1 10 61 https://nineteenthcenturydisability.org/files/original/78e981d9936899a347106d72adaef088.jpg 7b203ac401640e93e2df0502b6633d77 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 378 Height 532 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:V0015892 A blind beggar walks past two figures guided by his dog headline:V0015892 A blind beggar walks past two figures guided by his dog with caption:V0015892 A blind beggar walks past two figures guided by his dog with Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://images.wellcome.ac.uk A blind beggar walks past two figures guided by his dog with a begging bowl. Etching by J.T. Smith, 1816. 1816 By: John Thomas SmithPublished: 30 April 1816 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:"V0015892 A blind beggar walks past two figures guided by his dog";s:8:"headline";s:69:"V0015892 A blind beggar walks past two figures guided by his dog with";s:7:"caption";s:452:"V0015892 A blind beggar walks past two figures guided by his dog with Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://images.wellcome.ac.uk A blind beggar walks past two figures guided by his dog with a begging bowl. Etching by J.T. Smith, 1816. 1816 By: John Thomas SmithPublished: 30 April 1816 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 this black and white etching, a blind beggar walks past two figures guided by his dog, who carries a begging bowl. Etching by J.T. Smith, 1816. 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. He stands, a patient figure, where the crowd Heaves to and fro; a sound is in his ears As of a vexed sea roaring, and he hears In darkness, as a dead man in his shroud. Patient he stands, with age and sorrow bowed, And holds a piteous hat of ancient years; And in his face and gesture there appears The desperate humbleness of poor men proud What thoughts are his, as, with the inward sight, He sees the glad unheeding Fair go by? Is the long darkness darker for that light And sorrow nearer when such mirth is nigh? Patient, alone, he stands from morn to night, Pleading in his reproachful misery. 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 Blind Beggar' Description An account of the resource When <a title="Arthur Symons Wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Symons" target="_blank">Arthur Symons</a> (1865-1945) published his sonnet “The Blind Beggar” in 1892, he added to an already large body of literature that links the experience of visual disability with begging.  Noteworthy among texts from the period that portray blind beggars is William Wordsworth’s posthumously published autobiographical poem <a title="The Prelude" href="http://www.nineteenthcenturydisability.org/items/show/11" target="_self">The Prelude</a> (1805, 1850). Whereas Wordsworth’s sighted speaker experiences an epiphany about the limitations of human knowledge while looking at a blind man, Symons’ speaker is far less assured and comes away from his encounter with a blind beggar with questions instead of answers.  Whereas for Wordsworth’s speaker, the blind man is useful both for how he prompts the speaker to greater insight and for the way in which he conveniently embodies human experience, for Symons’ speaker, the encounter with a blind man prompts him to wonder about the mental and emotional life of the blind man and about the blind man’s experience of social isolation.  Interested both in the experience of sensory disability and in the social marginalization and financial dependency that the poem attributes to the beggar’s disability, the speaker leaves the questions he asks unanswered.   He produces, nonetheless, a detailed, predictable and problematic portrait of the blind beggar.  The beggar, who is characterized by both the poem’s final word, “misery,” and by the thrice-repeated adjective “patient,” is isolated from the carefree crowd, described as “the glad unheeding Fair.”  Symons’ characterization of the blind man as passive is most apparent, and most troubling, in a simile that compares the blind man to a corpse.  Imagining the sensory experiences of a blind person, Symons’ speaker proposes that the blind man “hears/ In darkness, as a dead man in his shroud.”  While the simile enacts a doubling of the blind man’s disability, suggesting that the blind man can neither see nor hear, it is most remarkable for its disturbing identification of disability with death.  The poem, characterized by its mix of dehumanizing and empathetic statements, is usefully read in relation not only to other poems that feature blind beggars but also in relation to prose commentaries on the presence of blind beggars in nineteenth-century city streets.  When Charles Lamb defended the rights of blind beggars in his 1822 essay “A Complaint of the Decay of Beggars in the Metropolis,” he argued against campaigns to remove blind beggars from the streets, asserting that the claims being made on private charity by visually disabled men were legitimate and that freedom of movement and social contact with a wider community were highly valued by, and beneficial to, people with visual disabilities.  In contrast, Andrew Halliday, writing in Volume 4 of London Labour and the London Poor (1851-1861), commended the London Mendicity Society, an organization whose aim was to bring an end to public begging, in part by encouraging police to arrest street beggars.  While Halliday views “blind men and cripples” as having a more legitimate claim than most beggars to public sympathy and charity, he is ill at ease with the presence of some beggars in public places.  He writes: “The officers of the Mendicity Society have cleared the streets of nearly all the impostors, and the few who remain are blind men and cripples […] I cannot think, however, that the police exercise a wise discretion in permitting some of the more hideous of these beggars to infest the street” (4:431-3). Focused on a personage who was arguably the public face of visual disability in the nineteenth century, the blind street beggar, Symons’ sonnet contributed not only to a well-established literary tradition of linking blindness with begging but also to an important and ongoing debate about begging, charitable giving and the presence of impoverished visually disabled people on Britain’s public streets. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Symons, Arthur Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Symons, Arthur “The Blind Beggar” (1892). Poems by Arthur Symons. Vol. 1. London: Heinemann, 1927. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1892 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Vanessa Warne Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In this black and white etching, a blind beggar walks past two figures guided by his dog, who carries a begging bowl. Etching by J.T. Smith, 1816. Courtesy <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" href="http://catalogue.wellcomelibrary.org/record=b1174340" target="_blank">Wellcome Library no. 16453i</a>). Relation A related resource <ul> <li>Lamb, Charles.  “A Complaint of the Decay of Beggars in the Metropolis.” Essays of Elia and Last Essays of Elia.  London: J.M. Dent, 1972. 134-41</li> <li>Mayhew, Henry.  London Labour and the London Poor.  4 vols. 1861-62.  Reprint.  New York: Dover, 1968.</li> <li>Warne, Vanessa.  “Clearing the Streets: Blindness and Begging in Henry Mayhew’s London Labour and the London Poor.” City Limits: Perspectives on the Historical European City. Glenn Clark, Judith Owens, and Greg Smith eds.  Montreal: McGill-Queen’s UP, 2010.</li> <li>Wordsworth, William.  <a title="The Prelude" href="http://www.nineteenthcenturydisability.org/items/show/11" target="_self">“The Prelude [Excerpt],” </a>  Annotated by Vanessa Warne.  Nineteenth-Century Disability: A Digital Reader.  </li> </ul> Arthur Symons Blindness Class Literature Poetry William Wordsworth https://nineteenthcenturydisability.org/files/original/fb7ce80138920dad18666487654cbcc2.jpg 5af8776fd4134ba5d848c9cf861eabe0 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 449 Height 552 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 Mrs. Skewton, seated in a three wheeled chair in a crowded street, is greeted by a gentleman who tips his hat to her. Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne), “Major Bagstock is delighted to have that opportunity”, from Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son. London: Bradbury & Evans, 1847. Scan by Philip V. Allingham. Victorian Web. <http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/phiz/104.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/. 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. In this manner the Major and Mr Dombey were walking arm-in-arm, much to their own satisfaction,<a title="" href="#_ftn1">[1]</a> when they beheld advancing towards them, a wheeled chair, in which a lady was seated, indolently steering her carriage by a kind of rudder in front, while it was propelled by some unseen power in the rear. [ . . . ] ‘Why, what the devil have we here, Sir!’ cried the Major, stopping as this little cavalcade drew near. ‘My dearest Edith!’<a title="" href="#_ftn2">[2]</a> drawled the lady in the chair, ‘Major Bagstock!’ The Major no sooner heard the voice, than he relinquished Mr Dombey’s arm, darted forward, took the hand of the lady in the chair and pressed it to his lips. With no less gallantry, the Major folded both his gloves upon his heart, and bowed low to the other lady. And now, the chair having stopped, the motive power became visible in the shape of a flushed page pushing behind, who seemed to have in part out-grown and in part out-pushed his strength, for when he stood upright he was tall, and wan, and thin, and his plight appeared the more forlorn from his having injured the shape of his hat, by butting at the carriage with his head to urge it forward, as is sometimes done by elephants in Oriental countries. <h3>Notes</h3> <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[1]</a> Mr. Dombey and Major Bagstock have just arrived in Leamington, a British resort town famous for its medicinal springs. <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[2]</a> Edith Granger is Mrs. Skewton’s daughter. 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 Dombey and Son Description An account of the resource Charles Dickens’s Dombey and Son (1846–1848) attests to his career-long interest in chair-bound characters<a title="" href="#_ftn1">[1]</a>—characters who, because of illness, injury, or egotism, are confined or confine themselves to a “wheeled chair” (alternately referred to as the “Bath wheeled chair” or the “Bath chair”). In this particular novel, Dickens provides two examples of Victorian chair users: Paul Dombey, who, when ill, travels by wheeled chair so that he can sit by the sea with his sister; and Mrs. Skewton, an elderly lady who travels in a wheeled chair to perpetuate an illusion of wealth and social status. The former he renders sympathetic, while the latter he depicts as a figure of falseness—a heap of makeup and clothes that almost melts into the chair with which she joins her body. This excerpt from Dombey and Son, in which Mrs. Skewton is first introduced to the reader, illustrates Dickens’s perhaps harsh treatment of Mrs. Skewton and invites readers to consider the reasoning behind certain prejudices against chair users. In his depiction of the relationship between Mrs. Skewton and her page, Withers, Dickens engages with past and contemporary criticism directed toward people who travel by chair. In the novel, Withers is reduced to a beast of burden, “butting at the carriage with his head” like an elephant (317). To further his point, Dickens later describes Withers as another animal: “toiling after the chair, uphill, like a slow battering-ram” (321). Dickens’s furious humor levels an attack on Mrs. Skewton for her treatment of Withers as though he were an animal, an object for her personal use. To better understand Dickens’s portrayal of Mrs. Skewton, a brief history of the wheeled chair’s evolution from the sedan chair is necessary. First used in London by the Duke of Buckingham in the early seventeenth century, the sedan chair was less a “chair,” per se, and more of an enclosed box with glass doors and a detachable roof that was carried through the streets of London by two or more porters (alternately called “chairmen”), with “link-boys,” or torch bearers, employed to light the way for nighttime journeys. Patronized primarily by the wealthier classes of society, the sedan chair received much negative attention from the public, in part because the sedan chairs often collided with and injured pedestrians and in part because the public viewed the technology as demeaning to the chairmen. As evidenced by nineteenth-century periodicals, the negative discourse surrounding the sedan chair continued well past its era of usage. For instance, one anonymous writer for Chambers’s Journal of Popular Literature, Science and Arts suggests that seventeenth-century Londoners “grumbl[ed] indignantly at the pride of the man [the Duke] who employed his fellow-creatures to do the service of beasts of burden” (91–92).<a title="" href="#_ftn2">[2]</a> While the chairs were most often used by those for whom walking was a burden, their support by lower-class muscle caused the public to reject them wholesale as an unnecessary luxury. In the nineteenth century, the sedan chair became increasingly obsolete as it was replaced by the wheeled chair, which was initially introduced in Bath, Leamington, and other seaside health spas as a means to transport the ill to the mineral water baths. Contrary to their wheel-less predecessors, which were owned or hired by the “able-bodied” and “disabled” alike, Bath chairs were used almost entirely by those who could not walk easily. The demographic of chair users shifted in another way: whereas the sedan chairs were primarily employed by elite society, wheeled chairs, because cheaper to hire, were more accessible to middle class patrons. Despite these changes, the wheeled chair still attracted hostilities, particularly owing to its effect on the chairmen, who often developed orthopedic impediments of their own while working. For example, in “The Bath-Chair Man’s Story,” Florence Marryat’s chairman-protagonist references his “old round back,” which results from his constant stooping (516).<a title="" href="#_ftn3">[3]</a> Prejudices against wheeled-chair users as lazy—choosing to ride rather than walk—and as demeaning and debilitating the lower-class chairmen continued to solidify during the nineteenth century. In characterizing Withers alternately as a battering ram and as an elephant, then, Dickens underscores the class dynamics inherited by the wheeled chair from its seventeenth- and eighteenth-century precursor. Dickens alludes to such class tensions when he portrays Mrs. Skewton as “calling to the page with all the languid dignity with which she had called in days of yore to a coachman with a wig, cauliflower nosegay, and silk stockings” (320). Her use of the wheeled chair thus exposes her to the narrator’s and the reader’s critical gaze, especially because she travels in it not out of necessity, but rather as a display of the wealth and status that she, in actuality, lacks. As the narrator indicates, after becoming accustomed in her youth to travel by barouche, Mrs. Skewton “[maintains] the wheeled chair and the butting page: there being nothing whatever, except the attitude, to prevent her from walking” (319). Attending to the various elements that contributed to the assemblage of the Victorian wheeled chair—the page, the chair user, and the chair itself—Dickens highlights the objectification of an often forgotten participant, the chairman, thereby positioning prejudices against chair users as, at least partially, class-based. Mrs. Skewton’s pretense of need and her mistreatment of Withers contribute to her removal from readerly sympathy until she becomes terminally ill and truly dependent upon the aid and support of others. <h3>Notes</h3> <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[1]</a> This preoccupation of Dickens’s was first noted by M. J. Lesser in “Dickens and the Chair-Bound.” See below for full reference. <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[2]</a> “Sedan-Chairs.” Chambers’s Journal of Popular Literature, Science and Arts 12.580 (9 February 1895): 91–93. British Periodicals. Web. 14 June 2013. <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[3]</a> Marryat, Florence. “The Bath-Chair Man’s Story.” Temple Bar: A London Magazine for Town and Country Readers 22 (March 1868): 507–20. British Periodicals. Web. 13 June 2013. