
Nehru Museum, Delhi; Pune Sarvajanik Sabha, Pune, India; National
Archives of India, New Delhi; St Luke’s Hospital, Tokyo, Japan; South
African Library, Capetown; Turkish Land Forces, Istanbul
Small Private Collections
Small private collections in London, Buckinghamshire, Derbyshire,
Dorset, Northamptonshire, Oxford, UK; Nelson, New Zealand; Netherlands;
Toronto, Ottawa, Guelph and Ancaster, ON; North Vancouver, BC;
Fredericton, NB; San Francisco, CA; Providence RI; Albuquerque, NM;
Missing Sources
The Problem:
It is evident that many letters written by Nightingale have
disappeared. That is, there are references to letters which are not in
any collection found so far. Sometimes we have a letter to Nightingale
which acknowledges correspondence received. Assuming that not all these
letters were destroyed, we hope that some will surface in people’s
basements and attics, or perhaps be found in small collections. Since
many of these letters were to nurses we hope that they will be found in
the collections of nursing alumnae associations or nursing school
archives. If you know of any, please contact us.
Some letters identified by Sue Goldie in her Calendar of Letters as
held by private collectors or sales agencies have since been sold or
otherwise disposed of.
St Thomas’ Hospital, Nightingale School. A massive number of
Nightingale’s letters to Sarah Wardroper, matron and superintendent are
missing. (Wardroper’s to Nightingale fill 5 volumes at the British
Library; there are very few of Nightingale’s to her, although they
corresponded from 1860 to 1892). A Wardroper son lived in East Grinstead
after Mrs Wardroper’s death. Any family still there? Possibly letters
in a local archive?
The Florence Nightingale Society (in the United States) apparently
owns letters (according to its website), but attempts to get a response
from this organization have been unsuccessful. If anyone knows where
this material might now be housed, we would appreciate knowing of it.
Many letters to Mary and Julius Mohl were seen by E.T. Cook for his biography, but have since disappeared.
Nightingale letters to Elizabeth Herbert (probably a lot) are still
missing (neither at the British Library nor the Wiltshire County Record
Office).
A long 1855 letter to Richard Dawes, dean of Hereford, listed as being “Wellcome” has not been found.
For many important people typed copies of letters are available, but
not the originals: Sir John Lawrence, Selina and Charles Bracebridge,
Sir James Clark, Lady Aberdeen, Arnold Toynbee
John Martineau, the biographer of Sir Bartle Frere, stated that there
were more than 100 Nightingale letters to him, but Goldie records (and
we have seen) only 17.
Many letters Goldie saw when doing her compilation for the Wellcome
cannot now be found: notably from sources listed as the Salisbury
Infirmary, Bon Secours, Geneva; St John of Jerusalem; a letter to Grace
Neill, in Wellington; Hammersmith District Nurses Association; Liverpool
Royal Infirmary; Trained Nurses Association of India
Miscellaneous missing letters (known of from replies) are to Dr
Norman Moore, warden, St Bartholomew’s Hospital; Gathorne Hardy (Lord
Cranbrook); Lord Salisbury
Some letters to nurse Maria Machin, on nursing in Montreal, are in
the University of Toronto Archives, originally held by the South Africa
Nursing Association, but some are not. Where are they?
We know correspondence with a nun, Signora Elena Comparetti Calle del
Ridotto, Venezia, probably 1888, maybe other years, is missing (draft
letters found and correspondence about) re starting a training school
for nurses in Padua.
What happened to letters at the Historical Museum Aldershot? Many are
in the RAMC collection at the Wellcome Library for the History and
Understanding of Medicine, but it seems not all.
