Of lamps and lanterns: throwing light on Florence Nightingale: Florence Nightingale has long been known as the "lady with the lamp," but a more detailed study of history shows that it was a simple Arab lantern that she would have carried when tending the sick in Scutari, not a ceremonial lamp.

Visitors to London's Florence Nightingale Museum often ask to see the lamp. It seems a reasonable request: the museum of "the lady with the lamp" should contain the lamp, yet history is rather more complicated than most people believe.

If the purpose of a museum is to convey meaning and knowledge through museum objects, (1) the lantern on display--for there is no lamp--demands some detailed explanation. This article attempts to unearth the historical evidence and meanings which led the museum to display a humble Arab pattern lantern (Figure 1) rather than the expected ceremonial genie lamp (Figure 2). (2)

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It is hard to imagine that Florence Nightingale was not familiar with the Arab pattern of lantern over four years before going to the Barrack Hospital at Uskudar (Scutari) in Turkey. During her travels in Egypt in 1849/50, Florence Nightingale carried Edward Lane's account of Egyptian customs with her, quoting it in her letters to her family. (3) Lane illustrates the common types of domestic lighting used at the time (Figure 3). The copper and linen candle lanterns (Arabic: fanoos) were typically used for evening visits to friends, while the wood and glass lamps (Arabic: qindeel) were usually fixed to the outside of houses. Plain or shielded candles were used indoors.

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The fanoos may be hand held, set down on a flat surface or suspended from a hook. A waxed linen concertina, shaped by around 20 wire hoops, protects the flame of a candle hew in the circular brass or copper base. The metal cover has a heat shield, which may be moved aside to reveal the candle when the concertina is collapsed (Figure 4), and a handle with a hook from which the lantern can hang. The ornamental piercing of the cover allows air to flow to the candle, while the flame is protected from the wind by the linen concertina. The waxed finish of the linen renders it slightly translucent, an obvious advantage. The triangular piercings that make up a circular lattice on the cover are the only evidence of ornamentation and, although simple, it is distinctly Islamic in style.

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According to Islamic scholar Seyyed Nasr, there is a growing recognition among Islamic scholars that in the aniconic word of Islamic art, divine unity is reflected in the commonplace geometrical patterns found, for example, in Islamic architecture and calligraphy. (4)

The pierced metal pattern of the lantern cover may also be considered a simple reminder of same spiritual principles. (4) Nineteenth century examples of the lantern have been found as far east as modern Pakistan, while a version with thinner metal may still be bought in the Istanbul souk today.

Despite the opacity of the waxed linen, it would appear that the light given off by the lantern was insufficient to allow Florence Nightingale to examine the hieroglyphs in the pharaoh's tombs. While deep underground, Florence Nightingale's party preferred flaming torches, and, on one occasion, even lit a straw fire to illuminate the paintings. (5)

The events of Florence Nightingale's time as Superintendent of Nurses to the British Army hospitals during the Crimean War are well known. Over the last five years, British writer Hugh Small has provided a thorough reappraisal of the causes of the soldiers' mortality, using evidence gathered by Florence Nightingale herself to show that, despite the best efforts of the nurses, the Barrack Hospital remained a death trap until basic sanitary measures were taken. (6) Although it is clear that Florence Nightingale's principal contribution was administrative, and not in the direct nursing of the sick, according to her own estimates she spent 10 to 12 hours a day for the first six weeks working on the wards, nursing the sick and wounded as well as supervising the nurses. (7) The press descriptions of Florence Nightingale during the initial period stereotyped her as a hands-on nurse throughout the war and she was usually referred to as an "angel of mercy". The deeds of the romantic heroine were promoted by the popular poems and songs printed at Seven Dials in central London, and a number of sentimental prints helped to satisfy the public desire for an antidote to the horrors of war. (8)

It is worth noting that the idea of "the lady with the lamp" was not yet prevalent, although she had been described thus in the newspapers, by Mr MacDonald, almoner of the Times Fund and was shown carrying an oil lamp by The Illustrated London News (see above). The eyewitness images by British painters Jerry Barrett, William Simpson and Anne Ward Morton steer clear of lamp imagery.