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Dickens, Charles. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Dickens, Charles. Dombey and Son. London: Penguin, 2002. 316–17. Print. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1847 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jennifer Janechek Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Mrs. Skewton, seated in a three wheeled chair in a crowded street, is greeted by a gentleman who tips his hat to her. Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne), “Major Bagstock is delighted to have that opportunity”, from Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son. London: Bradbury & Evans, 1847. Scan by Philip V. Allingham. <a title="Victorian Web" href="http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/phiz/104.html" target="_blank">Victorian Web</a>. <http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/phiz/104.html>. Relation A related resource <ul><li> Fawcett, Trevor. “<a title="Fawcett Chair Article" href="%3A//condor.depaul.edu/cchaden/bath/chairtransport.html" target="_blank">Chair Transport in Bath: The Sedan Era</a>.” Bath History. Vol. 2. Gloucestershire, United Kingdom: Sutton Publishing, 1988: n. page. See <://condor.depaul.edu/cchaden/bath/chairtransport.html </li> <li> Lesser, M. J. “Dickens and the Chair-Bound.” Dickensian 73.381 (January 1977): 25–32. </li> <li> Sussman, Herbert and Gerhard Joseph. “Prefiguring the Posthuman: Dickens and Prosthesis.” Victorian Literature and Culture 32.2 (2004): 617–28. </li> </ul> Language A language of the resource English Charles Dickens Class Literature Mobility Novel Prosthesis Technology https://nineteenthcenturydisability.org/files/original/dfb3d57671da48f43f07bbc25d2db837.jpg 2b8ebc083ad500236f735bd05338ccdb 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 391 Height 524 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:L0047932 A lady retiring to bed, and ordering her maid to look a headline:L0047932 A lady retiring to bed, and ordering her maid to look after caption:L0047932 A lady retiring to bed, and ordering her maid to look after Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://images.wellcome.ac.uk A lady retiring to bed, and ordering her maid to look after her artificial aids to beauty (wig, teeth, glass eye etc.). Coloured etching by P. Roberts after G.M Woodward Titled \'Celia Retiring\' c. 1807 By: G. M. Woodwardafter: P. RobertsPublished: [ca. 1807] 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:"L0047932 A lady retiring to bed, and ordering her maid to look a";s:8:"headline";s:68:"L0047932 A lady retiring to bed, and ordering her maid to look after";s:7:"caption";s:555:"L0047932 A lady retiring to bed, and ordering her maid to look after Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://images.wellcome.ac.uk A lady retiring to bed, and ordering her maid to look after her artificial aids to beauty (wig, teeth, glass eye etc.). Coloured etching by P. Roberts after G.M Woodward Titled \'Celia Retiring\' c. 1807 By: G. M. Woodwardafter: P. RobertsPublished: [ca. 1807] 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 colour sketch shows a lady retiring to bed and ordering her maid to look after her artificial aids to beauty (wig, teeth, glass eye etc.), entitled “Celia Retiring” by P. Roberts (after G.M Woodward). Coloured etching, 1807. 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. A lion-hearted old warrior was Miss Ruff,—one who could not stand with patience the modern practice of dallying in the presence of her enemies' guns. She had come there for a rubber of whist<a title="" href="#_ftn1">[1]</a>—to fight the good fight—to conquer or to die, and her soul longed to be at it […] “That Miss Ruff is dreadful.” Here an awful note was heard, for the Lady Ruth had just put her thirteenth trump on Miss Ruff's thirteenth heart. What Littlebathian female soul could stand that unmoved? “Oh, dear! that poor old woman!” continued Miss Todd. “You know one lives in constant fear of her having a fit. Miss Ruff is horrible. She has a way of looking with that fixed eye<a title="" href="#_ftn2">[2]</a> of hers that is almost worse than her voice.” The fact was, that Miss Ruff had one glass eye. “I know she'll be the death of that poor old creature some of these days. Lady Ruth will play, and she hardly knows one card from another. And then Miss Ruff, she will scold. Good heavens! do you hear that?” “It's just seven minutes since I turned the last trick of the last hand,” Miss Ruff had said, scornfully. “We shall have finished the two rubbers about six in the morning, I take it.” “Will your ladyship allow me to deal for you?” said Mr. Fuzzybell, meaning to be civil. “I'll allow you to do no such thing,” croaked out Lady Ruth. “I can deal very well myself; at any rate as well as Miss Ruff. And I'm not the least in a hurry;” and she went on slobbering out the cards, and counting them over and over again, almost as each card fell [. . .] This was dreadful to Miss Ruff. Here had her rival played two rubbers, won them both, pocketed all but a sovereign<a title="" href="#_ftn3">[3]</a>, and was again at work; while she, she was still painfully toiling through her second game, the first having been scored against her by her partner's fatuity in having trumped her long heart. Was this to be borne with patience? “Lady Ruth,” she said, emitting fire out of her one eye, “do you ever mean to have done dealing those cards?” Lady Ruth did not condescend to make any answer, but recommenced her leisurely counting; and then Miss Ruff uttered that terrific screech which had peculiarly excited Miss Todd's attention. [. . .] The table at which Lady Ruth and her party were sitting—we ought rather to say, Miss Ruff and her party—was in one corner of the room, and our friends had placed themselves on a cushioned seat fixed against the wall in this very corner. Things were still going badly with Miss Ruff. As Sindbad carried the old man, and could not shake him off, so did Miss Ruff still carry Lady Ruth Revoke; and the weight was too much for her. She manfully struggled on, however—womanfully would perhaps be a stronger and more appropriate word. She had to calculate not only how to play her own hand correctly, but she had also to calculate on her partner's probable errors. This was hard work, and required that all around her should be undisturbed and silent [. . .] The quarrelling had been going on unabated, but that had caused little surprise. It is astonishing how soon the ear becomes used to incivilities. They were now accustomed to Miss Ruff's voice, and thought nothing of her exclamations. “Well, I declare—what, the ten of spades!