On our first day working with the Lilly collections I felt a tug to sit down at the Florence Nightingale table, where there sat in front of me a very large text. Not really knowing where to begin, and not having a lot of time, I decided to start at the very beginning (as it is a very good place to start) looking through the table of contents of Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency, and Hospital Administration of the British Army. This, alone, was chalked full of information, and made very clear Nightingale's reasons for writing the large volume-to educate others, mainly of high importance, on the living conditions as well as the quality of health services provided to the military. Most everything was chronicled by Nightingale, from correspondences with field doctors, to breakdowns of what kind, and how much nutrition was given to the soldiers. Her amazing organization of the volume was so well thought out, that the task of working with it became less and less of a pending hindrance.
Moving from the table of contents to the preface, I was not disappointed in the continuance of Nightingale's wonderful organizing abilities. Here she continued to fully map out for the reader what they were to read and digest in the coming sections with a running "index" in the margins of where you could find relevant materials on pages to come. Also found within the preface were many tables, camp logs and diagrams illustrating everything from the size of rations given to the soldiers on a day to day basis, to the health standard and what recommendations she felt compelled to divulge. In one such log we can easily read and understand the amount of rice given to each solder daily from November 15th, 1854 to January 1855 (2 oz.).
Along with the tables, logs and diagrams, Nightingale included fully preserved correspondences with field doctors and government officials on the subject of military health standards for soldiers, thus providing a window into the procedures and protocol of the day for future generations to learn and expand from.
On finishing my crash course of the "pre" areas of Nightingale's text, I can't help but feel compelled to read on, spending more time absorbing the information provided. I am very curious to see, if provided with the name time constraint and assignment, what items might jump off the page to another person. What important things might I have missed?
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I also looked at Nightingale, so I enjoyed reading your post to see what you had to say about her! I agree that her excellent organization made the task at hand very easy. I had looked at "Notes on Nursing," and made a lot of the same discoveries about Nightingale that you made when examining this text. Just like you mentioned, "Notes on Nursing" contained a Preface that served as an excellent introduction and summary of her whole argument. It seems like including handy features such as tables and diagrams is a tactic she likes to use. What is significant to me about Nightingale's writing is that a reader could look solely at the Preface, Table of Contents, and Appendix of one of her works and really gain a valuable message from those features alone.
ReplyDeleteNightingale's aim in this text appears to be similar to what I found her purpose to be in "Notes on Nursing"- to inform people of the present and future generations of the ways to administer proper healthcare. Of course, this text focuses on the military, rather than the everyday household. I would love to look at this text in depth and to see the other ways that it corresponds to Nightingale's intriguing style of writing in "Notes on Nursing"!
Lauren, it sounds like your text was visually interesting. Is that the one that contains pull-out diagrams? If you have time to get back to it, I'd be curious to know more about the topics and subjects of her correspondence. Maybe that would help us put together a more comprehensive sense of why she did her research, and why she chose to report it in that format. You covered a lot of ground!
ReplyDelete-Dr. Graban
Lauren,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog. It seems like you got to look at some interesting aspects of Florence Nightingale's Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency, and Hospital Administration of the British Army. It's interesting to me that you noted Nightingale's organization and thought process. When I was in the Lilly reading Annie Besant's English Republicanism I discovered the some of the same organizational and coherence aspects that you note in your blog. I wonder if maybe Besant and Nightingale wrote around the same time period?
It is also interesting to me that Nightingale uses "tables, logs and diagrams" in her text. Was that something that was common at the time she was writing or is this unique to her style? I would think that the use of those things in her text would help the reader understand her position on the matter of living conditions and health services of the army that she is writing about. Maybe on the next archival work day I will look at Nightingale. You have sparked my interest. Keep up the good work.
Lauren-
ReplyDeleteI think it's so cool that Nightingale provided all those interesting diagrams, logs, and letters. I mean, we always hear about how conditions are, but it doesn't seem that we frequently are allowed such insight. I think it would be very interesting to be able to read through some of the correspondences with the field doctors.
It's great that Nightingale provided all these visuals-- especially since they are all only in the "pre" sections to what she was actually writing. I wonder if there are any specific accounts with the actual soldiers that have been recorded. As with Gwen, this has definitely sparked my interest.
-Merey