The Determination of Mary Seacole – this exhibition is now closed
2nd October – 31st December 2010 New Walk Museum and Art Gallery Leicester
Mary Seacole, a woman of mixed race, was a pioneering nurse and heroine of the Crimean War.
In 1854, Seacole asked to be sent as an army nurse to the Crimea – she was refused. Undaunted, she funded her own trip and set up the British Hotel near Balaclava to provide 'a mess-table and comfortable quarters for sick and convalescent officers'.
She often visited the battlefield, sometimes under fire, to nurse the wounded. She became known as 'Mother Seacole', her reputation rivalling that of Florence Nightingale.
The exhibition looks at the life of Mary Seacole, her medical achievements, her exploration of new worlds and determination of attaining what she believed to be her destiny.
The exhibition will include the only found portrait of Mary Seacole kindly loaned by the National Portrait Gallery, painted by Albert Charles Challen in 1869.