—ha! ha! ha! well, it is an excellent joke—if you could have obliged me, Lady Ruth, by returning my lead of trumps, we should have been out,” &c., &c., &c. All this and more attracted no attention, and the general pity for Lady Ruth had become dead and passive. But at last Miss Ruff's tongue went faster and faster, and her words became sharper and sharper. Lady Ruth's countenance became very strange to look at. She bobbed her head about slowly in a manner that frightened Mr. Fuzzybell, and ceased to make any remark to her partner. Then Mrs. Garded made two direct appeals to Miss Ruff for mercy. But Miss Ruff could not be merciful. Perhaps on each occasion she refrained for a moment, but it was only for a moment; and Mrs. Garded and Mr. Fuzzybell ceased to think of their cards, and looked only at the Lady Ruth; and then of a sudden they both rose from their seats, the colonel, as we have said, rushed across the room, and all the players at all the tables put down their cards and stood up in alarm. Lady Ruth was sitting perfectly still, except that she still bobbed her old head up and down in a strange unearthly manner. She had about ten cards in her hand which she held motionless. Her eyes seemed to be fixed in one continued stare directly on the face of her foe. Her lower jaw had fallen so as to give a monstrous extension to her cadaverous face. There she sat apparently speechless; but still she bobbed her head, and still she held her cards. It was known at Littlebath that she had suffered from paralysis, and Mrs. Garded and Mr. Fuzzybell thinking that she was having or about to have a fit, naturally rushed to her assistance. [. . .] “Do you feel yourself ill, Lady Ruth?” said Miss Todd. But her ladyship answered nothing. It seemed, however, that her ladyship could walk, for with her two supporters she made her way nearly to the door of the room. There she stood, and having succeeded in shaking off Sir Lionel's arm, she turned and faced round upon the company. She continued to bob her head at them all, and then made this little speech, uttering each word very slowly. “I wish she had a glass tongue as well, because then perhaps she'd break it.” And having so revenged herself, she suffered Miss Todd to lead her away into the bedroom. It was clear at least that she had no fit, and the company was thankful. (359-80) <h3>Notes</h3> <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[1]</a> Whist is a card game that was popular throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It was derived from the older game “Ruff and Honours”, perhaps explaining Miss Ruff’s name. Rubber refers to a scoring system that decides the winner, meaning the best of three—that is, the winner is the first player to win two games. <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[2]</a> One of the major flaws in early ocular prosthesis was that shell design artificial eyes (curved shells of glass or enamel that would rest upon the surface of an atrophied eye) were often ill-fitting, or had sharp edges which restricted their range of movement and caused damage to surrounding tissue. It was rare for eyes to be surgically removed (enucleated) at this time—prior to improvements in anatomical knowledge and surgical procedure enucleation was extremely dangerous—and so shell design eyes were by far the most common forms of ocular prosthesis available. For more on the medical, technological and commercial history of artificial eyes, see Katherine Ott’s“Hard Wear and Soft Tissue: Craft and Commerce in Artificial Eyes” in Katherine Ott, David Serlin and Stephen Mihm’s (eds.) Artificial Parts, Practical Lives: Modern Histories of Prosthetics (New York: New York University Press, 2002), 147-71. <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[3]</a> A sovereign was a £1 coin. For more on Victorian currency, see Marje Bloy’s “<a href="http://www.victorianweb.org/economics/currency.html">British Currency before 1971</a>” on The Victorian Web. 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 Bertrams Description An account of the resource Anthony Trollope's <a href="http://ia600308.us.archive.org/19/items/bertramsnovel01troluoft/bertramsnovel01troluoft.pdf">The Bertrams</a> (1859) is a rare example of a nineteenth-century novel that depicts a one-eyed female character. Whereas male characters that have missing eyes appear frequently elsewhere in nineteenth-century British literature—thinking, for instance, of Mr. Squeers from Charles Dickens’s <a href="http://archive.org/stream/nicholasnickleby00967gut/old/ncklb10.txt">Nicholas Nickleby</a>(1838-39), Mr. Pinto from William Makepeace Thackeray’s short story“<a href="http://archive.org/stream/thelockandkeylib01831gut/lckyl10.txt">The Notch on the Ax: A Story a la Mode</a>” (1862) and M. Laferté from George du Maurier’s <a href="http://archive.org/stream/themartian27400gut/pg27400.txt">The Martian</a>(1897) to name but a few—Trollope’s text includes a character that, despite her sex, aligns with several of the common negative characteristics that were associated with one-eyed men and ocular prosthesis wearers in this period. The minor character, Miss Ruff, who is a regular visitor to Littlebath in Trollope’s tale (the home of well-to-do spinster Miss Todd), is indeed a wearer of an artificial eye and like many of the male characters described elsewhere in Victorian fiction, is portrayed in a far from flattering manner. Despite resisting associating the deformed with criminality in this text, which was often the case in relation to the one-eyed male character, Trollope does, however, depict Miss Ruff as someone who is as ugly in character as she is in appearance. In fact, though to a less extreme extent, like the sinister schoolmaster Mr. Squeers from Dickens’s novel, Miss Ruff is portrayed as somewhat villainous and, considering her excessively aggressive card-play, to some extent violent. Significantly, the tale also reveals the gender-specific social difficulties that faced Victorian one-eyed women. Written at a time when artificial eyes were becoming more user-friendly and increasingly accurate-looking replacements for the human eye, Trollope’s text can, to some extent, be read as a critique of contemporary ocular prostheses due to the very fact that Miss Ruff is a recognisable user of a glass eye: the primary aim of the artificial eye maker was to produce a device that could as accurately as possible mimic the appearance of a real eye, making the wearer’s loss unperceivable thus alleviating unwanted attention and stigma. While significant and well-publicised developments in artificial eye technology were made in the 1840s, 50s and 60s—most notably by French prosthetist Auguste Boissonneau, who pioneered the production of ergonomically designed bespoke enamel artificial eyes—Trollope’s text suggests that ocular prostheses could still easily be distinguished from their natural counterpart. In fact, the very flaws in Miss Ruff’s prosthesis add to her abhorrent demeanour: the “fixed” position of her eye is a physical manifestation of the intensity and harshness that she displays behaviourally in her aggressive card-play. For one-eyed women, ocular prosthesis use has long been associated with aging, abhorrence and spinsterhood. Jonathan’s Swift’s satirical poem “<a href="http://archive.org/stream/thepoemsofjonath14353gut/14353.txt">A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed</a>“ (1731), Louis-Léopold Boilly’s painting “Les epoux assortis” (1825; available to view at <a href="http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/">Wellcome Images</a>) and G.M Woodward’s “Celia Retiring” (1803; see image above) are just three examples that exemplify this point. As it would appear, Trollope reaffirms these connotations with his depiction of Miss Ruff. An unwanted ever-present at the whist table, Miss Ruff’s glass eye can be read as both a reason for and signifier of her old age and spinsterhood. Since such a premium was placed on physical appearance and maternal function, women with deformities, especially those with visible physical disfigurements, often occupied a marginalised position within society. In Miss Ruff’s case, her obvious use of an artificial eye is a visual signifier for her inability to attract a male suitor; it could, in fact, be the very reason why she remains single. Trollope further emphasises her unsuitability for marriage by enamoring her with a number of unattractive traits—sternness, competitiveness, rudeness and aggressiveness—which reaffirm the prejudices against bodily difference which were rife during this period. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Trollope, Anthony. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Trollope, Anthony. The Bertrams. Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1859. Vol. 1. Pages 359-80. Available <a href="http://ia600308.us.archive.org/19/items/bertramsnovel01troluoft/bertramsnovel01troluoft.pdf">online</a> at archive.org. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1859 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Ryan Sweet Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The colour sketch shows a lady retiring to bed and ordering her maid to look after her artificial aids to beauty (wig, teeth, glass eye etc.), entitled “Celia Retiring” by P. Roberts (after G.M Woodward). Coloured etching, 1807. Courtesy of the <a href="http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/">Wellcome Library, London</a> under Creative Commons License (<a title="Wellcome Library Catalogue" href="http://catalogue.wellcomelibrary.org/record=b1662684" target="_blank">Wellcome Library no. 662684i</a>). Relation A related resource <ul><li>The College of Optometrists, “<a href="http://www.college-optometrists.org/en/knowledge-centre/museyeum/online_exhibitions/artificialeyes/glass.cfm">Glass Eyes</a>”.</li> <li>Davis, Lennard J. “Constructing Normalcy”. The Disability Studies Reader. ed. Lennard J. Davis. 3rd ed. London: Routledge, 2010. 3-19.</li> <li>Holmes, Martha Stoddard. Fictions of Affliction: Physical Disability in Victorian Culture. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 2004.</li> <li>Ott, Katherine. “Hard Wear and Soft Tissue: Craft and Commerce in Artificial Eyes”. Artificial Parts, Practical Lives: Modern Histories of Prosthetics. eds. Katherine Ott, David Serlin and Stephen Mihm. New York: New York UP, 2002. 147-71.</li> <li>Prince, J. H. Ocular Prosthesis. Edinburgh: E. & S. Livingstone, 1946.</li> </ul> Anthony Trollope Gender Literature Novel Prosthesis https://nineteenthcenturydisability.org/files/original/05341f421fe19fce0759b212b25cedb8.jpg d661a8d1e8421737a609e999fcef30e3 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 601 Height 516 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:L0036586 A selection of glass eyes from an opticians glas eye ca headline:L0036586 A selection of glass eyes from an opticians glas eye case. caption:L0036586 A selection of glass eyes from an opticians glas eye case. Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://images.wellcome.ac.uk A selection of glass eyes from an opticians glas eye case. Possibly made by E. Muller of Liverpool. Photograph c. 1900 Published: - 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:"L0036586 A selection of glass eyes from an opticians glas eye ca";s:8:"headline";s:67:"L0036586 A selection of glass eyes from an opticians glas eye case.";s:7:"caption";s:427:"L0036586 A selection of glass eyes from an opticians glas eye case. Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://images.wellcome.ac.uk A selection of glass eyes from an opticians glas eye case. Possibly made by E. Muller of Liverpool. Photograph c. 1900 Published: - 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 photograph of a glass eye from an optician’s case—possibly made by E. Muller of Liverpool. c. 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 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. Many weeks after, amidst the charred ruins of the Experimental Farm, there was found something which may or may not have been a human shoulder-blade and in another part of the ruins a long bone greatly gnawed and equally doubtful. Near the stile going up towards Eyebright there was found a glass eye, and many people discovered thereupon that Skinner owed much of his personal charm to such a possession. It stared out upon the world with that same inevitable effect of detachment, that same severe melancholy that had been the redemption of his else worldly countenance. [. . .] The glass eye of course has an air of extreme conviction, but If It really is Skinner's—and even Mrs. Skinner did not certainly know if that immobile eye of his was glass—something has changed it from a liquid brown to a serene and confident blue. That shoulder-blade is an extremely doubtful document, and I would like to put it side by side with the gnawed scapulae<a title="" href="#_ftn1">[1]</a>of a few of the commoner domestic animals before I admitted its humanity. <div> </div> <h3>Note</h3> <div> <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[1]</a> Scapulae is an anatomical term that refers to the shoulder blade. </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 Food of the Gods and How it Came to Earth Description An account of the resource Published in 1904, H. G. Wells’s novel <a href="http://archive.org/details/foodofgodshowitc00well">The Food of the Gods and How it Came to Earth</a> is a tale that depicts ocular prosthesis at its most effective: the minor character Mr. Skinner is only revealed as an artificial eye user after his death, where the only remains of him found are a glass eye and a severed shoulder blade, thus paying testimony to the increasingly life-like nature of contemporary ocular prostheses. Mr.Skinner’s use of such a device is in fact so convincing a replacement that even his wife is said to be unsure of whether he wore an artificial eye. Furthermore, the narrator even suggests that the device enhanced, rather than detracted from, Mr. Skinner’s personal appearance prior to his death, providing a contrast with earlier depictions of ocular prosthesis from nineteenth-century literature, which, in many cases, described artificial eye wearers as having an abhorrent look (see Miss Ruff from Anthony Trollope’s 1859 novel <a href="http://ia600308.us.archive.org/19/items/bertramsnovel01troluoft/bertramsnovel01troluoft.pdf">The Bertrams</a>, Mr. Pinto from William Makepeace Thackeray’s 1862 short story“<a href="http://archive.org/stream/thelockandkeylib01831gut/lckyl10.txt">The Notch on the Ax: A Story a la Mode</a>” and M. Laferté from George du Maurier’s 1897 novel <a href="http://archive.org/stream/themartian27400gut/pg27400.txt">The Martian</a>). Written following a number of significant improvements made in both the prosthetic devices that were available to the one-eyed and the surgical procedures that prepared the ocular cavity for the introduction of an artificial device, Wells’s text showcases an artificial eye which successfully negates the unwanted attention and stigma so often attached to earlier prosthesis users. Many technological and medical developments facilitated this ability in real life, including Amédée Bonnet’s re-description of the tenon’s capsule in 1841, which paved the way for surgeon’s to more safely remove eyeballs using a procedure called enucleation; the influence of French ocularist Auguste Boissonneau’s personalised and anatomically-accurate approach to prosthesis making; the development of new lighter and more durable glass compounds by German ocularists in the 1870s; and the Müller brothers’ invention of the “Snellen” or “reform eye” in the 1890s, which provided enucleated patients with a prosthetic device that could both fill the empty socket left following enucleation and enable a full range of natural movement. Through his portrayal of a device which utterly evades attention until it is detached from the socket of its user, Wells presents ocular prosthesis as a technology that (thanks to its development in the nineteenth century) could successfully hide the one-eyed user in early-Edwardian society. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Wells, H. G. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Wells, H. G. The Food of The Gods and How it Came to Earth. 1904. rpt. London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1909. Pages 50-1. Full text available <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/foodofgodshowitc00well">online</a> at archive.org. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1904 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Ryan Sweet Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A photograph of a glass eye from an optician’s case—possibly made by E. Muller of Liverpool. c. 1900. Courtesy of the <a href="http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/">Wellcome Library, London</a> under a Creative Commons License (<a title="Wellcome Images" href="http://wellcomeimages.org/" target="_blank">Museum No A660037</a>). Relation A related resource <ul><li>The College of Optometrists, “<a href="http://www.college-optometrists.org/en/knowledge-centre/museyeum/online_exhibitions/artificialeyes/glass.cfm">Glass Eyes</a>”.</li> <li>Ott, Katherine. “Hard Wear and Soft Tissue: Craft and Commerce in Artificial Eyes”. Artificial Parts, Practical Lives: Modern Histories of Prosthetics. eds. Katherine Ott, David Serlin and Stephen Mihm. New York: New York UP, 2002. 