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The Voice of Florence Nightingale

By Miss Cellania in Video Clips on Nov 24, 2009 at 10:59 am



(YouTube link)

Pioneering professional nurse Florence Nightingale {wiki} was already 70 years old when she recorded this snippet for Thomas Edison and posterity in 1890. This recording has been redubbed to different formats and speed-corrected at least once, so the legibility after 119 years is due to Nightingale’s slow and overdramatic delivery. -via the Presurfer


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COMMENT
  1. Raymond
    Nov 24th, 2009 at 11:33 am

    It's amazing how much Florence Nightingale sounded like Margaret Dumont on that recording. You know...Margaret Dumont from all those Marx Brothers movies...you know...Groucho and Harpo...never mind, I'll just take my walker and leave now.

  2. Miss Cellania
    Nov 24th, 2009 at 11:37 am

    I always loved watching Margaret Dumont! She was a fabulous but underappreciated character actress.

  3. Raymond
    Nov 24th, 2009 at 12:28 pm

    I agree, she really was the perfect foil for Groucho.

  4. PacRim Jim
    Nov 24th, 2009 at 1:23 pm

    The funny thing about Maggie Dumont was, according to Groucho, that she never understood the Marx Brothers' humor. She just said her lines and then awaited her next lines.

  5. Raymond
    Nov 24th, 2009 at 2:40 pm

    I had heard that before, and I've always wondered if she "understood" it just fine, but just didn't find it funny...maybe she was a Charlie Chaplin kind of gal.

  6. pwscott
    Nov 24th, 2009 at 3:09 pm

    I'm sure Margaret and Florence were reared by proper Victorian parents. Nice find. :p

  7. ted
    Nov 24th, 2009 at 10:35 pm

    Legibility?

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