Crimean War: Sisters of Charity nursing wounded soldiers from the Battle of Inkerman. Coloured lithograph by Le Par (?), 1855.

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<p>Inkerman (Inkermann) was the site of a battle in the Crimean war on 5 November 1854. The war was fought from 1854 to 1856 in the Crimea, the southernmost part of the Russian Empire (1922 to 1991, the Soviet Union) and subsequently in the Ukraine). It was fought between the Russian Empire on the one side and France, Great Britain and the Ottoman government of Turkey on the other side. It grew out of diplomatic disagreements as to whether France or Russia was going to determine the rights of the Ottomans in Palestine, and subsequently included quarrels over access to the Danube river and to the Black Sea. Progress in the design of artillery and effective new techniques such as naval mines produced appalling loss of life, unbelievable suffering for the wounded, and great destruction of property. The horror of the war produced some beneficial reactions, one of which was the reorganization of English nursing for the wounded by Florence Nightingale. She and her German-inspired nurses from Great Britain staffed the hospital at Scutari near Constantinople (Istanbul). However, Scutari was well way from the Crimea. In this print, the French side in the Crimea itself is aided by the nursing order of nuns called the Daughters of Charity, which was founded by Saint Vincent de Paul in 1633, and was the first order of nuns to work outside the convent. Western nursing has its roots in Catholic religious orders, which is why today in England nurses, like nuns, are called "Sister"</p>

Crimean War: Sisters of Charity nursing wounded soldiers from the Battle of Inkerman. Coloured lithograph by Le Par (?), 1855.

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