1 10 61 https://nineteenthcenturydisability.org/files/original/4c227392db77ae2698895747dbd45067.jpg b5f10d2c10d6a6090aa1e80972279e00 Omeka Image File The metadata element set that was included in the `files_images` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all image files. Width 1024 Height 750 Bit Depth 8 Channels 3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource This coloured photo shows the harbour in San Remo; three boats sail on the blue Riviera, with villas and hills in the distance. Photomechanical print, photochrom, colour. ca. 1890 to 1900. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1860 to 1880 Description An account of the resource Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Text Any textual data included in the document. San Remo combines, in a modified degree, the invigorating qualities of Nice with the warmth of Mentone, but without its closeness; and is thus peculiarly adapted for diseases of the chest,<a title="" href="#_ftn1">[1]</a> especially if the digestive organs are impaired. It lies due south, in the middle of a large bay, at the east end of which the Capo Verde, and at the west the Capo Nero, run far out to sea, and form a sufficient shelter against the winds from both quarters. Gently sloping hills, covered with orange, lemon, and olive trees, rise from these capes, one above another, in the form of an amphitheatre, extending far back till they join a chain of lofty mountains, the highest of which, Monte Bignone, rising 4300 feet, lies exactly behind the town, and these mountains again are protected by the Maritime Alps. Begnone and its fellows form one continuous range, there is not a single gap through which the wind can rush; of all the numerous valleys radiating from the town not one leads to a pass, they simply run up between the lower hills till they lose themselves, vanishing in the sides of the mountains. The lowest elevation at which the range can be crossed is 2000 feet. Unless people have seen the place they will hardly understand this description, but the truth of it is perceived at once from any of the lower hills, or, better still, by taking a boat about a mile out to sea. Of course it is a matter of the greatest importance to invalids to step at once out of the house into the lemon and olive groves without risk of exposure to wind and dust; and this advantage San Remo possesses more than any place I know, as the olive groves reach down almost to the water’s edge, and the delight of wandering amongst them none but those who have tried can know. Their immense extent also keeps the air cool in the warmer parts of the season by preventing radiation, such as takes place from the bare rocks at Mentone, making it too hot for English residents after the middle of April. […] Hitherto I have never stayed at San Remo later than the end of April, but so much has always been said to me by the natives about the salubrity of their climate in May, and they have so often assured me that it was one of their pleasantest months, that this year I was induced to try it, and we therefore remained there instead of going as usual to Germany. The weather during the whole of April had been most charming, as nearly approaching to perfection as I can imagine. Bright, beautiful, calm, cool mornings, a delightful sea breeze springing up about ten and continuing till almost half-past five, when it again calmed down, and there was a delightful twilight, cool and refreshing, of nearly two hours. The nights were also quite cool. We remained until the twenty-fifth of May, and the same description will apply to the weather during the whole of that month; it was charming, hot, but never so much so as to cause us inconvenience, while the amount of verdure prevented that intolerable glare which is so trying to the eyes in less wooded localities. […] The weather is often hotter in England in April and May than we found it at San Remo.<a title="" href="#_ftn2">[2]</a> As I shall mention elsewhere, the hotel keepers are going to build houses for the convenience of bathers, hoping to make San Remo the great summer bathing place of the Riviera. It will, I am convinced, be ere long the great winter sanatorium for diseases of the chest. Amongst other recommendations, physicians all agree that it is particularly good in cases of haemorrhage, the air is so soothing. <h3>Notes</h3> <div> <div> <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[1]</a> In the nineteenth century “diseases of the chest” often referred to tuberculosis, but could also refer to emphysema or bronchitis (which are now known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). </div> <div> <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[2]</a> The average temperature of the month of May, up to the 26th, was, maximum 79°, minimum 57°, Farenheit. [author’s footnote] </div> </div> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource San Remo as a Winter Residence Description An account of the resource Invalidism may seem to limit mobility, confining one to the four walls of the sickroom. But, for those who were well enough and wealthy enough, the Victorians actually made an industry of travelling for the sake of one’s health. Thus, far from being immobile, an invalid could actually undertake quite a strenuous travel itinerary. Within England, one could visit a hydropathy establishment, such as <a title="Ben Rhydding" href="http://www.nineteenthcenturydisability.org/items/show/1">Ben Rhydding</a>, in Yorkshire, or a seaside resort town. San Remo was one of many popular Mediterranean locations for invalids hoping to avoid an English winter altogether. The author of the excerpt below, a self-declared invalid, writes a practical guide for Englishmen and women wishing to winter abroad, in sunny San Remo. Aspinall compares San Remo favourably to Madeira (“depressing and debilitating” 2), Egypt (“hot and dusty, and the food little calculated to suit a delicate digestion” 2) Naples, Rome and Sorrento, and Nice as a favoured spot for convalescents. He gives practical advice on the hotels (with names like Hôtel Victoria and Hôtel d’Angleterre, it is easy to see that hotels were catering to the English abroad), and specific directions for scenic walks and donkey rides in this Victorian version of Lonely Planet for invalids. In Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady (1880), San Remo is one of the tubercular Ralph Touchett's haunts, where he wiles away "a dull, bright winter beneath a slow-moving white umbrella" (242). Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource [Aspinall, W.B.] Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived W. B. Aspinall. San Remo as a Winter Residence. London: John Churchill and Sons, 1865. Pages 10-13. Available online at <a title="San Remo as a Winter Residence" href="http://archive.org/details/sanremoasawinte00aspigoog" target="_blank">archive.org</a>. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1865 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Karen Bourrier Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource This coloured photo shows the harbour in San Remo; three boats sail on the blue Riviera, with villas and hills in the distance. Photomechanical print, photochrom, colour. ca. 1890 to 1900. Courtesy <a title="San Remo Library of Congress" href="http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2001699351/" target="_blank">Library of Congress</a>, in the public domain (<a title="Library of Congress" href="http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2001699351/resource/" target="_blank">LC-DIG-ppmsc-05986</a>). Relation A related resource <ul><li>Bar-Yosef, Eitan. “The ‘Deaf-Traveller’, the ‘Blind Traveller’ and Constructions of Disability in Nineteenth-Century Travel Writing.” Victorian Review 35.2 (2009): 133-154.</li> <li>Frawley, Maria. Invalidism and Identity in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.</li> <li>Haley, Bruce. The Healthy Body and Victorian Culture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978.</li> <li>James, Henry. The Portrait of a Lady (1881). Ed Nicola Bradbury. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.</li> </ul> Class Invalidism Medicine Mobility Travel Writing https://nineteenthcenturydisability.org/files/original/062a3b4609dad0bc5f09443ee3b8e03a.jpg 540356214f4a202f335e1ef3cf4619aa Omeka Image File The metadata element set that was included in the `files_images` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all image files. Width 1174 Height 514 Bit Depth 8 Channels 3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource A colour lithograph shows Ben Rhydding ensconsed amidst extensive grounds with hills and trees. Frontispiece from Ben Rhydding: The Principles of Hydropathy and the Compressed-Air Bath (1858). Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1837 to 1860 Description An account of the resource Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Text Any textual data included in the document. Ben Rhydding is finely situated on the slope of Rombald's Moor,<a title="" href="#_ftn1">[1]</a> at an elevation of five hundred feet above the level of the sea. Whether from the natural advantages of its position, the variety and beauty of the scenery in its neighbourhood, the extensive and elegantly laid-out private grounds with which it is surrounded, or the perfection of its internal arrangements for the health and comfort of its inmates, this establishment well deserves the reputation it has secured. Built on a sandy soil, rain never lies on its gravelly walks; and the springs which supply it with water are among the finest in England. From its situation, midway between the vast upland moors and the lovely banks of the placid Wharfe, Ben Rhydding affords not only a favourable position from which to admire the varied scenery around, but one from which, by a walk requiring little time or exertion, the valetudinarian may enjoy, when he pleases, an agreeable change of temperature. Should the sun beat too strongly on the lower levels, he can enjoy the breezes of the uplands, and when cold and storm are raging on the height, the grounds by which this establishment is surrounded will be found to command a more sheltered climate than even the banks of the silvery Wharfe. Within these grounds, and by the banks of the Wharfe, even in winter, when the weather is not inclement, the delicate and consumptive may take exercise without apprehension; for as we intend to shew by and by, it is the opinion not only of Dr. MacLeod, the eminent Physician who takes the sole direction of this establishment, but also of many medical men of high standing, who are perhaps opposed to his opinions on other points, that a dry, bracing atmosphere is more suitable than a relaxing one in consumption, and that out-door exercise, when properly regulated, may often be found even more beneficial in winter than in summer. Ilkely had long been famous for its springs, and it was this circumstance, among others, that led to its selection as an appropriate site for the Hydropathic Establishment we have undertaken to describe. Ben Rhydding was erected nearly twelve years ago, at an expense of about £30, 000. The estate consists of about two hundred acres of ground; a great part of which is laid out with a view to the advantage and pleasure of the patients, affording them the opportunity for varied exercise, and communicating also with the extensive moors which crown the hills for many miles on both sides of the valley of the Wharfe. The House consists of a central building and two wings. The centre contains, on the ground floor, the dining-room, the library, and the sitting-rooms. On the first floor are the drawing-room, six private sitting-rooms, and four bed-rooms, all commanding exquisite and varied views of the surrounding scenery. The second floor is devoted entirely to double bed-rooms. The south wing contains the ladies', and the north wing the gentleman's bed-rooms. To each landing is attached a bath-room; and the bed-rooms are each fitted with a bath and an unlimited supply of water direct from the springs. The bath-rooms contain each a plunge bath and a douche. There are also hot water, hot air, and vapour baths,<a title="" href="#_ftn2">[2]</a> as well as steam apparatus for local application in cases of the nerves, or other causes. Of course, too, there are all the other means and appliances, too numerous to mention, of a first-class Hydropathic establishment. The library is supplied with a great variety of the leading newspapers, reviews, and magazines of the day. Gentlemen will find in the library that quietness for reading and writing which cannot always be secured in the drawing-room. Books in the various departments of literature may be had on application to the clerk of the establishment. A billiard-room, open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., affords the means of recreation to those who cannot be much out of doors. But Ben Rhydding is not devoted solely to the Water Cure, but to the fullest carrying out in practice of the entire art of cure. Hardly inferior in importance to the hydropathic treatment is that by the Compressed Air-Bath. [… ] The Compressed-Air Bath, a strong chamber constructed of iron plates, firmly rivetted and air-tight, and with several small windows of strong plate glass, is on the west of the house, and so near, that the most delicate patient may walk, or be carried to it, in the severest weather, and at all seasons of the year, without any danger. We step across to it, and, with the Doctor's permission, peep in at one of the windows. We see several patients sitting, evidently quite at their ease, reading the papers, or chatting to each other. We find, however, that, though they get more than the usual supply of air, they are required to be quiet and grave when under its influence, for the direction runs:-- “Parties not to laugh or discuss in the Air-bath!” The importance of exercising the different muscles of the body, as a means of assisting in the cure of disease, or preserving health, is fully recognized at Ben Rhydding. Not only are the “free exercises” enjoined as required, (a notice of these will be given in a subsequent chapter,) but a Gymnasium, with a suitable apparatus for exercises of a more advanced description, has been erected on a large terrace levelled for the purpose. Adjoining the Gymnasium, is a large Bowling Green, whereon, as the Muse of Ben Rhydding has ere now sung; many a roaring game, with varying success, has been contested between the lovely fair and their bearded foeman. We would gladly quote for the reader's edification, some of the stirring incidents of the peaceful war, but from respect to the maiden or matronly modesty of the fair combatants, if not to that of their antagonists, we must leave them to the immortality of the “Ben Rhydding Ariel.” Let us not, in enumerating the means of recreation possessed by this fine establishment, omit to notice the American Bowling Alley, and the Racket Court. All these are under the direction of an experienced Gymnast. […] It may not be out of place to give an account, here, of the general manner of life at Ben Rhydding. Everybody who can, rise early and get a special bath and a walk. Then comes breakfast, at eight a. m. in the summer, and half-past eight in the winter, the large bell giving a quarter of an hour's notice. Immediately after breakfast, there are short scripture readings in the drawing room. Till dinner, at two p.m. the patient consults the doctor, takes his forenoon bath and the requisite exercise thereafter, and makes excursions in the neighbourhood.