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Florence Nightingale (1820-1910)

The Lady with the Lamp

Under Krim-krigen (1853-1856), fik Florence Nightingale tilnavnet "The Lady with the Lamp", et navn som først optrådte i en reportage i The Times:

She is a ‘ministering angel’ without any exaggeration in these hospitals, and as her slender form glides quietly along each corridor, every poor fellow's face softens with gratitude at the sight of her. When all the medical officers have retired for the night and silence and darkness have settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds.

Navnet blev yderligere populariseret via Henry Wadsworth Longfellows digt "Santa Filomena" fra 1857:

Lo! in that hour of misery
A lady with a lamp I see
Pass through the glimmering gloom,
And flit from room to room.

• Notes on Nursing: What Nursing Is, What Nursing is Not (1860)