Florence Nightingale, known for her service as a military nurse, came to America after the start of the Civil War, but she also had a historic career in her native England. One biographer states, “No woman in Victorian England had more political ambition, more administrative talent, and more success in exercising both than Nightingale. At the peak of her influence… she was virtually a ruler of the empire… doing the job of Secretary of State in effect.” Learn more about this fascinating woman, an equal of her well-known male peers, in this article made available by The World & I Online.