<a title="" href="#_ftn3">[3]</a> Dinner is plain, but substantial. There is no pampering the appetite by highly seasoned dishes, no pleasing the palate by generous wines; simplicity and temperance reign supreme. Roast meat and plain pudding form the staple dishes, though the bill of fare includes a variety of others. […] The drink is pure water. It is a goodly sight to glance down the Doctor's hospitable table, and see how thoroughly happy and satisfied the guests appear with their temperate fare: we do not see one who seems to miss his wine. No one, of course, thinks of very active exercise or exertion immediately after dinner. Some move off to the billiard-room; others lounge about in quiet meditation; while others betake themselves to the drawing-room. There is plenty of work for the afternoon,--the afternoon bath, and as brisk and long a walk in the grounds or on the moor, as the patient may think proper, and any of the exercises or relaxations, for which such abundant provision has been made. Then comes the evening meal, at seven o'clock. This meal should be lighter than breakfast, being composed, like it, of bread, white and brown, with fresh butter, water—pure and sparkling from the spring, milk, cocoa, and weak black tea. After tea, the patient seeks, of course, the humanizing influences of the drawing-room, and probably finds ten p.m. arrive all too soon. <h3>Notes</h3> <div> <div> <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[1]</a> Rombald's Moor is a moorland between Ilkley and Keighley in West Yorkshire, in the North of England. Ilkley Moor is part of Rombald's Moor. </div> <div> <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[2]</a> A plunge bath or pool was a still pool large enough to immerse the whole body. A “douche” was a jet or stream of water applied to some part of the body for medicinal purposes. A vapour or Russian bath sweated the bather through steam. See Malcolm Shifrin's <a href="http://www.victorianturkishbath.org/F0GLOSSARY/2WOTSINIT.htm">glossary of terms</a> at Victorian Turkish Bath for definitions and images of the types of baths offered in hydropathic treatments. </div> <div> <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[3]</a> Bolton Abbey and Haworth Parsonage, along with the graves of the Brontë sisters, were among the nearby attractions. See Ben Rhydding, pages 23-25. </div> </div> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Principles of Hydropathy Description An account of the resource Hydropathy, or “the water cure” was a common treatment for ailments ranging from depression to gastro-intestinal disorders in the nineteenth-century, as well as a form of recreation. It was especially popular in the mid-nineteenth century. Patients went to establishments such as <a href="http://www.victorianturkishbath.org/6DIRECTORY/AtoZEstab/Hydros/BenRydding/BenRhyddingSF.htm">Ben Rhydding</a>, established in 1844, to take the water cure, which included drinking copious quantities of (usually mineral) water, wrapping the patient in wet sheets to induce a sweat, and various forms of baths and showers. Famous Victorians including Darwin, Tennyson and the Carlyles all partook of the water cure at one point or another. Hydropathy appealed to the Victorians partly because of the control they exerted over their own treatment. As the salesmanship of the excerpt below suggests, at a hydrotherapy establishment such as Ben Rhydding, men and women were pampered clients there by choice, free to come and go, and to bring family members with them. Ben Rhydding was one of the first hydros established in the UK; it was significant in terms of the scale of its operations and its provisions for visitors. Built at a cost of £24,000 to £30,000, it became the leading establishment in the UK (Durie 40-41). The excerpt below—published anonymously by the charismatic doctor, William MacLeod (or McLeod), who superintended Ben Rhydding from 1847 to two years or so before his death in 1875—focuses on the amenities available to the patient undergoing the water cure, from baths to billiards. In 1860 the cost of a week at Ben Rhydding was 3 13s6d<a title="" href="#_ftn1">[1]</a>for a patient undergoing the water cure, and 3 for a visitor, usually a family member staying with the patient (Durie 45). <div> <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[1]</a> British currency was not decimalized until 1971. It was divided up into pounds (£) shillings (s) or pence, there were twenty shillings in a pound) and pence (d). See Marje Bloy, <a href="http://www.nineteenthcenturydisability.org/admin/items/edit/(http://www.victorianweb.org/economics/currency.html">“British Currency before 1971</a>” on the Victorian Web </div> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource [Macleod, William] Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived [Macleod, William]. Ben Rhydding: The Principles of Hydropathy and the Compressed-Air Bath. London: Hamilton, Adams & Co, 1858. Pages 12-22. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1858 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Karen Bourrier Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A colour lithograph shows Ben Rhydding ensconsed amidst extensive grounds with hills and trees. Frontispiece from Ben Rhydding: The Principles of Hydropathy and the Compressed-Air Bath (1858). T Picken, lithographers. Dav & Son Lithographers to the Queen. Courtesy <a title="Ben Rhydding Wikimedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ben_Rhydding_hydropathic_establishment_-_circa_1858.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a> under a Creative Commons License. Relation A related resource <ul><li>Durie, Alastair J. “The Business of Hydropathy in the North of England.” Northern History 2002(39.1): 37-58.</li> <li>Haley, Bruce. The Healthy Body in Victorian Culture. Cambridge, MA: Havard UP, 1978.</li> <li>Shifrin, Malcolm. <a title="Turkish Baths" target="_blank">Victorian Turkish Baths: Their Origin, Development and Gradual Decline</a>. <<a href="http://www.victorianturkishbath.org/">http://www.victorianturkishbath.org</a>> </li> </ul> Advertisement Hydrotherapy Institutions Medicine Travel Writing https://nineteenthcenturydisability.org/files/original/4a462b9ba9ae2ced26fb6154b9e6b1be.jpg bda9a06c8ca846113d576fd91b2e397a Omeka Image File The metadata element set that was included in the `files_images` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all image files. Width 396 Height 549 Bit Depth 8 Channels 3 IPTC String copyright_notice:Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons by-nc 2.0 UK, see http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/indexplus/page/Prices.html byline:Wellcome Images object_name:L0028076 Caricature - Punch\'s fancy portraits headline:L0028076 Caricature - Punch\'s fancy portraits caption:L0028076 Caricature - Punch\'s fancy portraits Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://images.wellcome.ac.uk "Punch\'s Fancy Portraits - No. 42. Dr. Henry Thompson". Punch Published: 1881 Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons by-nc 2.0 UK, see http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/indexplus/page/Prices.html IPTC Array a:5:{s:16:"copyright_notice";s:123:"Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons by-nc 2.0 UK, see http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/indexplus/page/Prices.html";s:6:"byline";s:15:"Wellcome Images";s:11:"object_name";s:46:"L0028076 Caricature - Punch\'s fancy portraits";s:8:"headline";s:46:"L0028076 Caricature - Punch\'s fancy portraits";s:7:"caption";s:351:"L0028076 Caricature - Punch\'s fancy portraits Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://images.wellcome.ac.uk "Punch\'s Fancy Portraits - No. 42. Dr. Henry Thompson". Punch Published: 1881 Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons by-nc 2.0 UK, see http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/indexplus/page/Prices.html";} Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource The cariacature shows Henry Thompson weilding an instrument that is knife on one side, pen on the other, standing in front of a table surrounded by papers, a dinner menu, and a skeleton.  The caption reads:  "Great Artist-Surgeon, who is so well able / To point a Pencil and adorn a Table? / First in the Ranks of Men of Light and Leading / Our best Authority on Food and Feeding." "Punch's Fancy Portraits - No. 42. Dr. Henry Thompson." Punch (1881). Courtesy of the <a title="Wellcome Images" href="http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Wellcome Library, London</a> under a Creative Commons License (<a title="Wellcome Library Catalogue" href="http://catalogue.wellcomelibrary.org/record=b1312142" target="_blank">Record no. 1714437</a>). Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1837 to 1860 Description An account of the resource Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Text Any textual data included in the document. … No doubt all admire the sang-froid and skill, possession of which is necessary to make a good surgical operator — qualities, by the way, which are perhaps more frequently developed by training, than found already existing as a natural inheritance. But it is germane to our purpose to remember that everybody has a direct practical concern in the existence of an available supply of the necessary talent to meet a certain demand on the part of the body politic, for no one knows how soon his own personal necessities may not be such as to give him the strongest possible interest in its exercise: a demand that is absolutely inevitable; — for be assured that, without any wish to alarm you, gentle reader, Mr. Neison will, if requested to make the calculation, inform us at once what the numerical chances are that your own well-proportioned nether limb will, or will not, fall before the surgeon's knife, or that that undoubtedly hard and well-developed cranium may not yet be scientifically explored by “trepan” or “trephine.”<a title="" href="#_ftn1">[1]</a> He will estimate with unerring certainty the probability (to nine places of decimals, if you demand it) that your own fair person may become the subject of some unpleasing excrescence<a title="" href="#_ftn2">[2]</a>; and also what the chances are that you must seek the surgeon's aid to remove it. While Mr. Buckle will stoutly maintain, and you will find it hard to gainsay him, that, given the present conditions of existence, a certain ascertainable number of tumours, broken legs, and natural-born deformities will regularly make their appearance every year among the human family. And he will probably add, that it is perfectly within the province of possibility to calculate, if we had all the required data, the exact number of individuals who have the requisite courage to submit to operation; as of those who will not have heart to do so, and who will inevitably die without benefit of surgery; together with the exact percentage to the population of those who will, and who will not, put faith in the blessed boon of chloroform. (500) … [He goes on to describe the roughness of early-amputation, the “patient’s torture” from surgeons using “a red-hot knife” to amputate in the eleventh century or “red-hot irons” or “boiling pitch”<a title="" href="#_ftn3">[3]</a> to cauterize after surgery in the sixteenth century and then the surgical improvement of ligature to stop bleeding after amputation, introduced to England in the seventeenth century (501-02).] But enough of this: let us soothe our ruffled nerves by seeing how the thing is done to-day. We will take a quiet post of observation in the area of the operating theatre at one of our metropolitan hospitals, in this year of our Lord 1860. Notice is posted that amputation of the thigh will be performed at 2 o'clock p.m., and we occupy our seat ten minutes before the hour. (502) … [He goes on to describe the operating theatre, the presence of surgeons, tools, and students, the application of the tourniquet to limb to be amputated, and then the smooth operating process itself, which he relates using precise words such as “central axis,” “incision,” and “transfixion” (503) as opposed to the rougher words, such as “dreadful remedies” and “horribly loathsome” (502) used to depict historical amputation above.] Half an hour hence that patient will regain consciousness, and probably the first observation he makes will be, “I am quite ready for the operation, when is it going to begin?” And it takes no little repetition of the assurance that all is over to make him realize the happy truth. So it is that he who loses the limb knows less about the process than any one concerned; infinitely less, my gentle reader, than you who have shared with us the quiet corner, and have seen all without losing consciousness, or fainting. (504) … <h3>Notes</h3> <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[1]</a> A trephine is a surgical hole saw devoted to the removal of tissue or bone; a trepan is a trephine devoted to surgery of the skull. <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[2]</a> A tumour or growth. <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[3]</a> Boiling tar. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Under Chloroform Description An account of the resource “Under Chloroform,” an unsigned article on amputation written by surgeon Henry Thompson, was published in the first volume of the popular literary magazine, The Cornhill. At the time, Thompson, a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, specialized in urology and was a consulting surgeon at a workhouse infirmary; two years later he would become full surgeon at University College Hospital (Paton). “Under Chloroform” demonstrates The Cornhill’s editorial mandate to educate its readers on a wide variety of issues, publishing articles by scientists and physicians as well as poems and serial fiction (Kennedy 80). More significantly, however, this article exhibits Victorian ambivalence regarding bodily integrity, that is, bodily wholeness. After stating that his purpose is to correct incorrect public knowledge about modern amputation, Thompson highlights the high probability of undergoing such an operation, saying, “no one knows how soon his own personal necessities may not be such as to give him the strongest possible interest in its exercise” (500). In doing so, Thompson reminds readers of the transient state of their bodily wholeness, implying that surgery is “absolutely inevitable” (500). As if to increase the reader anxiety this statement produces, Thompson then provides a gruesome account of past methods of amputations. Following this, however, Thompson “soothes [readers’] ruffled nerves” (502) by reassuring readers of modern medicine’s capability to safely restore bodily stability in spite of amputation. To do this, he makes his readers imaginary spectators of modern surgery, rather than imagined recipients of it as before. Doing so palliates reader anxiety about the body, placing medical ignorance and bodily difference upon an unnamed, imaginary patient: “So it is that he who loses the limb knows less about the process than any one concerned; infinitely less, my gentle reader, than you who have shared with us the quiet corner, and have seen all without losing consciousness, or fainting” (504). Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource [Thompson, Henry] Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived [Thompson, Henry]. “Under Chloroform.” Cornhill. 1.4 (1860): 499-504. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1860 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kylee-Anne Hingston Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The cariacature shows Henry Thompson weilding an instrument that is knife on one side, pen on the other, standing in front of a table surrounded by papers, a dinner menu, and a skeleton. The caption reads: "Great Artist-Surgeon, who is so well able / To point a Pencil and adorn a Table? / First in the Ranks of Men of Light and Leading / Our best Authority on Food and Feeding." "Punch's Fancy Portraits - No. 42. Dr. Henry Thompson." Punch (1881). Courtesy of the <a title="Wellcome Images" href="http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Wellcome Library, London</a> under a Creative Commons License (<a title="Wellcome Library Catalogue" href="http://catalogue.wellcomelibrary.org/record=b1312142" target="_blank">Record no. 1714437</a>). Relation A related resource <ul><li>Paton, Alex. “Thompson, Sir Henry, first baronet (1820–1904).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2010. Online. 12 Feb. 2013 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/36490]</li> <li>Kennedy, Meegan. Revising the Clinic: Vision and Representation in Victorian Medical Narrative and the Novel. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2010.</li> </ul> Cognition Medicine Mobility Prosthesis https://nineteenthcenturydisability.org/files/original/0f1e1e4b36e4d6ba81e11ade96dd1eab.jpg df74c52653c74bdcbaac3c00b95b985c Omeka Image File The metadata element set that was included in the `files_images` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all image files. Width 1050 Height 922 Bit Depth 8 Channels 3 IPTC String byline:Picasa IPTC Array a:1:{s:6:"byline";s:6:"Picasa";} Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource The frontispiece of The Pillars of the House, Vol.I, Herbert Gandy, shows Felix and Wilmet kneeling at the foot of their father's deathbed. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1860 to 1880 Description An account of the resource Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Text Any textual data included in the document. Felix found Geraldine cowering down in her chair, with her hands clasped together over her forehead. She looked up at him, as if startled by his entrance. ‘O Felix, how could you?’ broke from her. ‘My dear, I could not help it. Has it been so very distressing?’ ‘Oh!’ with a great gasp, ‘I’m sure to refuse a man is the most horrible thing in the world – except to accept him!And such a man too – so great and good and kind. You shouldn’t have let him do it, Felix.’ ‘Don’t scold me, Cherry; how was I to know you would not like it?’ ‘Felix! an old man like that!’<a title="" href="#_ftn1">[1]</a> ‘Well, that’s decisive,’ said Felix, laughing at the tone; ‘but, indeed, I did think you admired him very much.’ ‘So I do – but not in that way – not so as to bear to see him lower himself – and – and have to grieve him –’ and the tears started from her eyes. ‘But you know, he only could have done it because he saw a poor little lame thing and wanted to take care of her.’ ‘I think it goes a good deal deeper than that, Cherry.’ ‘I’m very sorry,’ said Cherry. ‘How very disagreeable it is that such things will happen; I thought, at any rate, that I was safe from them; and he was such an old man, and such a kind friend, that I was so proud of; and now I have vexed him so – and it is all over.’ ‘Do you really regret it? are you sure you did not speak only in the first surprise?’ ‘Felix! you! you to be against me!’ [...] ‘Cherry dear, don’t you think we ought to look at it reasonably? If you do not feel as if you cared for him – like a novel – yet still –’ ‘Hush, Felix! he is much too good to be accepted any other way.’ ‘I am not sure that he thinks so.’ ‘I do, then!’ said Cherry, raising her head up indignantly. ‘I should be ashamed to marry a man without! A lame, sickly, fretful thing like me ought to bring real love at least, to make up to a man for being bothered with her. Come, Felix, have done talking sensible nonsense! I know you don’t wish it, so don’t pretend.’ ‘I am making no pretence. It would be a dreadful business for me; but at the more I think I ought to make you consider.’ ‘Consider! Oh! I’ll consider fast enough; that beautiful drawing-room, with the statues, and the conservatory – and a carriage – and going to Italy! Do you think I am going to be bribed by things like that?’ ‘No; but to have one so fatherly, kind, and tender –’ ‘As if one wanted one’s husband to be fatherly! [...] I like him, I tell you; but not so much as the tip of your little finger!’ ‘Perhaps not now; but – ’ ‘Felix! You don’t want to get rid of me? I know you were right to argue with Wilmet,<a title="" href="#_ftn2">[2]</a> and persuade her, because she had let her heart go, and only was afraid to acknowledge it; but mine isn’t gone, and couldn’t go. If I had not learnt to work, and had not a work to do, I might try to think of freeing you from a burthen; but now that I have, why should I upset it all, and wrench myself away from you? When I lean against you, I have got my home, and my rest, and all I want here. I never go away from you but I feel that I do want you so; and when one feels that, what’s the use of looking out for somebody else?’ ‘Dear little Sweetheart! Yes!’ as she lay contentedly against him, with his arm round her; ‘it only makes me tremble that you should give up a home like that, and risk so much upon my one life. [...]’ ‘I should love you better dead that any other man alive!’ cried Cherry impetuously. ‘I won’t do it, Felix! so spare your dutiful remonstrances! I do hate them so, and I know you don’t mean them!’ <h3>Notes</h3> <div> <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[1]</a> Mr.Grinstead is forty-six. </div> <div> <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[2]</a> Wilmet is the eldest sister in the family, who has already become engaged, and is subsequently married. </div> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Pillars of the House Description An account of the resource One of Charlotte M. Yonge’s last great family sagas, The Pillars of the House (1873) prominently features disability. Several of the thirteen orphaned Underwood siblings experience disability or chronic illness: Felix, the eldest, struggles against the weakness of the lungs he has inherited from his father, who died of tuberculosis; his younger sister Geraldine has a tubercular ankle, which impairs her mobility and ultimately causes her to have her foot amputated; and the youngest brother, Theodore, is deaf, mute and developmentally disabled. The novel’s attitude towards disability and impairment is captured in the family motto, which Yonge included as a subtitle, “Under Wode, Under Rode”. The dying Reverend Underwood explains this to Felix, on his death-bed: “ ‘Bear thy cross, and thy cross will bear thee, like little Geraldine’s cross potent – Rod and Rood, Cross and Crutch – all the same etymologically and veritably.’” (1.35) This image of the Cross as prosthesis indicates the central place disability came to have in Yonge’s understanding of Christian experience. Having said this, Yonge’s representation of disabled characters in The Pillars of the House is highly various, and while physical suffering is clearly shown to be spiritually salutary, Geraldine Underwood is no saintly invalid. Although Geraldine refers to her diseased ankle as her “cross” (1.357), she does not endure pain passively: instead, she chooses to have her foot amputated, so that she can play a more active role in the family home. In fact, domesticity does not turn out to be her true calling, and she pursues her artistic talents, eventually going to stay in London to study art, and having her paintings successfully displayed at the Royal Academy. While she is in London, she receives a proposal of marriage from her new friend, the wealthy and distinguished sculptor Mr. Grinstead, which she refuses.<a title="" href="#_ftn1">[1]</a> The extract below is taken from the scene in which she informs Felix of her decision. What is striking in this passage is that Geraldine appears to cite her disability as a reason not to marry, primarily in order to justify a decision she has already made for other reasons. As the scene develops, it becomes clear that she does not want to leave her adored brother Felix, nor to give up her new-found career as an artist. Disabled women are rarely depicted as marriageable in novels of this period,<a title="" href="#_ftn2">[2]</a> but in this episode, Yonge represents Grinstead as being deeply in love with Geraldine, and Geraldine’s refusal as stemming from her aversion to the match, rather than from a sense of inferiority. While the heroine of Dinah Mulock Craik’s 1850 novel <a title="Link to Olive" href="http://www.nineteenthcenturydisability.org/items/show/5">Olive</a>, another disabled artist, can be seen to overcome her self-hatred through her marriage, Geraldine Underwood asserts herself in this refusal scene, and is shown to be “peaceful and happy” (2.172) in her chosen life as a celibate artist and sister. <h3>Notes</h3> <div> <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[1]</a> In the sequel to The Pillars of the House, The Long Vacation (1895), Geraldine is shown to have married Mr. Grinstead many years later, after Felix’s death. </div> <div> <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[2]</a> For a discussion of this, see Martha Stoddard Holmes, Fictions of Affliction: Physical Disability in Victorian Culture (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004) </div> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Yonge, Charlotte Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Pillars of the House, Charlotte M. Yonge (1873), (repr. Macmillan: London, 1889), 2 vols. Vol. II, Chapter XXX, 132-134. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1873 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Clare Walker Gore Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The frontispiece of The Pillars of the House, Vol.I, Herbert Gandy, shows Felix and Wilmet kneeling at the foot of their father's deathbed. Relation A related resource <ul><li> Colón, Susan E., “<a title="Colon Article" href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09699081003754998#.UgivP23hcy0" target="_blank">Realism and Reserve: Charlotte Yonge and Tractarian Aesthetics</a>”. Women’s Writing 17.2 (August 2010): 221-235. </li> <li> Elizabeth Hale, “<a title="article link" href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09699081003755151#.UgiwkW3hcy0" target="_blank">Disability and the Individual Talent: Adolescent Girlhood in The Pillars of the House and What Katy Did</a>”. Women’s Writing 17.2 (August 2010): 343-360. </li> <li> Juckett, Elizabeth C., “Cross-Gendering the Underwoods: Christian Subjection in Charlotte Yonge’s The Pillars of the House”, Antifeminism and the Victorian Novel: Rereading Nineteenth-Century Women Writers. Ed. Tamara Wagner Amherst, N.Y.: Cambria Press, 2009. </li> <li> Losano, Antonia, The Woman Painter in Victorian Literature. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2008. </li> </ul> Charlotte Yonge Gender Invalidism Literature Mobility Novel https://nineteenthcenturydisability.org/files/original/ea019bebb812fe65cf46b36fad62cbd0.jpg 654299b0def81008b9dbf1775e08ea46 Omeka Image File The metadata element set that was included in the `files_images` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all image files. Width 3434 Height 5086 Bit Depth 8 Channels 3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Webster’s Otaphone, a silver device curved to match the shape of the ear and painted beige to match the wearer's skin tone.  This first photograph shows a close up of a decorative dragon on the device. Courtesy of The Central Institute for the Deaf-Max A. Goldstein Historic Devices for Hearing Collection.  <a title="Becker Medical Images" href="http://beckerimages.wustl.edu/" target="_blank">Becker Medical Library</a>, Washington University School of Medicine. https://nineteenthcenturydisability.org/files/original/808e54ac4d99502ef72d5ddba9802d31.jpeg 04613381a854ac3c238ee769ab6ec2a4 Omeka Image File The metadata element set that was included in the `files_images` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all image files. Width 512 Height 452 Bit Depth 8 Channels 3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource This photograph shows Webster's Otaphone, a curved hearing aid manufactured in silver but painted to conceal the device. The beige paint has chipped with time. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1798 to 1837 Description An account of the resource Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Text Any textual data included in the document. [Webster's Otaphone] supports the depressed parts of the auricle, and thereby conveying more vibrations to the inner ear, derives its name from [ota] the ear, and [phone] sound. It is formed of pure silver, doubly gilt, which, taking the exact shape of the back of the ear, when supported in its most capacious form, spreads as it were a sail for the collection of sonorous impressions. A small hook, projecting over the top of the ear from behind, is the only part that can be seen on looking at the face, and the hair is generally so profuse on the temples as to hide it altogether. The Otaphones have this advantage over spectacles, that while the latter add an expression of age to the countenance, the former, by restoring a more youthful figure to the head, increases its intellectual character. The invention was first suggested by observing persons at church, and other large assemblies, supporting the ear with the hand; which induced the author to consider whether the same advantage might not be obtained by means less troublesome and unsightly. His own experience, and subsequent experiments in which he was assisted by his friends, soon convinced him of the correctness of his inductions; since which the Otaphones have been worn in both Houses of Parliament, on the Bench in the three divisions of the empire, at places of Public Worship, and Theatres, and every public arena. The principle on which they act is so nature, as to be almost instinctive. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Webster’s Otaphone, a Patented Hearing Aid Description An account of the resource UK patent <a title="Patent Link in Google Books" href="http://books.google.de/books?id=B9JTAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA4&dq=webster+otaphone&hl=en&sa=X&ei=vhONUf6kJ8fVtQa_oIFA&ved=0CC4Q6wEwAA#v=onepage&q=webster%20otaphone&f=false" target="_blank">#7033</a>, dated 17 March 1836, is the earliest British patent for a hearing aid device, granted to the aurist (19th century term for ear specialist) Alphonso William Webster, for his “curious” invention, the Otaphone (sometimes spelled “Otophone”). In his publication, <a title="Google Books Link" href="http://books.google.de/books?id=OEAEAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=webster+a+new+and+familiar+treatise+on+the+structure+of+the+ear&hl=en&sa=X&ei=9BCNUaiwKIjitQbkyoC4Bw&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false%20" target="_blank">A New and Familiar Treatise on the Structure of the Ear, and On Deafness </a>(London: published by the author, sold by Simpkin & Marshall, 1836), Webster outlines he was first devised his invention by observing the common practice of cupping the hand to the back of the ear to enhance hearing. He wondered whether the practice could be obtained by “means less troublesome and unsightly” (132). Webster’s Otaphone is constructed of pure silver, painted the beige to match the skin of the wearer, and shaped into a curve to be placed in the back of the ear. A small hook secures the device on the ear. The design allows the auricle (the external part of the ear) to be projected forward to collect sound waves, much as if the wearer was cupping the ear. Webster further adds that the warmth created by the close contact of the metal with the skin could also stimulate the acuity of hearing (Goldstein 343). Though the Otaphone might appear as a “fanciful and fallacious” idea, Webster actually applied theories of the ear and sound conduction that was available to him during the 1830s. This particular version dates to 1860 and is part of The Central Institute for the Deaf-Max A. Goldstein Historic Devices for Hearing Collection (<a title="Becker Collection" href="http://beckerimages.wustl.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15793coll3/id/3787/rec/1" target="_blank">Item VC703086</a>). At the underside of the device, the words “WEBSTER’S R PATENT” and a dragonhead are inscribed. Curiously, there is little information about the dragonhead mark. It is highly likely that the inscription was the mark of the manufacturer, as an identification mark, rather than a decorative item applied by the wearer. The beige paint has been chipped from time and perhaps wear. The Otaphone would likely have been worn by individuals with mild hearing loss who did not want to make their deafness widely known—the design of the device allowed it to be easily concealed in the hair or camouflaged by a hat. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource A. W. Webster Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Webster, A.W. A New and Familiar Treatise on the Structure of the Ear, and On Deafness. London: published by the author, sold by Simpkin & Marshall, 1836, p.132. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1860 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jaipreet Virdi-Dhesi Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Two photographs of Webster’s Otaphone, a silver device curved to match the shape of the ear and painted beige to match the wearer's skin tone. The first photograph shows a close up of a dragon, the second shows the whole device, whose beige paint has chipped with time. Courtesy of The Central Institute for the Deaf-Max A. Goldstein Historic Devices for Hearing Collection. <a title="Becker Medical Images" href="http://beckerimages.wustl.edu/" target="_blank">Becker Medical Library</a>, Washington University School of Medicine. Relation A related resource <ul><li> Bernard Becker Library Virtual Exhibit: Deafness in Disguise: Concealed Hearing Devices of the 19th and 20th Centuries <a href="http://beckerexhibits.wustl.edu/did/index.htm">http://beckerexhibits.wustl.edu/did/index.htm</a> </li> <li> Berger, Kenneth W. The Hearing Aid, it’s Operation and Development. Michigan, USA: National Hearing Aid Society, 1970. </li> <li> Goldstein, Max A. Problems of the Deaf. St. Louis: The Laryngoscope Press, 1933. </li> <li> Koelkebeck, Mary Lou, Collen Detjen, and Donald R. Calvert, Historic Devices for Hearing: The CID-Goldstein Collection. St. Louise: The Central Institute for the Deaf, 1984. </li> </ul> Advertisement Deafness Prosthesis Technology https://nineteenthcenturydisability.org/files/original/71af39c7eaade68d3cb6a52f4078158b.jpg a6f335910de598c2e2360988ce543a57 Omeka Image File The metadata element set that was included in the `files_images` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all image files. Width 353 Height 515 Bit Depth 8 Channels 3 IPTC String copyright_notice:Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons by-nc 2.0 UK, see http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/indexplus/page/Prices.html byline:Wellcome Images object_name:L0040536 \'Comfort for Invalids\' advice page headline:L0040536 \'Comfort for Invalids\' advice page caption:L0040536 \'Comfort for Invalids\' advice page Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://images.wellcome.ac.uk Advice on comfort for invalides from The Lancet March 22nd, 1856. Shows various beds, chairs and wheelchairs to make a invalid\'s life easier and more comfortable. 1856 Ephemera Collection By her majesty\'s letters patent : J. Alderman Published: 1856. Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons by-nc 2.0 UK, see http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/indexplus/page/Prices.html IPTC Array a:5:{s:16:"copyright_notice";s:123:"Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons by-nc 2.0 UK, see http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/indexplus/page/Prices.html";s:6:"byline";s:15:"Wellcome Images";s:11:"object_name";s:45:"L0040536 \'Comfort for Invalids\' advice page";s:8:"headline";s:45:"L0040536 \'Comfort for Invalids\' advice page";s:7:"caption";s:524:"L0040536 \'Comfort for Invalids\' advice page Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://images.wellcome.ac.uk Advice on comfort for invalides from The Lancet March 22nd, 1856. Shows various beds, chairs and wheelchairs to make a invalid\'s life easier and more comfortable. 1856 Ephemera Collection By her majesty\'s letters patent : J. Alderman Published: 1856. Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons by-nc 2.0 UK, see http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/indexplus/page/Prices.html";} Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource In 12 sketches, this advertisement showcases how the invalid chair can be reclined in various poses, used in the bedroom, outdoors, and even up staircases. "Comfort for Invalids" from the Lancet General Advertiser. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1837 to 1860 Description An account of the resource Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Text Any textual data included in the document. [Text of Advertisement] The Lancet,]  THE LANCET CENTRAL ADVERTISER.  [March 22, 1856. By Her Majesty’s Letters Patent Comfort for Invalids 8 Denmark St. Soho London. J. ALDERMAN, Nephew and Successor to Mr. CHAPMAN, begs most respectfully to inform his Friends and the Medical Profession, that after many years’ experience in the manufacture of all kinds of Invalid Beds, Couches, Chairs, Carriages, &c., and more especially the well-known Earle’s Fracture Bed,<a title="" href="#_ftn1">[1]</a> he has obtained Her Majesty’s Letters Patent<a title="" href="#_ftn2">[2]</a> for his imperceptibly Graduating, Mechanical, and Elastic Adjustments, which he has invented for the comfort and convenience of Invalids; he has also made them applicable to all kinds of Operating Couches and Chairs, for surgical and dental purposes.  Earle’s Bed, a few years ago, was used principally for Fractures, it being too hard, and its movements too coarse, for general use; but by carefully studying the properties of this Bed, or Couch, the Patentee saw hat by proper mechanical and elastic adjustments it might be made the most perfect, useful, and elaborate piece of Furniture extant.  To accomplish this would be a work of time and expense, and could only be attained by being constantly working for Invalids, and making careful experiments to alleviate the sufferings of various patients, so as to render the Bed or Couch suitable for every case. The Pantentee is now happy to say, that after many years’ experience in trying every mechanical action and elastic adjustment that could be thought of, to alleviate the sufferings by every possible change of position, and that imperceptibly to the patient, at the same time avoiding all pressure by his elastic adjusting foundation and mattress, to prevent bed-sores, so as to supersede the use of water, he has at length succeeded in making his mechanical and elastic adjustments so simple and perfect as to be able to apply them to all sorts of Invalid Furniture.  Earle’s Bed, or Couch, can now be safely said to be the most perfect, useful, and elaborate piece of furniture in use, and will be found the greatest boon to all those who are suffering from Spinal Affections [sic], Hip Complaints, Paralysis, Fractures, and in all cases where perfect rest is required.  Ladies, who require complete rest before and after their Confinements, will find this Couch a great luxury.  The Illustrations—1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7—will show the various ways and positions in which this Couch can be fitted-up and used. These Beds, or Couches, are also fitted-up for Hospital use, and with every necessary arrangement to prevent the patient being removed.  The Patentee would particularly recommend them for the use of our Military Hospitals,<a title="" href="#_ftn3">[3]</a> where they would be found of the greatest comfort and convenience, both to the surgeon and patient. Nos. 6, 6, 6, is an illustration of J. Alderman’s Patent Portable Equilibrium Carrying Chair, by which a patient can be carried up- or down-stairs with perfect ease and safety, the Chair always adjusting itself, which enables the two persons who carry to walk up- or down-stairs in the usual way and quite erect, with their arms down, so as to avoid any strain upon the muscles; it has also a shifting stand upon very easy Castors, so that it can be used as an easy Chair to prevent the patient being disturbed. Nos. 8, 8, is the Patent self-adjusting Invalid Chair, which is adjusted by Graduating Imperceptible Mechanism.  This Chair, like the Couch, has been a work of time, the Patentee having followed Nature in every part of it: for instance, when the back is depressed, the arms, the seat, and the leg-rest all work together imperceptibly, so that not a muscle of the patient is disturbed.  In order that the patient may get on and off from either side while the leg-rest is up, either of the arms can be taken off. No. 9 is a self-propelling Chair, which renders a patient quite independent, being able to go from room to room without any assistance. No. 10 is a four-wheeled Brighton chair, suitable for either hand or Pony. No. 11 and 12 are three-wheeled Garden or Bath Chairs, with and without a hood. No. 12 is J. Alderman’s Improved Spinal or Sofa Carriage, mounted upon C and under-springs; also the patent noiseless wheels, if required.  The couch being made to slide on and off the carriage, and having a stand upon easy castors for the room, prevents the necessity for the patient’s removal from the couch. J.A. begs to state that, in order to bring these general comforts within the reach of all those who do not wish to purchase, he intends Lending them on Hire, and where the hirer wishes to become a purchaser within the third month, the hire will be deducted. N.B. Inclined Planes, Prone Couches, Bed Chairs, and every other article required by Invalids. <h3> Notes</h3> <hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /> <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[1]</a> London surgeon <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Earle">Henry Earle</a> (1789–1838) invented this bed for leg fractures. <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[2]</a> A <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letters_patent">letters patent</a> is an open document from a monarch (in this case Queen Victoria) or a government issuing a patent or right. <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[3]</a> Military Hospitals:  Alderman is trying to appeal to the great number of disabled soldiers who were coming out of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_War">Crimean war</a>, which was in full force when this advertisement was published on 22 March 1856. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Comfort for Invalids Description An account of the resource In this advertisement for a variety of what we would now call “wheelchairs” or “lounge chairs,” J. Alderman offers “comfort for invalids” in his newly patented “Imperceptibly Graduating, Mechanical, and Elastic Adjustments” available in a variety of couches and chairs. Credit for the “first wheelchair” most often goes to John Dawson of Bath, a town that attracted many invalids seeking its healing waters in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Around 1798, Dawson called himself a “Wheel-chair maker” and hired out his chairs to the invalids who flocked to the spa town. These "Bath Chairs" typically had two large wheels in the back and a smaller wheel on the front; they were pushed by an attendant, but directed by the passenger by means of a rod attached to the front wheel. Yet, as Herman L. Kamenetz points out, there was a long global history of carrying invalids in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litter_(vehicle)">litters</a>, pushing them in wheelbarrows, or later, carrying them in sedan chairs.  (Sedan chairs were also used by the upper classes.) Furthermore, wheeled chairs certainly existed before the late eighteenth century.  Louis XIV, for example, was one of many historical figures who had a wheeled chair (his was known as the roulette) to accommodate immobilizing health issues such as gout.  It would thus be oversimplifying to give the credit of “inventing” the wheelchair to Dawson alone. Yet, as Alderman’s advertisement demonstrates, there was certainly a thriving industry catering to the many self-professed invalids of the nineteenth century (who included figures such as Florence Nightingale and Elizabeth Barrett Browning). Alderman’s couches and chairs are above all a product, to be sold or hired to some of the same invalids who spent winters in <a title="San Remo" href="http://www.nineteenthcenturydisability.org/items/show/13" target="_self">San Remo</a> due to diseases of the chest, or who sought cures at expensive hydrotherapy establishments such as <a title="Ben Rhydding" href="http://www.nineteenthcenturydisability.org/items/show/1" target="_self">Ben Rhydding</a>. One important difference between the chairs and couches that Alderman advertises and the contemporary wheelchair is that most of Alderman’s products are either stationary, reclining chairs, or would require an attendant to push them. No. 9 alone is self-propelling.  By contrast, contemporary wheelchairs are assumed to be self-propelling using either a motor or the user’s two arms. Alderman’s products thus highlight interdependence rather than independence, and the places to be found for invalids within the home.  Another possible reading of Alderman’s many stationary chairs is that comfortable reclining chairs were no longer the province of invalids alone by the twentieth century; indeed, one can still buy “Earl” or “Earle” lounge chairs or chaises today, whose name may well come from Alderman’s patent.   Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Alderman, J. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived "Comfort for Invalids." The Lancet (22 March 1856): 330. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 22 March 1856 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Karen Bourrier Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In 12 sketches, this advertisement showcases how the invalid chair can be reclined in various poses, used in the bedroom, outdoors, and even up staircases. "Comfort for Invalids" from the Lancet General Advertiser.  Courtesy of the <a title="Wellcome Images" href="http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine</a> under a Creative Commons License (Call no <a title="Wellcome Library Catalogue " href="http://catalogue.wellcomelibrary.org/record=b1658436" target="_blank"> EPH448:7</a>). Relation A related resource <ul> <li>Kamenetz, Herman L. “A Brief History of the Wheelchair.” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 24.2 (1969): 205-210. </li> <li>Frawley, Maria. Invalidism and Identity in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.</li> <li>“<a title="wheelchair wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheelchair" target="_blank">Wheelchair</a>” and “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litter_(vehicle)" target="_blank">Litter</a>” on Wikipedia.org.</li> </ul> Language A language of the resource English Advertisement Invalidism Medicine Mobility Technology Visual Culture https://nineteenthcenturydisability.org/files/original/2adda1e630f00e48db84953cb856a238.png f6b719fad1f7649b7e9cf12a35b53257 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1880 to 1901 Description An account of the resource Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Text Any textual data included in the document. Was ever Hell conceived By mortal brain, by brain Divine devised, Darker, more fraught with torment, than the world For such as I? A creature maimed and marr’d From very birth. A blot, a blur, a note All out of tune in this world’s instrument. A base thing, yet not knowing to fulfil Base functions. A high thing, yet all unmeet For work that’s high. A dweller on the earth, Yet not content to dig with other men Because of certain sudden sights and sounds (Bars of broke music; furtive, fleeting glimpse Of angel faces ’thwart the grating seen) Perceived in Heaven. Yet when I approach To catch the sound’s completeness, to absorb The faces’ full perfection, Heaven’s gate, Which then had stood ajar, sudden falls to, And I, a‐shiver in the dark and cold, Scarce hear afar the mocking tones of men: “He would not dig, forsooth; but he must strive For higher fruits than what our tillage yields; Behold what comes, my brothers, of vain pride!” [ . . . ] <h3>EPILOGUE.</h3> We knocked and knocked; at last, burst in the door, And found him as you know—the outstretched arms Propping the hidden face. The sun had set, And all the place was dim with lurking shade. There was no written word to say farewell, Or make more clear the deed. [ . . . ] Meantime there is much talk about my friend. The women say, of course, he died for love; The men, for lack of gold, or cavilling Of carping critics. I, Tom Leigh, his friend I have no word at all to say of this. Nay, I had deem’d him more philosopher; For did he think by this one paltry deed To cut the knot of circumstance, and snap The chain which binds all being? Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource The second poem in Amy Levy’s second published collection attests to her longstanding interest in mental illness. As a fin-de-siècle poet, essayist, and novelist, Levy (1861-1889) was one of the most prominent female voices for the significance of mental difference. Levy’s poetry consciously engages with a long line of mostly-male nineteenth-century authors, including Algernon Charles Swinburne, Robert Browning, and James Thomson. In doing so, she highlights earlier, less direct, engagement with mental illness that often goes unexplored. “A Minor Poet,” first published in 1884, revolves around two perspectives. Readers meet the first speaker as he begins his third suicide attempt.<a title="" href="#_ftn1">[1]</a> The first two attempts may have been unsuccessful, but he has high hopes for “luck in threes” (3). The second speaker, a friend by the name of “Tom Leigh,” appears early in the text, but readers only hear his perspective in the epilogue, when he discovers the first speaker’s remains. The excerpted passages below highlight Levy’s interest in interpretations of the non-normative mind. “A Minor Poet” considers why someone would commit suicide, how it might feel to perceive the world from within such a mind, and if it is possible to form a generalizable answer for either question. Tom Leigh underscores how much “talk” has taken place as observers try to interpret the suicide (115). Women, apparently, tend to blame personal pain, while men cite professional grievances. Even Tom begins the poem by trying to use philosophy to reason the nameless speaker out of his melancholy. In contrast, the main speaker of the poem resists the observers’ desire to pin a motivation on his suicidal intent. Instead, he focuses on sensation and how it feels to be, first, out of sync with the world and, then, to leave it entirely. The speaker teaches his readers about what it means to see, hear, touch, and desire as “[a] blot, a blur, a note/ [a]ll out of tune in this world’s instrument” (54-5). In doing so, he not only offers a window into a single mind, but also destabilizes the assumption that there must be a logical reason behind the speaker’s actions. By the end of the epilogue, it seems that Tom has come to a similar conclusion. After a list of potential reasons for his friend’s suicide, he refuses to offer his own interpretation and, instead, ends his text with a question. <div> <h3>Note</h3> <div> <a title="" href="#_ftnref1">[1]</a> One year before this collection, Levy published an essay entitled “James Thomson: A Minor Poet.” As such, the first speaker has been read as representing both Thomson and Levy herself. </div> </div> Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Levy, Amy. A Minor Poet and Other Verse. 1884. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1891. Full text available at archive.org. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1884 Relation A related resource <ul><li> Hetherington, Naomi and Nadia Valman. “Introduction.” Ed. Naomi Hetherington and Nadia Valman. Amy Levy: Critical Essays. Athens: Ohio UP, 2010. 1-24. Print. </li> <li> Laird, Holly. “The Death of the Author By Suicide: Fin-de-Siecle Poets and the Construction of Identity.” Ed. Joseph Bristow. The Fin-de-Siecle Poem: English Literary Culture and the 1890s. Athens:Ohio UP, 2005. 69-100. Print. </li> <li> New, Melvyn. “Introduction.” The Complete Novels and Selected Writings of Amy Levy, 1861-1889. Ed. Melvyn New. Gainsville: University Press of Florida,1993. 1-52. Print. </li> <li> Randolph, Lyssa. “Verse or Vitality? Biological Economies and the New Woman Poet.” Ed. Naomi Hetherington and Nadia Valman. Amy Levy: Critical Essays. Athens: Ohio UP, 2010. 198-220. Print. </li> <li> Weisman, Karen. “Playing with Figures: Amy Levy and the Forms of Cancellation.” Criticism 43.1 (2001) 59-79. Print. </li> </ul> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The black and white photograph shows the author looking directly into the camera. It was first published in Women’s World 3 (1890): 51, with the legend “From a Photograph by Montabone, Florence.” Image Courtesy Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons License. Title A name given to the resource A Minor Poet Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Amy Levy Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Rachel Herzl-Betz Mental Illness Poetry https://nineteenthcenturydisability.org/files/original/bc970afea3bff06562ca28f5ab36ef9b.jpg a6e4e165f595ee0dfe9a152990a6615c Omeka Image File The metadata element set that was included in the `files_images` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all image files. Width 798 Height 534 Bit Depth 8 Channels 3 IPTC String copyright_notice:Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons by-nc-nd 2.0 UK, see http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/indexplus/page/Prices.html byline:Wellcome Images object_name:N0028879 Royal Earlswood Hospital, Redhill, Surrey headline:N0028879 Royal Earlswood Hospital, Redhill, Surrey caption:N0028879 Royal Earlswood Hospital, Redhill, Surrey Credit: Niall McCrae. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://images.wellcome.ac.uk Royal Earlswood Hospital, Redhill, Surrey This grand structure was designed by W B Moffatt. Originally a charitable institution, its last fifty years were served under the NHS as a hospital for the mentally handicapped. This photogrph was taken in 1997, just prior to its closure. Photograph 1997 Published: - Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons by-nc-nd 2.0 UK, see http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/indexplus/page/Prices.html IPTC Array a:5:{s:16:"copyright_notice";s:126:"Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons by-nc-nd 2.0 UK, see http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/indexplus/page/Prices.html";s:6:"byline";s:15:"Wellcome Images";s:11:"object_name";s:50:"N0028879 Royal Earlswood Hospital, Redhill, Surrey";s:8:"headline";s:50:"N0028879 Royal Earlswood Hospital, Redhill, Surrey";s:7:"caption";s:579:"N0028879 Royal Earlswood Hospital, Redhill, Surrey Credit: Niall McCrae. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://images.wellcome.ac.uk Royal Earlswood Hospital, Redhill, Surrey This grand structure was designed by W B Moffatt. Originally a charitable institution, its last fifty years were served under the NHS as a hospital for the mentally handicapped. This photogrph was taken in 1997, just prior to its closure. Photograph 1997 Published: - Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons by-nc-nd 2.0 UK, see http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/indexplus/page/Prices.html";} Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource A contemporary photograph shows the Earlswood Asylum, an impressive red brick building, from the road. A tree and an expanse of green lawn make up the foreground. Photograph of Royal Earlswood Hospital, Redhill, Surrey (1997) by Niall McCrae. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1860 to 1880 Description An account of the resource Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Text Any textual data included in the document. The dream of the monks and hospitallers<a title="" href="#_ftn1">[1]</a> of old has been realized—alms-giving has become an art, indeed, it may be said, a fine art. Among all the institutions of the country there are none so well organised, so liberally conducted, or so carefully and thoughtfully adapted to their purpose, as those which are designed to relieve the sufferings and mitigate the misfortunes of humanity. Here in England there is scarcely a disease either of the mind or body, scarcely even a deformity, for whose alleviation some hospital has not been provided by the inexhaustible charity of the people. And our hospitals [start 565] and asylums vie in architectural magnificence with the mansions of the rich and great. When the intelligent foreigner is making his way towards London by the South Eastern Railway, and sees on every side magnificent buildings rising majestically from woods and gardens rich in stately timber, and glowing with rare plans and flowers, he is apt to inquire the names of the great English milords who own those splendid seats. This Italian place on the left, with the British flag floating proudly from its summit. Surely this must be the residence of a royal prince? No, monseiur, it is the residence of some two or three hundred poor creatures who are suffering from incurable disease [...] Descending from the noble terrace by a flight of stone steps, I come upon the whole of the inmates of the Asylum, disporting themselves upon the lawn. They number in all three hundred and sixty-five, two hundred and sixty being males, and one hundred and five females. They are of all ages, ranging from a grey-haired old lady of sixty, to a child of five years; and of all ranks, from the sons of prosperous merchants, it may be noblemen, down to the children of poor clerks and petty tradespeople. The Asylum at Earlsowood is not absolutely a charity. All who can afford it, pay something for their maintenance, and in some instances pay handsomely. Those who cannot afford to pay are elected by the votes of the subscribers, and are maintained gratuitously. The receipts of the Asylum are thus, to a certain extent, a common fund for the support of all the inmates; although those who maintain themselves receive special advantages according to the amount of their payments. But none of the inmates, however poor they may be, are deprived of any of the essentials of comfort. A patient who pays a hundred or a hundred and fifty pounds a year may have a separate apartment and an attendant entirely to himself; but as regards the necessaries and comforts essential to health and enjoyment of life, the rich and the poor are on the same footing. I fully expected that the sight of so many idiotic creatures in a body would be exceedingly painful.<a title="" href="#_ftn2">[2]</a> It certainly was painful; but far less so than I could possibly have imagined. Contrary to my anticipation they were all clean , and neat and tidy in their dress. Moreover, the majority of them exhibited an activity of body and a cheerfulness of expression which I had never before witnessed in persons so manifestly deficient in mental power. The manifestations are very similar in all cases,--a deformed head or jaw, a wide loose mouth showing the gums, large irregular teeth, a fixed stare, and an imbecile smile that comes and goes in a mechanical manner. These peculiarities told plainly that the persons I saw before me were idiotic; but their manner and bearing conveyed no idea of their being useless and helpless. The kindly system of the institution had done its work. Many of these poor creatures, when they were first brought to Earlswood, were in a condition inferior almost to the brutes. They were confirmed in filthy habits; they were at times perfectly torpid and completely insensible. All the gates of their understanding were as firmly locked as if they had been sealed by the hand of death. They had ears and could not hear; eyes and could not see; tongues and could not speak. And now, here on this lawn, were these self-same creatures, all more or less awakened to life and understanding, running and leaping, laughing and chatting, asking and answering questions, and contending with each other in a high spirit of emulation in all kinds of games, while the workshops, the garden, and the farm offered a hundred specimens of their work in almost every department of art and industry. [...] On the reception of a pupil, the first step is to inquire from friends the history of the case, and to discover the peculiar predilection and repugnancies of the individual. Certain objective facts, as weight, height, shape, condition of the organs of sense, and powers of prehension and locomotion, are carefully registered. Then follow personal observation with comparison of habits and propensities with the accounts received from friends. These are the data for treatment, and instructions in accordance with them are given to the attendant or nurse. The first efforts are directed to the eradication of bad habits, such as tearing the clothes and wallowing in the dirt. After this, if there exist sufficient power, the pupil has proposed to him, occupations: such as unravelling coca fibre for matting, slitting rods for baskets, and the result of is labour, whatever it may be, is always received with praise instead of blame. When the pupil is indolent, morose, or stubborn, the example of good fellow-pupils is tried, and the imitation of their conduct is encouraged. If he prove incapable from low physical power, the physician's skill is exercised on diet, attention to the condition of the skin, and due medical treatment. The physical state is held to be of the greatest importance, and the appliance of gymnastic exercise is regulated by it. These exercises are first to the upper extremities, and then to the lower and the trunk, and the lessons are enlivened by music. From the examination of many hundred cases, Dr. Down has found that a malformation of the mouth and the palate is a physical characteristic of nearly all idiots. It is not surprising, therefore, that many of them are mute, semi-mute, or indistinct in utterance. But even the worst of such cases are successfully treated at Earlswood. The method pursued is curious. For example, if the sounds to be caught were those of the letter T, the teacher would first hold up a top, which the pupils are made to name collectively; then a letter, and lastly a pot. In the same manner for D, he would show pictures of a dog, a ladder, and some object coloured red. Hence, when a learner can name every object in the collection, he is able to utter the required words correctly. The result has been that many who could scarcely articulate a sound, can now speak intelligibly and with tolerable correctness. Pictures play an important part on conveying ideas to the pupils, and many of them have learned all they know from pictures. Some of them, who are incapable of reading and writing, have become expert draughtsmen, as may be seen from various specimens of their artistic works which adorn the walls of the Asylum. Another ingenious mode of conveying instruction, is by engaging the pupils in playing at shop-keeping. A counter is set out with various articles in daily use, at which a boy presides as shopkeeper, while the others come forward in turn and act as buyers. “It is most curious,” says Mr. Sidney,<a title="" href="#_ftn3">[3]</a> “to see what a puzzle it often is to find the correct weight; when it is found, the class is well questioned upon it, and, indeed, on every other weight the shopman touches, before it is put onto the scale. Then there is further perplexity in getting the correct quantity of the required substance, as, for instance, sugar, into the scale... [Omitted further description of the difficulties of weighing the goods.] All this causes a regular excitement till the due proportions are achieved; and then comes the moment of pay, which is one of great excitement, the whole class trying to check every step in the reckoning. Combinations of pence and halfpence are trying things to get over; and sometimes the purchaser who cannot calculate them uses cunning, and tries to pay with a silver coins, and asks for change, thus throwing his perplexities on the shopman.” The Asylum is at once a hospital, a school, and a workshop within; without, a gymnasium, a garden, and a farm. In the workshops the inmates practise tailoring, shoemaking, carpentering, mat-making, and the like. The clothes of the inmates and the attendants are nearly all made by imbeciles, who have learned their trades in the Asylum. They all take a great interest in their work, and are very proud of the results. Some of the lads act as cooks. On a visit to the