147-71.</li> <li>Prince, J. H. Ocular Prosthesis. Edinburgh: E. & S. Livingstone, 1946.</li> </ul> H. G. Wells Literature Novel Prosthesis Science Fiction https://nineteenthcenturydisability.org/files/original/1c33dec5afde0bfded4d301aa14f9da6.jpg 9c21d51da135b927e72745214f67e70b 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 453 Height 536 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 John McL. Ralston’s illustration shows Dolor testing out his flying cloak inside the tower, with his hands to his ears. 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. He hesitated, not wishing to be impolite. “Don’t you think it’s—just a little old and shabby for a prince?” The old woman laughed—long and loud, though very sweetly. “Prince, indeed! Why, if all the princes in the world craved for it, they couldn’t get it, unless I gave it them. Old and shabby! It’s the most valuable thing imaginable! Very few ever have it; but I thought I would give it to you, because—because you are different from other people.” “Am I?” said the Prince, and looked first with curiosity, then with a sort of anxiety, into his godmother’s face, which was sad and grave, with slow tears beginning to steal down. She touched his poor little legs. “These are not like those of other little boys.” “Indeed!—my nurse never told me that.” “Very likely not. But it is time you were told; and I tell you, because I love you.” “Tell me what, dear godmother?” “That you will never be able to walk or run or jump or play—that your life will be quite different from most people’s lives: but it may be a very happy life for all that. Do not be afraid.” “I am not afraid,” said the boy; but he turned very pale, and his lips began to quiver, though he did not actually cry—he was too old for that, and, perhaps, too proud. Though not wholly comprehending, he began dimly to guess what his godmother meant. He had never seen any real live boys, but he had seen pictures of them; running and jumping; which he had admired and tried hard to imitate, but always failed. Now he began to understand why he failed, and that he always should fail— that, in fact, he was not like other little boys; and it was of no use his wishing to do as they did, and play as they played, even if he had had them to play with. His was a separate life, in which he must find out new work and new pleasures for himself. The sense of the inevitable, as grown‐up people call it—that we cannot have things as we want them to be, but as they are, and that we must learn to bear them and make the best of them—this lesson, which everybody has to learn soon or late—came, alas! sadly soon, to the poor boy. He fought against it for a while, and then, quite overcome, turned and sobbed bitterly in his godmother’s arms. She comforted him—I do not know how, except that love always comforts; and then she whispered to him, in her sweet, strong, cheerful voice— “Never mind!” “No, I don’t think I do mind—that is, I won’t mind,” replied he, catching the courage of her tone and speaking like a man, though he was still such a mere boy. 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 Little Lame Prince Description An account of the resource Dinah Mulock Craik’s Victorian fairytale The Little Lame Prince and His Travelling Cloak (1874) tells the story of Prince Dolor, whose legs are disabled after a nurse drops him at his christening. Following the death of his father, the king of Nomansland, the infant Prince Dolor is secretly banished to a distant tower by his wicked uncle. Dolor grows up in the tower, unaware of his position as the true king of Nomansland and, as the excerpt below suggests, equally unaware of his identity as a person with disability until his fairy godmother, Stuff-and-nonsense, provides him with a magical travelling cloak that allows him to leave the castle. The adventures Dolor has on the cloak teach him lessons that make him a better ruler when he is eventually reinstated as Nomansland’s king. In the excerpt below, Stuff-and-nonsense gives Dolor his magical travelling cloak, explaining that she does so because he cannot walk. Craik wrote prolifically about the <a title="Craik Olive" href="http://www.nineteenthcenturydisability.org/items/show/5">lives of people with disabilities</a>, and explored in her fiction the consequences of being deemed physically different in a world that privileges “normalcy.” Significantly, Craik’s portrayal of disability reveals that the Victorian perception of disability was complex and, at times, self-contradictory. The following excerpt paints disability as immutably and pitiably “different,” producing for the fairytale’s audience a sentimental lesson on accepting one’s circumstances; however, at the same time, the scene demonstrates that the primary problems of disability are social, not physical. What makes Dolor weep is his social isolation, not his physical difference. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Craik, Dinah Mulock Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Dinah Mulock Craik, The Little Lame Prince and His Travelling Cloak: A Parable for Young and Old. Illus. John McL. Ralston. London: Daldy, Ibitser & Co., 1875. Pages 59-61. Available <a title="Little Lame Prince" href="http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/vwwp/view?docId=VAB7135" target="_blank">online</a> at the Indiana Women Writer's Project. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1874 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kylee-Anne Hingston Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource John McL. Ralston’s illustration shows Dolor testing out his flying cloak inside the tower, with his hands to his ears. The Little Lame Prince (London: Daldy, Isbister & Co., 1875), Microform, Archival Survival, Inc. (1990): film 7314.1 Relation A related resource <ul><li>Dowker, Ann. “The Treatment of Disability in 19th and Early 20th Century Children's Literature,” Disability Studies Quarterly 24.1 (2004). Available <a title="Little Lame Prince Article" href="http://www.dsq-sds.org" target="_blank">online</a>.</li> <li>Hingston, Kylee-Anne. "Prostheses and Narrative Perspective in Dinah Mulock Craik's The Little Lame Prince." Women's Writing. Forthcoming in 2013.</li> <li>Holmes, Martha Stoddard. Fictions of Affliction: Physical Disability in Victorian Culture, The Corporealities Series (Ann Arbour: U of Michigan P, 2004) 48. </li> <li>Mitchell, Sally. Dinah Mulock Craik. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1983. Available <a title="Sally Mitchell Dinah Craik" href="http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/craik/index.html" target="_blank">online</a> on the Victorian Web.</li> </ul> Childhood Children's Literature Dinah Mulock Craik Fairy Tale Literature Prosthesis https://nineteenthcenturydisability.org/files/original/a89573cec699a528200dc6506da1cebe.jpg cf4c32583edb0dffa4e7ecaa4ee7ea10 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 535 Height 800 Bit Depth 8 Channels 3 IPTC String caption:by Henry Meyer, published by Henry Colburn, after Richard Carruthers, stipple engraving, published 1 February 1819 caption_writer:National Portrait Gallery London - www.npg.org.uk headline:NPG D8807; William Wordsworth by Henry Meyer, published by Henry Colburn, after Richard Carruthers special_instructions:Unauthorised reproduction prohibited. For authorisation contact rightsandimages@npg.org.uk www.npg.org.uk byline:National Portrait Gallery London - www.npg.org.uk byline_title:Rights and Images Department credit:National Portrait Gallery London source:National Portrait Gallery London object_name:NPG D8807; William Wordsworth date_created:04.05.2012 city:London, St Martin's Place, WC2 0HE country:United Kingdom copyright_notice:© National Portrait Gallery, London IPTC Array a:13:{s:7:"caption";s:116:"by Henry Meyer, published by Henry Colburn, after Richard Carruthers, stipple engraving, published 1 February 1819";s:14:"caption_writer";s:49:"National Portrait Gallery London - www.npg.org.uk";s:8:"headline";s:100:"NPG D8807; William Wordsworth by Henry Meyer, published by Henry Colburn, after Richard Carruthers";s:20:"special_instructions";s:105:"Unauthorised reproduction prohibited. For authorisation contact rightsandimages@npg.org.uk www.npg.org.uk";s:6:"byline";s:49:"National Portrait Gallery London - www.npg.org.uk";s:12:"byline_title";s:28:"Rights and Images Department";s:6:"credit";s:32:"National Portrait Gallery London";s:6:"source";s:32:"National Portrait Gallery London";s:11:"object_name";s:29:"NPG D8807; William Wordsworth";s:12:"date_created";s:10:"04.05.2012";s:4:"city";s:34:"London, St Martin's Place, WC2 0HE";s:7:"country";s:14:"United Kingdom";s:16:"copyright_notice";s:36:"© National Portrait Gallery, London";} 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 Wordsworth adopts a pensive pose, with his head resting on his hand, in this stipple engraving. William Wordsworth by Henry Meyer, published by Henry Colburn, after Richard Carruthers. stipple engraving, published 1 February 1819. 