This collection features some 30 letters written by Florence Nightingale, perhaps the most famous nurse in Western history. Written to several different recipients between 1870 and 1891, they are largely addressed to “My dear Madame Werckner,” (Caroline Werckner) whom she had met amidst the devastation of the Crimean War.
Collection Provenance
The evidence for how the letters came to Baylor points to the involvement of Edwy Rolfe Brown and his second wife, Florrie Bess McCrery. According to his biography in the Texas State Historical Association’s Handbook of Texas Online, Brown was a pioneer oil man, forming his own company in Corsicana and later serving as general manager of the Magnolia Petroleum Company in Dallas in the 1910s. After a stint with the Standard Oil Company in New York, Brown returned to Dallas in the late 1920s and remained active in the economic and social scene there through the mid-1930s, even serving as one of the organizers of the 1936 Texas Centennial.
During their time in Dallas, the Browns became involved in philanthropy directed toward the city’s medical community, specifically nursing. Rev. George W. Truett had established Baylor Hospital in 1903, and work on the facility was completed in 1909, when it opened as the Texas Baptist Memorial Sanitarium (TBMS); among its facilities, the hospital housed a nurse training school.
In 1921, the TBMS’ name was changed to Baylor Hospital to emphasize its relationship with Baylor University in Waco. That year, the nurses’ training school was listed in the charter as one of the professional schools of Baylor University. Just one year later, a new building for women and children was completed and named the Florence Nightingale Hospital.
The Browns provided financial support for the hospital, with records indicating they helped provide important medical equipment and even air conditioning systems to the new facility. For a quarter century, the building served the Dallas area and trained hundreds of nurses before it was demolished in the 1950s to make way for a new Women’s and Children’s Hospital. It was during this time that the letters were donated to Baylor University Medical Center, likely as a donation from the Browns.
“Baylor University Medical Center had possession of the letters but gave them to me in Fall of 2023,” Plank said. “I recognized the value of these letters to the nursing profession and wanted them to be treated professionally and be shared with others, including the official Florence Nightingale Museum in England.”
Materials Description
The letters in Baylor’s collection are all written by Nightingale, and the majority were addressed to Werckner, a fellow nurse who served during the Crimean War (1853-1856). Werckner was working with wounded French prisoners held in Breslau (then part of Prussia).
Nightingale died in 1910 at age 90. In her will, she left £100 to “Madame Caroline Werckner, who nursed the French prisoners in the Franco-German War” (approximately £14,700 in 2024 valuation).
The letters in this collection were all written many years after the Crimean War, where Nightingale’s commitment to her work would earn her lasting fame. Still, there is an immediacy and “you are there” quality to the letters that make them feel as fresh as the day they were written.
This collection features some 30 letters written by Florence Nightingale, perhaps the most famous nurse in Western history. Written to several different recipients between 1870 and 1891, they are largely addressed to “My dear Madame Werckner,” (Caroline Werckner) whom she had met amidst the devastation of the Crimean War.
Collection Provenance
The evidence for how the letters came to Baylor points to the involvement of Edwy Rolfe Brown and his second wife, Florrie Bess McCrery. According to his biography in the Texas State Historical Association’s Handbook of Texas Online, Brown was a pioneer oil man, forming his own company in Corsicana and later serving as general manager of the Magnolia Petroleum Company in Dallas in the 1910s. After a stint with the Standard Oil Company in New York, Brown returned to Dallas in the late 1920s and remained active in the economic and social scene there through the mid-1930s, even serving as one of the organizers of the 1936 Texas Centennial.
During their time in Dallas, the Browns became involved in philanthropy directed toward the city’s medical community, specifically nursing. Rev. George W. Truett had established Baylor Hospital in 1903, and work on the facility was completed in 1909, when it opened as the Texas Baptist Memorial Sanitarium (TBMS); among its facilities, the hospital housed a nurse training school.
In 1921, the TBMS’ name was changed to Baylor Hospital to emphasize its relationship with Baylor University in Waco. That year, the nurses’ training school was listed in the charter as one of the professional schools of Baylor University. Just one year later, a new building for women and children was completed and named the Florence Nightingale Hospital.
The Browns provided financial support for the hospital, with records indicating they helped provide important medical equipment and even air conditioning systems to the new facility. For a quarter century, the building served the Dallas area and trained hundreds of nurses before it was demolished in the 1950s to make way for a new Women’s and Children’s Hospital. It was during this time that the letters were donated to Baylor University Medical Center, likely as a donation from the Browns.
“Baylor University Medical Center had possession of the letters but gave them to me in Fall of 2023,” Plank said. “I recognized the value of these letters to the nursing profession and wanted them to be treated professionally and be shared with others, including the official Florence Nightingale Museum in England.”
Materials Description
The letters in Baylor’s collection are all written by Nightingale, and the majority were addressed to Werckner, a fellow nurse who served during the Crimean War (1853-1856). Werckner was working with wounded French prisoners held in Breslau (then part of Prussia).
Nightingale died in 1910 at age 90. In her will, she left £100 to “Madame Caroline Werckner, who nursed the French prisoners in the Franco-German War” (approximately £14,700 in 2024 valuation).
The letters in this collection were all written many years after the Crimean War, where Nightingale’s commitment to her work would earn her lasting fame. Still, there is an immediacy and “you are there” quality to the letters that make them feel as fresh as the day they were written.
User Notes :
User Notes :
Connect with the Collection
Access the collection’s finding aid.
For inquiries about the collection, please email RareCollections@baylor.edu and include “Nightingale letters” in your message’s subject line.
Connect with the Collection
Access the collection’s finding aid.
For inquiries about the collection, please email RareCollections@baylor.edu and include “Nightingale letters” in your message’s subject line.