kitchen, Mr. Sidney found twelve of the pupils, not one of whom, a year previously, could have been trusted near an oven or a fire, neatly dressed in white, helping the regular officials of the kitchen with the greatest order and zeal. One poor fellow acted as a scullery-boy, and to show how completely his heart was in his humble occupation, on being asked which he liked best, Earlswood or the establishment where he had previously been, he answered, “O Earlswood great deal;” and on being further question “Why?” added, “Because we have a bigger sink.” It should be observed, that the pupils are not forced to engage in occupations which they do not like. Each one is allowed to choose the employment for which he has a fancy. Some of them occupy themselves in drawing, and in making models and toys, simply for their own amusement. One of these, a youth of sixteen, has completed a most beautiful model of a frigate fully equipped and rigged with every rope, sail, and spar. The model of of considerable size, and is executed with marvellous neatness and skill. I was informed that the constructor had never seen a ship, and took his first notion from a picture on a pocket-handkerchief, being afterwards assisted by drawings in the Illustrated London News. In the progress of his work, he made a great discovery, namely, that boiling wood rendered it capable of being easily bent. He had never heard of this process, so that the discovery was really his own. With the permission of Dr. Down, this pupil took me to his room to show me the model His articulation was so imperfect, and his vocabulary so limited, that I could scarcely understand a word he said. He was, I was assured, a true idiot, who could scarcely read or write; yet he could draw admirably, and had made this wonderful ship. Though he could measure well, as his work testified, he had no idea of figures, or of money. I asked him how much the ship had cost him. He said, “Three thousand pounds.” The girl's side of the Asylum comprises, besides the dining-hall and dormitories, a sewing school, and a play-room. In the school the girls are taught to read by the aid of large letters chalked on black boards; they are also employed in useful work; in the afternoon they are allowed to make fancy articles which may be seen exhibited in the reception-room. In another apartment there is a baby class taught entirely by pictures. In these rooms are stands of flowers and ferns prettily arranged, rendering the place cheerful and attractive. Some of the girls have learned to read and write very well. The farm, situated at the end of the garden, gives regular employment to twelve of the inmates, and in hay and harvest time brings others from the workshops, who profit greatly by the change. Strolling into the yard, I met one of he idiot farmers dressed in a smock-frock and a wideawake hat.<a title="" href="#_ftn4">[4]</a> He certainly did not look more idiotic than some farm servants, not supposed to be deficient in mental capacity, whom I had seen outside the Asylum gates. He took me to the cow-house and showed me the cows. There were twenty of them, all in god condition and well provided with straw, and over each stall their attendant had placed a label bearing the cow's name in highly ornamental text. The lad who accompanied me was a good farmer; but a perfect idiot. He could not count the pigs in a sty, though there were barely a dozen of them; but he was a most useful member of the establishment for all that. He spoke very imperfectly. I asked him if he were happy there. He said, “Yes, very happy, but no money.” I asked him what he would do with money if he had any. He said, “Buy sweetstuff.”<a title="" href="#_ftn5">[5]</a> A friend came to see him, and he gave the friend particular instructions to send him a seed cake. The farm supplies the establishment with the whole of milk and butter consumed by the inmates of the Asylum. Amusement enters largely into the system pursued by Dr. Down. Besides the daily sports on the lawn and in the gymansium, a theatrical performance is given at Christmas, and a fête at Midsummer. The charade performances have proved highly successfull in stimulating into lasting vigour several whom it had been previously impossible to rouse from idiotic depression and apathy. The leading parts are sustained by inmates, assisted by the attendants; the scenery is painted by a youth who, though an excellent artist, is incapable of describing his work intelligibly, or of referring to it except in a jumble of incoherent words. All the woodwork is done by boys in the carpenter's shop. In all these amusements the pupils have the hearty assistance of Dr. Down and Mrs. Down, who are regarded by all in the establishment with the strongest affection. I saw many unmistakable evidences of the regard in which the doctor is held, during my visit. Whereever he appeared on the grounds, the boys and girls ran to him, to talk to him, to ask him questions, and to fondle him. The men and women attendants, too, seemed to be all favourites with the poor imbeciles. I observed no indication that any of them inspired fear. I saw one man humour a tiresome boy with the utmost patience for fully half an hour, and in the end he succeeded in diverting him from the absurd desire he wished to gratify. I do not know upon what principle the attendants are chosen, but I noticed that they were al “good looking,” which suggests the theory that good looks and a kind disposition generally go together. The inmates all like the place. Some of them who have gone home for a few weeks have expressed a desire to return to Earlswood and their friend Dr. Down, before the expiration of their leave. One boy actually packed up and walked to the Asylum, saying he could not stay away from “home” any longer. Seeing how they were surrounded by every comfort, and indulged in every way, I could not feel surprised at this; but considering the labour and patience required of those who are employed to watch and tend them, I certainly was not prepared for the statement of one of the female attendants—that she was very happy at Earlswood, that she had been there three years, and that she should not like to go to another place. It was one the fête-day that I visited Earlswood—a day long and anxiously looked forward to by all the inmates. The amusements on the lawn continued from one o'clock until dusk, consisting of cricket, croquet, Aunt Sally, racing and jumping matches, a performance of Punch and Judy, glees by the singing class, negro melodies by the Earlswood Troupe, and the ascent of a fire balloon.<a title="" href="#_ftn6">[6]</a> Under the influence of the emulation excited by the racing and jumping for prizes, ranging from a shilling to a penny, the idiotic expression vanished from the faces of the patients in a magical way. In several instances I found it difficult to say whether they were idiots or not. One lad achieved some astonishing feats in bar-jumping, trying again and again until he had accomplished his purpose. I was informed that this boy, when he first entered the Asylum, was incapable of any physical effort whatever. His energies, both mental and physical, had been roused chiefly by gymnastic exercises. In all the sports, I noticed that Dr. Down and the attendants joined on equal terms with the patients, and thus set them all perfectly at their ease. The only refractory subject was a fat boy, whose accomplishments consisted in standing on his head, and in the execution of a dance in frog fashion, which he was ready to perform any number of times on the slightest encouragement. The fat boy's idiosyncrasy was to be always out of humour and always grumbling. He was last in all the races, but would insist upon a prize; in the pole-climbing he had to be hoisted up on the shoulders of an attendant. When the attendant dropped him, he came forward to the doctor in a triumphant manner, and held out his hand for a prize. In all cases he had one. They were all extremely fond of money, but the amount was of no consequence. They were just as well pleased with a penny as with a shilling. The results of the system pursued at Earlswood are very great, very astonishing. Are they desirable? Is it incumbent upon those who have the charge of idiots, to do their utmost to rouse their dormant faculties and restore the broken and defaced image to the likeness of Him who made it? If these questions are to be answered in the affirmative, to do anything less than is done at earlswood would be to fail in a great and sacred duty. Dr. Down's system is purely one of kindness, and it was not long before I perceived that his uniform and scrupulous kindness, his minute attention to every case, his liberal employment of every means calculated to divert the mind and promote the health of the body, were the true cause of the great expense of which some persons have complained. There is no doubt that the inmates of Earlswood might be kept and maintained for considerably less money; but this could only be done by reducing the number of attendants, and the success attained, by dispensing with many sanitary precautions, by adopting mechanical restraints, and by otherwise limiting the comforts and enjoyments of the inmates. For example, I found in the grounds some twenty or thirty attendants going about among the patients, watching them without appearing to watch them, laughing and chatting, joining in their sports, and taking infinite pains to divert their minds from the particular notions which possess them. In the good old times, this was done by a third of the number of attendants; but then they saved the labour and the money of the patrons by chaining the patients to their bedsteads, by strapping them to boards, and by beating them until they were insensible. A blow is a cheap and effective quieter, there is no doubt. Dirt, filth, and unwholesome food, are also cheap, but they are nasty too, and, I trust, wholly distasteful to the humane and Christian feeling of the times in which we live. Relatively the expenses at Earlswood may be larger than absolutely necessary, but I was quite convinced from what I saw, that the system pursued by Dr. Down could not be carried out without great liberality. The number of attendants; the various workshops, with all their fittings and appliances; the schools, the play-rooms, the works of art and ornament, the organised entertainments, the cheerful gardens; are all necessary and essential to the subtle process by which these poor idiots are coaxed, and petted, and insensibly led into developing their latent faculties, and assuming, as near as possible, the attributes of useful and intelligent human beings. One item of expense may be reasonably objected to—that of the mere ornamental parts of such an edifice. It surely can never be necessary to burden a charitable institution with an enormous rent in the form of interest of capital, or an incubus in the much more depressing form of a heavy building debt. <h3>Notes</h3> <div> <div> <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[1]</a> Hospitaller: According to the OED: “A member of a religious order, brotherhood, or sisterhood, formed for charitable purposes, esp. for the care of the sick and infirm in hospitals. Many such have existed from the 13th c. or earlier.” </div> <div> <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[2]</a> The term “idiot” as David Wright points out, was “packed with social, legal, and medical meanings,” and understanding the history of its use is part of understanding how it became a derisive term (Earlswood 10). For a history of the term “idiot” see David Wright, Mental Disability in Victorian England, pages 9-10, and Patrick McDonagh, Idiocy: A Cultural History, 12-15. </div> <div> <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[3]</a> Reverend Edwin Sidney, a clergyman and benefactor of the Earlswood Asylum, who watched the progress of the institution firsthand and published several accounts, including: A Visit to Earlswood Asylum (London, 1859). </div> <div> <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[4]</a> A “smock-frock” is a loose outer-garment worn by rural labourers, often made of hard-wearing wool or linen. A wideawake (or “wide-awake”) hat was a men's hat with a broad brim and a low crown, made of black or brown felt, reminiscent of those worn by Quakers. </div> <div> <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[5]</a> Men with cognitive disabilities were stereotypically thought to be unable to manage money and also to concentrate instead on gustatory pleasures, especially sweets. George Eliot's short story, “Brother Jacob,” also turns to this theme. See McDonagh, Idiocy, pages 165-168 for a reading on this topic. </div> <div> <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[6]</a> <a href="http://www.tradgames.org.uk/games/Aunt-Sally.htm"> Aunt Sally</a> is a throwing game where contestants try to knock over “Aunt Sally,” often a pipe. It is traditionally played in pubs or on fairgrounds. Punch and Judy is a traditional puppet show featuring Mr. Punch and his wife Judy; while there is no definitive storyline, they are often shown bickering and hitting each other with bats. A fire balloon is a nineteenth century folk toy made of tissue paper, string, and a cup with tallow and a wick; the heat from the candle would propel the balloon for thirty minutes to an hour. Unfortunately when it landed it was likely to cause a fire. </div> </div> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Happy Idiots Description An account of the resource This article, which appeared in Charles Dickens's publication All The Year Round in 1864, describes a journalist's visit to the Earlswood Asylum, the first institution for the care of the cognitively disabled in England. It was founded by J Langdon Down (now best known as the doctor who identified Down syndrome) in 1847. The term “idiot” (or sometimes “imbecile”) was commonly used to designate a person who was seen has having a permanent cognitive disability from birth or an early age. An attempt to distinguish “idiocy” legally and medically from “lunacy” was made in the Lunacy Act of 1845, which stated that an “idiot” was legally a person “whose mind from his birth by a perpetual infirmity is so deficient as to be incapable of directing him in any matter which requires thought or judgement” while a “lunatic” was legally “sometimes of good and sound memory” and sometimes not, while any other person “of morbid condition of intellect” who did not fit either of these categories was “a person of unsound mind” (quoted in Wright Earlswood Asylum 16). The need for a third category suggests that attempts to label cognitive difference were more difficult in practice than in theory, and that idiocy was not a stable or transparent category for the Victorians. In describing the conditions of the Earlswood Asylum, the journalist deploys language common to reports on other educational institutions and asylums for the physically and cognitively disabled, comparing the initial condition of the patients to one “inferior almost to the brutes” and suggesting that institutional care humanizes them. The Earlswood Asylum was not a place where patients expected to be institutionalized for life. David Wright suggests that “institutionalization, even during the so-called Victorian heyday of the asylum, was only one part of a lifelong strategy of families to care for and control their disabled family members” (Earlswood Asylum 8). Contrary to our contemporary view of cognitive disability, especially a condition like Down Syndrome, as more or less a fixed state, at the Earlswood Asylum it is taken as a mutable condition. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Andrew Halliday Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived “Happy Idiots.” All the Year Round. (23 July 1864): 564-569. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 23 July 1864 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Karen Bourrier Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A contemporary photograph shows the Earlswood Asylum, an impressive red brick building, from the road. A tree and an expanse of green lawn make up the foreground. Photograph of Royal Earlswood Hospital, Redhill, Surrey (1997) by Niall McCrae. Courtesy of the <a title="Wellcome Images" href="http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Wellcome Library, London </a>under a Creative Commons License (<a title="Wellcome Images" href="http://wellcomeimages.org/" target="_blank">Wellcome Library No: N0028879</a>). Relation A related resource <ul><li>Drew, John and Tony Williams. <a title="Dickens Journal Online" href="http://www.djo.org.uk/" target="_blank">Dickens Journal Online</a>. University of Buckingham. <http://www.djo.org.uk/> [Contains digitized versions of the full run of Household Words and All the Year Round.]</li> <li><a title="Museum of Learning Disability" href="http://langdondownmuseum.org.uk/" target="_blank">Langdon Down Museum of Learning Disability</a>. <<a href="http://langdondownmuseum.org.uk/">http://langdondownmuseum.org.uk/</a>></li> <li>McDonagh, Patrick. Idiocy: A Cultural History. Liverpool: Liverpool UP, 2008.</li> <li>Wright, David. Downs: The History of a Disability. New York: Oxford UP, 2011.</li> <li>---. Mental Disability in Victorian England: The Earlswood Asylum, 1847-1901. New York: Oxford UP, 2001.</li> </ul> All the Year Round Charles Dickens Cognition Institutions life writing https://nineteenthcenturydisability.org/files/original/851adf33366a97e044b9fba10341e9c8.jpg 130ae5f28852cb9b0c9d70c70b5edd8e Omeka Image File The metadata element set that was included in the `files_images` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all image files. Width 781 Height 538 Bit Depth 8 Channels 3 IPTC String copyright_notice:Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons by-nc 2.0 UK, see http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/indexplus/page/Prices.html byline:Wellcome Images object_name:V0013623 School of the London Society for Teaching the Blind to headline:V0013623 School of the London Society for Teaching the Blind to Read, caption:V0013623 School of the London Society for Teaching the Blind to Read, Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://images.wellcome.ac.uk School of the London Society for Teaching the Blind to Read, Avenue Road, London: seen from the road. Coloured lithograph by E. T. Dolby, n.d., after H. E. Kendall, 1838. after: Edwin Thomas Dolby and Henry Edward KendallPublished: - Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons by-nc 2.0 UK, see http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/indexplus/page/Prices.html IPTC Array a:5:{s:16:"copyright_notice";s:123:"Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons by-nc 2.0 UK, see http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/indexplus/page/Prices.html";s:6:"byline";s:15:"Wellcome Images";s:11:"object_name";s:64:"V0013623 School of the London Society for Teaching the Blind to ";s:8:"headline";s:69:"V0013623 School of the London Society for Teaching the Blind to Read,";s:7:"caption";s:531:"V0013623 School of the London Society for Teaching the Blind to Read, Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://images.wellcome.ac.uk School of the London Society for Teaching the Blind to Read, Avenue Road, London: seen from the road. Coloured lithograph by E. T. Dolby, n.d., after H. E. Kendall, 1838. after: Edwin Thomas Dolby and Henry Edward KendallPublished: - Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons by-nc 2.0 UK, see http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/indexplus/page/Prices.html";} Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource A coloured lithograph shows the School of the London Society for Teaching the Blind to Read from the road, as passerbys hurry past. The school is a stately brick building surrounded by foliage. Coloured lithograph by E. T. Dolby, n.d., after H. E. Kendall, 1838. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1860 to 1880 Description An account of the resource Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Text Any textual data included in the document. Poor Guy! He is burning as he has burnt any time since that fifth of November on which he attempted to “blow Scotchmen back to Scotland.” He is blazing in the midst of tar-barrels and brushwood. The great bonfire pouring out masses of flame and sparks—careful officer of the Fire Brigade keeping watch meanwhile—lights up an odd scene.<a title="" href="#_ftn1">[1]</a> We are in a great square on a November night, dim walls enclosing it. Rockets are shooting far into the wintry sky, Roman candles are jetting out starts of many-coloured flame. Catherine-wheels whizz round on tree trunks; squibs are spurting our their short but sparkling life; crackers banging and barking on the ground, noisy, demonstrative, and soon extinct, like fussy politicians; and, besides all theses, there is plenty of high pyrotechnic art from Mr. Brock’s<a title="" href="#_ftn2">[2]</a> famous laboratory—set-pieces, Chinese trees, fiery fountains and the like. Plenty of noise, plenty of fire, and plenty of light. Round the bonfire dance merry figures –rushing hurriedly now and then to the window whence the fireworks are liberally dealt out—exulting in the noise, the crackle, the fun generally; glorying in Guy Fawkes and his sublime cremation. They are “knowing,” these shadowy forms of boys and half-grown men. They keep the fire at a respectful distance, save when one, bolder than the rest, gives a tar-barrel a kick to bring out the sparks in golden showers. They never light their fireworks at the wrong end, as has happened to philosophers before now, but manage them deftly and skillfully. They are enjoying themselves immensely; and, as they last glorious wheel dies out, the last cracker and the last maroon explode, they open their throats with a hearty cheer—a three times three- in honour of, it may be supposed, the Protestant succession. They have thoroughly enjoyed the festival of St. Guy; and, when the embers on the fire sink low, go indoors to bed, satisfied, but not satiated, with the fun of the evening. The odd part of this fête is that the celebrants are blind—many of them wholly unconscious of the light of the day, people to whom life is one long Arctic night, unillumined by lamp or heavenly or earthly make. There are others who, although their blindness is unhappily complete enough to prevent them from distinguishing objects, yet they are dimly conscious of sunrise and sunset. The latter enjoy the fireworks keenly, perhaps more keenly than those who see perfectly; but it is difficult to understand the fun of fireworks to the utterly blind. That they produce no effect on some people, is proved by the demeanour of the industrious man, who has retreated out of the noise and bustle into a quiet corner in the dark, and is working away at basket-making as if his life depended upon getting that pretty basket, with the white and red stripes, done this very night. The glare of the bonfire, when the flames shoot up on this side, just reveals the pattern of the work on which he is busied; but he is otherwise so completely in the dark, that ordinary people can barely make out his figure in the corner. He is absorbed in his task. Great wheels spin round unheeded by the basket-maker; maroons thunder out their warning in vain. One perpetually moves his busy fingers among the osier-meshes, woven with strips red or white, selected with unerring accuracy but this one solitary man who cares not for Guy Fawkes or his fête. Alas, poor fellow! He cannot “remember the Fifth of November,”<a title="" href="#_ftn3">[3]</a> for he has never heard of that or anything else. He is not only blind, but absolutely stone deaf; yet is he a capital basket-maker; and an honest and good-honoured fellow, if you only know how to talk to him by taking one of his hands, and touching it rapidly in various parts, as Miss Quarman is now doing. He is not absolutely dumb, but articulates a few words—a very limited vocabulary—and then goes back to work with a will, ignoring the high jinks going on around him utterly and completely. But the boys who are only blind are as “jolly” as those proverbial youths whose birth or occupation is associated with “sand.”<a title="" href="#_ftn4">[4]</a> Miss Quarman and Mr. Sander have as much as they can do to distribute Roman candles, squibs, and crackers to the numerous applicants, who appear singularly well acquainted with the properties of various kinds of fireworks. It is difficult to realize that these boys are blind. When hurrying towards the window they never miss it, and, what is stranger still, never blunder over one another; and they have the keenest appreciation of the difference between a squib and a cracker. The Roman candle and the Jack-in-the-box are the prime favorites, next comes the cracker, and lastly squibs and golden rain. The triumphs of pyrotechny—set-pieces, wheels, and coloured rockets—are comparatively unheeded, a single maroon being worth a boxful of them. The boys—and, in a quiet way, the girls—of the institution in the Avenue-road, under the care of the London Society for Teaching the Blind to Read,<a title="" href="#_ftn5">[5]</a> have had a glorious holiday on this Fifth of November. There has been much fun over the dressing of the guy, and carrying him round. It was curious to see those little ones, who has not assisted in the “make up,” approach, one by one, to “look at,” as they call it—in ordinary literal English to “feel”—the guy. These young blind folk, when they touch anything, always “look at” it, and, if they have met and touched persons, say, “I saw him to-day,” in the most offhand and matter-of-course way. On the subject of blindness they are extraordinarily sensitive, and express their dislike to any questioning concerning their infirmity. Blind is, in fact, among the blind, an expression of contempt. As a rule they find their way about with remarkable skill; but should some poor awkward fellow blunder by accident over a chair or up against one of his schoolfellows, the reproof generally takes the form: “You must be blind.” Perhaps the strangest and most interesting time to see any institution for the blind is at dusk. While others are blundering and floundering about, the blind people move hither and thither noiselessly and accurately. An odd effect is felt on entering the printing-office of the school in Avenue-road, late on a winter afternoon. The house is dark, the passage is dark, the office is darker still, but there are the printers, setting up type and pulling proofs with all possible celerity and exactitude. The master printer courteously proposes to light a candle for the sake of visitors, who perhaps “cannot see very well.” […] Some odd stories are told of the basket-makers, who evince a marked preference for very sharp knives, to trim and split their osiers withal, and have a marked objection to being stared at by Philistines—that is, people who can see. At one time they were greatly annoyed, as they were in the act of soaking their osier-twigs in a tank, specially provided for that purpose, to find that there was a stranger among them, an enterprising loafer, who had climbed over the tall fence in order to have a closer view. He repented of his audacity, for the blind youths pounced on him, and ducked him in the tank till he was half-drowned. Many more curious tales are told of the blind, one of which they refuse to believe themselves—viz., the story of the girl whose fingers, having been so hardened by manual labour that she could not learn to write on the Lucasian system, learnt to read with her lips.<a title="" href="#_ftn6">[6]</a> Others they assert to be absolutely correct and trustworthy, especially a wonderful instance of sagacity in a fellow-pupil who, since she left the school—having mastered every accomplishment taught there—has married a blind husband, is an excellent housekeeper, cooks her husband’s dinner, makes and actually “cuts out,” and fits her children’s clothes, washes, starches, and irons her husband’s shirts, and plays piano like an angel. I am a person of facile faith, hating the trouble of doubting things, and therefore believe implicitly in the existence of this accomplished lady; but I feel obliged to mention, after the excellent example set by Herodotus, and followed by Sir John Maundevile, “Verilie I have not see hir.”<a title="" href="#_ftn7">[7]</a> <h2>Notes</h2> <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[1]</a> For more information on Victorian Britain’s sometimes violent celebration of Guy Fawkes day and on attempts to suppress these celebrations, see J.A. Sharpe’s Remember, Remember: A Cultural History of Guy Fawkes Day (London: Harvard UP, 2005). <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[2]</a> Founded in the early 18th-century, Brock’s Fireworks, later known as C.T. Brock & Co.’s Crystal Palace Fireworks, was a fireworks manufactory located in the south of London. It was known both for the accidental explosion of its Whitechapel factory in 1825 and for holding successful fireworks displays for the public, known as Brock’s Benefits. <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[3]</a> The phrase is common in popular songs about Guy Fawkes, many of which include the refrain “Remember, remember, the fifth of November, / Gunpowder, Treason and Plot.” <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[4]</a> Sand boys transported and sold sand used for flooring and for other domestic purposes. The reference to jolly sand boys is in part a reference to Charles Dickens’ 1840 novel Old Curiosity Shop which features an inn called “The Jolly Sandboys.” <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[5]</a> The Society for Teaching the Blind to Read was founded in 1838 and was located at 1 Avenue Road, Regent’s Park, London. A Guide to the Institutions and Charities for the Blind in the United Kingdom, published in 1884, explains that the Society’s goal was “to provide instruction for the Blind in ordinary branches of Education, with music, in a resident school; also to teach them trades” (31). At the time the Guide was published, the Society had 26 females and 30 male student boarders. In “The Blind of London,” an essay published in The Times in 1860, Edmund Johnson noted that the primary object of the Society was “to teach the blind to read, with an especial view to their eventually reading the Holy Scriptures” (16). He goes on to explain that no student, no matter how eager he or she might be to “acquire knowledge of an art of a more material advantage” is permitted to “learn any of the additional branches of instruction until he or she can read tolerably well in one of the Gospels, an acquirement generally made within three months of his or her admission.” (16). The Guide to the Institutions and Charities for the Blind in the United Kingdom notes that female students were taught to knit, while male students learnt how to print books in the Lucas embossed script. Boys also learnt chair caning and basket making. <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[6]</a> The “Lucasian” system referred to here is one of many raised-print script systems developed and used in the course of the nineteenth-century to print text to be finger read by blind readers. It takes its name from its inventor, Thomas Lucas. <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[7]</a> The author uses references to <a title="Wikipedia Entry on Herodotus" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herodotus" target="_blank">Herodotus</a>, the famously cautious ancient Greek historian, and to <a title="John Mandeville Wikipedia Entry" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mandeville" target="_blank">John Maundeville</a>, the 14th-century world traveler, who is believed to be as mythical as the ‘facts’ about foreign places attributed to him, to express skepticism about the housekeeping and parenting abilities of a visually disabled woman. