The founder of modern secular nursing, a social activist, and a pioneer in the use of social statistics, Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) was born on April 12 in Florence, Italy, the child of a wealthy, prominent English family. Given a classical education by her father, the serious, devout young woman was drawn to caring for the sick, but nursing was then a form of menial labor that was considered inappropriate for members of her social class. Nightingale persisted; for years she visited and gathered information on hospitals in England and abroad, sought training in Germany, and in 1853 became superintendent of a nursing home in London, where she undertook reforms to improve patient care.

After the start of the Crimean War (1854–1856) the public reacted with outrage to newspaper reports of the horrid conditions endured by British soldiers wounded in battle, and Nightingale was appointed to bring nursing care to the...