“A Somewhat Duskier Skin”: Mary Seacole in the Crimea
Journal: Nursing History Review
Year: 2023

The Crimean War of 1854 gave Florence Nightingale the opportunity to escape the mundane life of an upper-class Victorian lady by establishing a nursing contingent to care for the British sick and wounded. Thus, she started a revolution in “respectable” occupations open to women.1 Little is known, however, of another woman, Mary Grant Seacole, who also tended the British casualties in this conflict. In fact, her role as a direct caregiver surpassed any such assistance given by the far-better-know