'The Wonderful Mrs Seacole'

March 2006 - March 2007

On 10 May 2005 Sir Trevor McDonald formally opened the “The Wonderful Mrs Seacole” at the Florence Nightingale Museum.

The exhibition documented the life, work and legacy of Mary Seacole, the renowned nurse and herbalist. Born of African heritage in Jamaica in 1805, Mary Seacole grew up near in Kingston and learnt about caring for the sick from her mother. In her early years she gathered experience of business entrepreneurship as she travelled the Caribbean, eventually combining nursing and the management of a hotel in Panama. She was in Kingston at the outbreak of the Crimean War and she responded to the same call in the press as Florence Nightingale. Despite rejection by the authorities in London she travelled independently to the Crimea and set up the British Hotel near Balaclava, not far from the frontline of the fighting.

The exhibition included biographical information and historical images of Mary Seacole from her autobiography and Punch magazine. It concluded with an appraisal of her relevance to today, by Lambeth school children and by nursing leaders.