Florence Nightingale (1820-1900) was born in Tuscany to a wealthy family and traveled widely in her youth. She felt the call to serve humanity as a religious duty and defied her family's wishes by studying how patients were treated in a Lutheran nursing home in Germany.In October 1854, she arranged for a group of women she had trained to visit the hospitals and infirmaries in Crimea where wounded soldiers were being treated. It was here she earned renown and her reputation as "an angel of mercy." Notes on Nursing codified the lessons learned there and became the guide for generations of nurses who followed in her path.