Fanny Margaret Taylor, a nurse at the Barrack Hospital Scutari, published the following description in her Crimean memoir: "A dim light burned here or there. Miss Nightingale carried a lantern, which she would set down before she bent over any of the patients." (8) Florence Nightingale on one occasion related how she carried a lantern while chasing a rat, but there are no references to lamps in her surviving correspondence. (9) Perhaps the most telling evidence for the use of specifically Arab lanterns at Uskudar comes from Florence Nightingale's administrative assistants Charles and Selina Bracebridge, who had earlier accompanied her to Egypt. The hospital accounts contain a reference to a quantity of lanterns bought in Constantinople for use at Uskudar and the Bracebridges brought a lantern back to England as a souvenir. Thirty-two years ago, a letter in The Times (11) attempted to establish the "Bracebridge lantern", which is now in the National Army Museum, as the lamp. However this missed the point. History and myth cannot be made to converge. There is no evidence that Florence Nightingale placed any significance on the means of lighting she used. Five Arab pattern lanterns with Crimean associations do survive (and no lamps), but in any case, the idea of the "lady with the lamp" was not fully articulated until after the Crimean War. The hold which the "lady with the lamp" has on the popular imagination owes much to 19th century American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, from whose poem Santa Filomena, appear these two verses: (12)

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

   A Lady with a Lamp shall stand
   In the great history of the land,
   A noble type of good,
   Heroic womanhood.

Longfellow's poem elevated Florence Nightingale to the level of an icon. It brought together all the strands relevant to his public, in essence the notion of a Christian lady walking alone at night among the mass of common soldiery, bringing hope, through the light from the lamp. He compared Florence Nightingale and her practice of nightly rounds with a saint whose name means "one who loves the moon'". Saint Philomena's canonisation was imminent during the Crimean War; a point which would not have been lost on the readership. The real Florence Nightingale, who locked horns with bureaucrats and politicians, formulated health statistics, designed hospitals and campaigned for improved public health, on occasion found a use for status as an icon; at other times it was a burden or a source of guilt.

A further layer of meaning was added to the lamp with the foundation of the Nightingale Training School in 1860. The oil lamp was already a symbol of learning because it had enabled reading in the hours of darkness since classical times. Now the lamp came to represent nurse education.

For Florence Nightingale's biographers, the tale of lamps and lanterns has been a source of confusion, starting with the first and most influential, Sir Edward Cook. (13) Cook stated rather apologetically that the lamp of fame may have only been a humble "camp lamp" but Florence Nightingale's relative Rosalind Nash, who abridged Cook, changed his words to "camp lantern". Florence Nightingale herself might have been amused by the confusion which has reigned over the lamps and lanterns. As a latitudinarian yet deeply spiritual Christian with an interest in oriental religion, she might also have appreciated that the Arab lanterns held an intrinsic spiritual meaning that was untouched by the idolatry of her own culture.

References

(1) Kavanagh, G. (1990) History Curatorship. London: Routledge.

(2) Lantern, inventory no. LDFNM: 0233. The lantern was acquired by Admiral Sir W.A. Howard Kelly CBE KCB in Istanbul in 1944 on the understanding that it had been used by the British nurses during the Crimean War. After Kelly's death, the lantern was given to St. Thomas' Hospital by the sister of his housekeeper, Miss Ivy Cushing, passing into the museum collection in 1983. The diameter of the lantern base is 12.5 cm, the extended height (minus handle and hook) is approximately 28 cm.

(3) Lane, E.W. (1846) An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians. London: M. A. Nattali.

(4) Nasr, S.H. (1989) Foreword in Critchlow, K. Islamic Patterns. London: Thames and Hudson.

(5) Nightingale, F. (1854) Letters from Egypt. privately printed, p66 (section 2).

(6) Small, H. (1998) Florence Nightingale: Avenging Angel. London: Constable.

(7) Goldie, S. (1991) Florence Nightingale in the Crimean War in Preludes at Pioniers. Geneva: Societe Henri Dunant, 151.

(8) Keller, U. (2000) Ministering angels: artistic representation in the Crimean War. The Nightingale, 1: 1, 6.

(9) Taylor, F.M. (1857) Eastern Hospitals and English Nurses. London: Hurst and Blackett.

(10) Letter from Florence Nightingale to an unknown correspondent, Crimea, 22 April 1856. Cited in Goldie, S. (1983) Calendar of the Letters of Florence Nightingale. Oxford: Oxford Microform Publications.

(11) Forsaith, J. (1973) Letter to The Times, June 22.

(12) The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. (1922) Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

(13) Cook, E. T. (1913) The Life of Florence Nightingale. London: Macmillan.

* With thanks to Arabic scholar Guy Attewell.

Alex Attewell is director of London's Florence Nightingale Museum (St Thomas' Hospital, 2 Lambeth Palace Rd, www.florencenightingale.co.uk.) This article was first published in 2003 in the International History of Nursing Journal, 7: 3, 94-97.