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Blind Guy Fawkes Description An account of the resource “Blind Guy Fawkes” is noteworthy for how it both participates in and diverges from a representational pattern. The introduction into Britain of raised-print books in the first decades of the nineteenth century and the proliferation of finger reading skills that followed resulted in both the founding of new schools and charities dedicated to the education of blind people and extensive press coverage of the accomplishments of this newly literate group. This article, which was published anonymously in Charles Dickens’ weekly family magazine All The Year Round, describes an evening visit to the London Society for Teaching the Blind to Read, a boarding school for young people with visual disabilities founded in 1839. While its author describes both the academic and vocational training provided by the Society, he or she chooses to open with and focus on the students’ rowdy celebration of Guy Fawkes’ day. Portraying a group of blind students as playful, pleasure-seeking, and energetic, the article’s author eschews the highlighting of difference, common in articles of this kind, in favor of an emphasis on experiences, aptitudes and interests that this group of blind children hold in common with sighted children. While many articles on the education of people with visual disabilities published in the period portray blind students as industrious, serious, devout and suffering, this article offers a more nuanced portrait, in large part by withholding information about the disabilities of the children being described. Information about the location of this celebration and the children’s visual disabilities is withheld for several paragraphs. It is only after describing the rowdy behavior of the children and their agility and pleasure that the author identifies them as having visual disabilities. While the article opens with an expression of pity, “Poor Guy!,” the pity expressed is for the effigy of Guy Fawkes and not for the children, who mark the anniversary of Guy Fawkes’ treason in the same spirit and in the same way as sighted children: by preparing a Guy for burning and by setting off fireworks. The result is a progressive, straightforward and positive portrait of blind children and of the everydayness of their lives. This is not to suggest that this article avoids all of the pitfalls common to the Victorian press’ handling of the experience of visual disability. The author describes visually disabled people as “people to whom life is one long Arctic night, unillumined by lamp of heavenly or earthly make,” a poetic lament of a kind common to reporting on disability. Similarly, the author’s discussion of blind people’s use of the word “see” to describe experiences of perception has a regrettable ethnographic feel. While the reporter is eager to share an anecdote that demonstrates the capabilities of a group of blind boys (a story about how they detect and punish an unwelcome sighted boy who spies on them by dunking him in a trough), he or she doubts a story that the students share about the existence of a highly successful blind housewife. While the author focuses on the experiences of students with visual disabilities, the article also caters to public fascination with the experiences of people with multiple sensory disabilities, fascination well documented by the century’s extensive press coverage of the education and lives of Laura Bridgman and Helen Keller. In this article, the author portrays a blind and deaf basket maker as a skilled and diligent workman but dwells on his isolation from fellow students and on his exclusion from the night’s celebrations. This representation of a blind and deaf person links the article to a section from American Notes (1842) in which Charles Dickens described his visit to the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston, both celebrating the accomplishments of the rapidly developing field of blind education and lamenting the presumed suffering and isolation of Laura Bridgman, the school’s star pupil. While both “Blind Guy Fawkes” and Dickens’ American Notes expressed and catered to public interest in the education of people with disabilities, they differ in their portrayal of blind children. “Blind Guy Fawkes,” with its lively descriptions of bold and boisterous children, is a reminder to modern readers that press reports on educational institutions for people with disabilities are far from homogenous in their approach to their shared subject matter. They document different facets of the lives of people with disabilities and, in doing so, they communicate different ideas about disability. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Anonymous Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived “Blind Guy Fawkes.” All the Year Round (November 25, 1876): 255-258. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 25 November 1876 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Vanessa Warne Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A coloured lithograph shows the School of the London Society for Teaching the Blind to Read from the road, as passerbys hurry past. The school is a stately brick building surrounded by foliage. Coloured lithograph by E. T. Dolby, n.d., after H. E. Kendall, 1838. Courtesy of the <a title="Wellcome Images" href="http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Wellcome Library, London</a> under a Creative Commons License (<a title="Wellcome Library Catalogue" href="http://catalogue.wellcomelibrary.org/record=b1196471" target="_blank">Wellcome Library no. 38645i</a>). Relation A related resource <ul><li>Bourrier, Karen. “Reading Laura Bridgman: Literacy and Disability in Dickens’s American Notes.” Dickens Studies Annual 40 (Summer 2009): 37-60.</li> <li>Drew, John and Tony Williams. <a title="Dickens Journal Online" href="http://www.djo.org.uk/" target="_blank">Dickens Journal Online</a>. University of Buckingham. <http://www.djo.org.uk/> [Contains digitized versions of Household Words and All the Year Round.]</li> <li>Gitter, Elisabeth. The Imprisoned Guest: Samuel Howe and Laura Bridgman, the Original Deaf-Blind Girl. New York: Farrar, 2001.</li> <li>Johnson, Edmund C. The Blind of London. London: John Mitchell, 1860.</li> <li>Oliphant, John. Early Education of the Blind in Britain, ca. 1790-1900: Institutional Experience in England and Scotland. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 2007.</li> <li>Turner, Mansfield and William Harris. A Guide to the Institutions and Charities for the Blind in the United Kingdom. London: Simpkin and Marshall, 1884.</li> <li>Warne, Vanessa. “‘So that the sense of touch may supply the want of sight’: Blind Reading in Nineteenth-Century Britain.” Media, Technology, and Literature in the Nineteenth Century: Image, Sound, Touch. Colette Colligan and Margaret Linley eds. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2011. 43-64.</li> </ul> Language A language of the resource English All the Year Round Blindness Charles Dickens Institutions Journalism life writing https://nineteenthcenturydisability.org/files/original/f0fdb31dd757f85ebcf5f006e5b54570.jpg 457130ed11ce7472bb682ff34e922548 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Conjoined twins born into slavery, Millie and Christine McKoy, pictured seated, facing the camera, wearing a Victorian dress with two bodices and a single large skirt. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1902 to 1914 Description An account of the resource Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Text Any textual data included in the document. There are giants and giants, dwarfs and dwarfs, fat men and women, living skeletons of both sexes, hirsute monsters and baldheads by the century; there are marvels of nature, science and art, of all which the world knows; but there can only be one NONPAREIL, one UNEQUALLED, and that is the subject of our brief sketch, for only one living creature is like Millie Christine, and her name is Christine Millie. But, says the curious reader, was there ever such another heard of before? Only one is on record, attested as a fact, and leaving out of the question fabulous monsters. The first year of the eighteenth century witnessed the birth of a similar phenomenon in Hungary, the sisters Helen and Judith, born in the year 1701. These girls were united at the lower part of the body only, and were perfectly distinct beings in every way. Helen was larger, stronger, and better-looking than Judith, besides being much more active and inteiligent. These girls lived to their twenty second year, when Judith fell sick and died, Helen following her within a few minutes of her demise. And all this, you remember, happened more than a century since, so that it takes Nature a hundred years at least to produce such a marvel again. Helen and Judith died at twenty-two years of age, while Millie Christine still lives, healthy and happy, at thirty-eight, and bids fair to attain a ripe old age as easily as less wonderful beings. The following pages, confined to a simple record of the facts in her career, will therefore prove of interest and value. Miss Millie Christine, or Christine Millie, was born of slave parents, on the plantation of Mr. Alexander McCoy, near the town of Whiteville, Columbus County, North Carolina, on July 11, 1851. At her birth her mother was in her thirty-second year. She was a handsome woman, finely formed and in excellent health. Millie Christine's father, of Moorish descent, slender and sinewy, with the powerful activity characteristic of his race. Prior to the birth of Millie Christine, her mother had borne seven other children, five boys and two girls, all of ordinary size, with no peculiarities of conformation, and some of them are still alive. The wonder of the family, Millie Christine, weighed seventeen pounds when she entered the world, and, although her mother was only attended by a colored midwife, no serious consequences attended such a remarkable birth. But, when the child was once fairly in the world, how rumor flew about the township of Whiteville, and spread from thence over the whole country! "Have you seen the girl?" was the first question asked of every one by every one, and pilgrimages to visit her became all the rage in the country side. The old nurse who had superintended her introduction into this world was doubtless awestruck at the anomalous and wonderful addition she had made to her master's property, and not unnaturally prided herself on having assisted Nature to produce a phenomenon; but the master himself, and his amiable lady, without stopping to question the designs of Providence, immediately surrounded the extraordinary infant with such care and attention as enabled it to thrive and grow. The dual-headed child was taken from the cabin to the mansion, and Mr. McCoy's family commenced then a course of care and attention to her health and welfare. During the first eighteen months of her life nothing of importance occurred to Millie Christine worthy of note. She grew as other girls grow, learned to walk at twelve months old, was of a lively and agreeable disposition, and at fifteen months began to talk with both her mouths. She was cheerful and active as any girl of her age, with every appearance of robust health. Her vivacity and goodness, together, no doubt, with her peculiar formation, rendered her the almost idolized child of the mother and a general favorite of both old and young, and every attention and kindness was bestowed upon her. At this time Mr. McCoy, being a man in very moderate circumstances, a plain farmer, thinking the girl would become a burden to him, and annoyed with the frequent visits of strangers to see her, determined to dispose of her. He was not long in finding for her a purchaser, a person of the name of Brower, who offered $10,000 for her, seeing the possibilities of the child in the way of an exhibition. But inasmuch as this Brower was not possessed of the requisite cash to back his faith, and only offered to give a note of hand for the purchase money, Mr. McCoy naturally desired some responsible person to whom to look for the money in case of the non-payment of the note when due. This person was ultimately found by Brower in Joseph P. Smith, of Wadesboro, North Carolina, and Mr. McCoy finally parted with Millie Christine, in consideration of Brower's note for $10,000 endorsed by Mr. Smith. The happy Brower, in full possession of his prize, at once departed for New Orleans, in obedience to a request from the medical faculty of that city asking that she be brought there for a scientific examination. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Millie (left) and Christine (right) McKoy were born into slavery in Columbus County, North Carolina, in 1851. These conjoined twin sisters were sometimes called Millie-Christine McKoy. Each sister had two arms and two legs, but they were connected at the lower spine and shared one pelvis. Jabez McKay owned Millie and Christine, but the twins later adopted the last name, “McKoy.” McKay, who was concerned whether the twin sisters would be productive and frustrated when visitors flooded his farm to view their unusual anatomy, eventually sold Millie and Christine for $1,000 to a showman interested in exhibiting them. Millie and Christine ended up in the possession of Joseph Pearson Smith, who hired them out to various road shows. At this time Millie and Christine also appeared in P.T. Barnum's famed American Museum in New York City. The twins were kidnapped and taken to England by one of the men responsible for exhibiting them, but Smith eventually found the girls and, with their mother, sued to regain custody. He won this suit, and the twins returned to North Carolina. Smith's wife taught Millie and Christine how to read, write, sing, dance, and play the piano; she also taught them to deliver recitations in German and French. The sisters used these skills when they were exhibited. After the Civil War, the twins decided to remain with the Smiths. They continued to appear widely for nearly thirty years, even returning to England in 1871, where they performed for Queen Victoria. In the 1880s, the sisters joined Barnum's traveling circus, but they retired to Columbus County at the end of the decade. Throughout their career and retirement, Millie and Christine gave financial support to black schools and churches. When Millie died of tuberculosis in October 1912, doctors gave Christine morphine to help end her life quickly and painlessly. Millie and Christine are central to our own understanding of the freak show as a place where a community secures its anxieties and questions about people that are perceived as different. As women of African descent, their display as “freaks” serves as an example of the conflation of race and disability and the perceived dependency of both women and people of African descent within nineteenth-century American culture. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Biographical Sketch of Millie Christine, the Carolina Twin, Surnamed the Two-Headed Nightingale and the Eighth Wonder of the World Cincinnati: Hennegan & Co. Print, [between 1902 and 1912]. Author unknown. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource George Gordon-Smith Relation A related resource <ul><li> Martel, Joanne. Millie-Christine: Fearfully and Wonderfully Made: The Remarkable Journey of Siamese Twins from Slavery to the Courts of Europe. New York: McNaughton & Gunn, 2000. </li> <li> Frost, Linda. Conjoined Twins in Black and White: The Lives of Mille-Christine McKoy and Daisy and Violet Hilton. Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 2009. </li> <li> Garland Thomson, Rosemarie. Ed., Freakery: Cultural Spectacles of the Extraordinary Body New York: New York UP, 1996. </li> </ul> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Michael A. Wesner. Early to mid-1890s era cabinet photo of conjoined twins Millie and Christine McCoy, likely taken while they were on tour in California. Image Courtesy <a title="Wikimedia Commons" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Millie_%26_Christine_McCoy_c1890s.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a> under a Creative Commons License. Title A name given to the resource Millie and Christine McKoy Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Anonymous Language A language of the resource English Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1902-1912