Armband
Category
Costume
Date
1855
Materials
Cotton
Collection
Claydon House, Buckinghamshire
NT 1446637
Caption
During the Crimean War (1853–6), wounded soldiers were just as likely to die from infections in the hospitals as they were to fall on the battlefield. Although women were initially deterred from serving on the medical front, it was here that Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) created a sanitised and orderly environment where soldiers could heal. Nightingale not only possessed a keen understanding of contagion and preventive measures against fever and infection, but she was also an effective and efficient manager. She wrote from Scutari (now Üsküdar, Turkey): ‘I take rank in the army as Brigadier General because 40 British Females … are harder to manage than 4000 men.’ This sash, now at Claydon, made up part of the nurses’ uniform at Scutari Hospital, which also included a dress and an apron. The uniforms helped to keep nurses safe from infection and gave them clear authority on the wards. It would have been easy to distinguish the clean white and red of the sash in the hospital, colours that remain synonymous with health and medical care today. Florence’s sister, Parthenope, married Henry Verney of Claydon in 1858, and Florence became a regular visitor. Helen Antrobus
Summary
Nurses sash of white cotton with 'Scutari Hospital' embroidered in red, trimmed with red braid binding. The sash belonged to Florence Nightingale (1820–1910).
Provenance
Accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to the National Trust for display at Claydon House, 2005.
References
Antrobus and Slocombe 2025: Helen Antrobus and Emma Slocombe, 100 Things to Wear: Fashion from the collections of the National Trust, National Trust 2025, pp. 116-117.