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. …lost Amid the moving pageant, ‘twas my chance Abruptly to be smitten with the view Of a blind Beggar, who, with upright face, Stood propp’d against a Wall, upon his Chest Wearing a written paper, to explain The story of the Man, and who he was. My mind did at this spectacle turn round As with the might of waters, and it seem’d To me that in this Label was a type Or emblem, of the utmost that we know, Both of ourselves and of the universe; And, on the shape of the unmoving man, His fixed face and sightless eyes, I look’d As if admonish’d from another world. (1805, VII. 608-622) 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 Prelude Description An account of the resource <a title="Wordsworth Wikipedia Entry" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth" target="_blank">William Wordsworth</a>’s (1770-1850) poetry contains several interesting and largely unexplored representations of disability. One familiar pattern, seen in “Resolution and Independence” (1807) has the speaker of Wordsworth’s poem encountering a person with a disability and using the encounter as a spur to personal reflection. In Book VII of his autobiographical epic poem, The Prelude (1805, 1850), Wordsworth gives a detailed description of an encounter with a blind beggar. The blind man, who stands “propp’d against a Wall,” is a visual spectacle for Wordsworth’s speaker, who describes himself as “smitten with the view.” The portrait of the beggar that he provides emphasizes the blind man’s passivity and immobility; this man is “propp’d against a Wall,” his body “unmoving” and his face “fixed.” What matters most to the sighted speaker about the blind man he observes and describes is the sign or “Label” that the blind man wears, a record of “the story of the Man, and who he was.” It is not, however, the content of this sign that is of interest to the speaker. Instead, the sign is identified and valued as a symbol of a universal condition; Wordsworth finds in it a “type/ Or emblem” of the profound ignorance of human beings. His speaker has gained new knowledge about, ironically enough, humanity’s lack of knowledge, but he does not come away with new knowledge about either the experience of disability or the particular experiences of an individual living with a disability. This stands in contrast to Arthur Symon’s (1865-1945) later contribution to the genre of the poetic encounter with a blind street person, “The Blind Beggar” (1892), which leads him to reflect on the material conditions of the disabled poor. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Wordsworth, William Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Wordsworth, William. The Prelude: A Parallel Text. Ed. Ernest de Selincourt. 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon, 1959. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1805 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Vanessa Warne Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Wordsworth adopts a pensive pose, with his head resting on his hand, in this stipple engraving. William Wordsworth by Henry Meyer, published by Henry Colburn, after Richard Carruthers. stipple engraving, published 1 February 1819. Courtesy <a title="National Portrait Gallery" href="http://www.npg.org.uk/" target="_blank">National Portrait Gallery</a> under a Creative Commons License (<a title="William Wordsworth" href="http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw42777/William-Wordsworth?LinkID=mp04931&search=sas&sText=william+wordsworth&role=sit&rNo=13" target="_blank">NPG D8807</a>). Relation A related resource <ul><li>Bowlby, Rachel. “Readable City.” PMLA 122:1 (2007): 306-9. </li> <li>Epstein Kobayashi, Emily V. “Feeling Intellect in Aurora Leigh and The Prelude.” SEL 51:4 (2011): 823-848. </li> <li>Friedman, Geraldine. “History in the Background in Wordsworth’s ‘Blind Beggar.’” ELH 56:1 (1989): 125-148. </li> <li>Symons, Arthur. <a title="Symon's "The Blind Beggar"" href="http://www.nineteenthcenturydisability.org/items/show/12">“The Blind Beggar.”</a> Annotated by Vanessa Warne. Nineteenth-Century Disability: A Digital Reader. </li> <li><a title="Wordsworth Trust" href="https://www.wordsworth.org.uk/home.html" target="_blank">The Wordsworth Trust</a>. https://www.wordsworth.org.uk/home.html</li> </ul> Blindness Class Literature Poetry William Wordsworth https://nineteenthcenturydisability.org/files/original/adb7766fb62f3e216feda263b4b1128a.jpg e3af372ce930d02ae2777afeb0ae96e9 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 846 Height 1062 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 The illustration shows Want and Ignorance, a boy and a girl, standing in front of the Ghost of Christmas Present with Scrooge facing the triad in his nightcap. illustration by John Leech. 1843 Chapman and Hall edition of A Christmas Carol. 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. “What has ever got your precious father then?” said Mrs. Cratchit. “And your brother, Tiny Tim! And Martha warn’t as late last Christmas Day by half-an-hour?” “Here’s Martha, mother!” said a girl, appearing as she spoke. “Here’s Martha, mother!” cried the two young Cratchits. “Hurrah! There’s such a goose, Martha!” “Why, bless your heart alive, my dear, how late you are!” said Mrs. Cratchit, kissing her a dozen times, and taking off her shawl and bonnet for her with officious zeal. “We’d a deal of work to finish up last night,” replied the girl, “and had to clear away this morning, mother!” “Well! Never mind so long as you are come,” said Mrs. Cratchit. “Sit ye down before the fire, my dear, and have a warm, Lord bless ye!” “No, no! There’s father coming,” cried the two young Cratchits, who were everywhere at once. “Hide, Martha, hide!” So Martha hid herself, and in came little Bob, the father, with at least three feet of comforter exclusive of the fringe, hanging down before him; and his threadbare clothes darned up and brushed, to look seasonable; and Tiny Tim upon his shoulder. Alas for Tiny Tim, he bore a little crutch, and had his limbs supported by an iron frame! “Why, where’s our Martha?” cried Bob Cratchit, looking round. “Not coming,” said Mrs. Cratchit. “Not coming!” said Bob, with a sudden declension in his high spirits; for he had been Tim’s blood horse all the way from church, and had come home rampant. “Not coming upon Christmas Day!” Martha didn’t like to see him disappointed, if it were only in joke; so she came out prematurely from behind the closet door, and ran into his arms, while the two young Cratchits hustled Tiny Tim, and bore him off into the wash-house, that he might hear the pudding singing in the copper. “And how did little Tim behave?” asked Mrs. Cratchit, when she had rallied Bob on his credulity, and Bob had hugged his daughter to his heart’s content. “As good as gold,” said Bob, “and better. Somehow he gets thoughtful, sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see.” Bob’s voice was tremulous when he told them this, and trembled more when he said that Tiny Tim was growing strong and hearty. His active little crutch was heard upon the floor, and back came Tiny Tim before another word was spoken, escorted by