Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), British nurse, humanitarian and hospital reformer, shown at the time of the Crimean War (1854-1856). Here she is making the night round of the wards at Scutari hospital. Coloured mezzotint, c. 1855, by Charles Algernon Tomkins after J. Butterworth. Nightingale is credited with establishing the foundations of modern nursing. Already an experienced nurse, she was appointed director of nursing operations at the war front during the Crimean War. There, her efforts to improve sanitation in the military hospitals drastically reduced the mortality rate among the sick. In 1860, on her return to England, she wrote the textbook Notes on Nursing. This was the first definitive textbook in the field and was translated into many languages.