his brother and sister to his stool before the fire; and while Bob, turning up his cuffs—as if, poor fellow, they were capable of being made more shabby—compounded some hot mixture in a jug with gin and lemons, and stirred it round and round and put it on the hob<a title="" href="#_ftn1">[1]</a> to simmer; Master Peter, and the two ubiquitous young Cratchits went to fetch the goose, with which they soon returned in high procession. (89-92) <h3>Notes</h3> <div> <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[1]</a> A metal shelf inside a hearth. </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 A Christmas Carol Description An account of the resource One of the most recognizable characters in Victorian fiction, “Tiny Tim” Cratchit reappears each Christmas in radioplays, television, stage, and film. Through these cultural reproductions, Tim has come to represent yuletide charity and the reductive idea that “the plight of the disabled can always be alleviated by philanthropy” (Fiedler 68)<a title="" href="#_ftn1">[1]</a>. However, as the short selection of the story below shows, the text of A Christmas Carol itself gives a more complicated depiction of disability than this. On one hand, the melodramatic tone—“Alas for Tiny Tim, he bore a little crutch, and had his limbs supported by an iron frame!”— implies that Tim’s physical state inspires pity alone. Moreover, by way of synecdoche Tim’s identity is reduced to his non-normative body: his diminutive size and his crutch stand in for his name (Norden 190-91). In fact, Tim sees himself as a reminder of Christ’s healings, that is, of erasures of disability; that his father, Bob, reports this rather than Tim further obscures Tim’s autonomy. On the other hand, the passage also shows Tim as an active member of his community and family, taking full part in their religious and festive traditions. The narrator here not only depicts Tim’s body as bearing physical limitations, but also as using adapted and energetic mobility, as seen in his “active little crutch” (Rodas 67). <div> <div> <a title="" href="#_ftnref">[1]</a> Fiedler suggests that respect and empowerment do much more than charity and pity for people with disabilities. </div> </div> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Dickens, Charles Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol. London: Chapman and Hall, 1843. Available online at <a href="http://www.archive.org/stream/1843christmascar00dickuoft#page/n7/mode/2up">http://www.archive.org/stream/1843christmascar00dickuoft#page/n7/mode/2up</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1843 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kylee-Anne Hingston Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The illustration shows Want and Ignorance, a boy and a girl, standing in front of the Ghost of Christmas Present with Scrooge facing the triad in his nightcap. illustration by John Leech. 1843 Chapman and Hall edition of A Christmas Carol. Relation A related resource <ul><li> Fiedler, Leslie A. “Pity and Fear: Images of the Disabled In Literature and the Popular Arts.” Salmagundi 57 (Summer 1982): 57-69. </li> <li> Norden, Martin F. “Tiny Tim on Screen: a Disability Studies Perspective.” Dickens On Screen. Ed. John Glavin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. </li> <li> Rodas, Julia Miele. “Tiny Tim, Blind Bertha, and the Resistance of Miss Mowcher: Charles Dickens and the Uses of Disability.” Dickens Studies Annual 34 (Summer 2004): 51-97. </li> </ul> Language A language of the resource English Charles Dickens Class Invalidism Literature Mobility Novel 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/fb32d389da8b7819ba4e831598371425.jpg 2baeb3b4db322a53d34161814c73f5cb 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. Now, after lessons, he<a title="" href="#_ftn1">[1]</a> would occasionally be persuaded to quit that beloved study, and take a walk along the loch side, or across the moor, to show his pupil the country of which he, poor little fellow! was owner and lord. He did it at first out of pure kindness, to save the earl from the well-meant intrusion of neighbours, but afterward from sheer pleasure in seeing the boy so happy. To him, mounted in Malcolm’s arms and brought for the first time into contact with the outer world, everything was a novelty and delight. And his quick perception let nothing escape him. He seemed to watch lovingly all nature, from the grand lights and shadows which moved over the mountains, to the little moorland flowers which he made Malcolm stop to gather. All living things too, from the young rabbit that scudded across their path, to the lark that rose singing up into the wide blue air--he saw and noticed every thing. But he never once said, what Helen, who, as often as her house duties allowed, delighted to accompany them on these expeditions, was always expecting he would say, Why had God given these soulless creatures legs to run and wings to fly, strength, health, and activity to enjoy existence, and denied all these things to him? Denied them, not for a week, a month, a year, but for his whole lifetime – a lifetime so short at best; – “few of days, and full of trouble.” Why could He not have made it a little more happy? Thousands have asked themselves, in some form or other, the same unanswered, unanswerable question. Helen had done so already, young as she was; when her mother died, and her father seemed slowly breaking down, and the whole world appeared to her full of darkness and woe. How then must it have appeared to this poor boy? But, strange to say, that bitter doubt, which so often came into Helen's heart, never fell from Child’s lips at all. Either he was still a mere child, accepting life just as he saw it, and seeking no solution of its mysteries, or else, though so young, he was still strong enough to keep his doubts to himself, to bear his own burden, and trouble no one. Or else – and when she watched his inexpressibly sweet face, which had the look you sometimes see in blind faces, of absolutely untroubled peace, Helen was forced to believe this – God, who had taken away from him so much, had given him something still more – a spiritual insight so deep and clear that he was happy in spite of his heavy misfortune. She never looked at him but she thought involuntarily of the text, out of the only book with which unlearned Helen was very familiar—that “in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.” <h3>Note</h3> <div><a title="" href="#_ftnref1">[1]</a> Mr Cardross, the Earl’s minister and tutor, and Helen’s father.</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/. Description An account of the resource A Noble Life (1866) is Dinah Mulock Craik’s second novel to feature a disabled protagonist. It resembles her earlier novel, Olive (1850) in representing disability as a spiritually uplifting and morally improving experience, which renders the protagonist selfless, compassionate and pious. However, whereas Olive is able to pursue a career and marry, despite being “deformed”, the protagonist of A Noble Life, the Earl of Cairnforth, has to come to terms with a life of almost total self-denial. The orphaned Earl is born with multiple disabilities, described as “the smallest, saddest specimen of infantile deformity”, his body “thin, elfish, and distorted, every joint and limb being twisted in some way or other” (1.24). The doctor suggests it would be a mercy if he simply died, but the narrative works to validate the minister’s counter-argument that “God can work out His wonderful will, if He chooses, through the meanest means – through the saddest tragedies and direst misfortunes” (1.28). Although in adulthood the Earl has weak health and restricted mobility – he is carried everywhere and can only just hold a pen – he is shown to be a capable and reforming landlord, and above all to exert a good influence upon everyone he meets. His love for the minister’s daughter, Helen Cardross, is depicted as tragically impossible – since he accepts that he can never marry – but after her unworthy husband’s early death, he adopts and co-parents her son. The passage below is typical in highlighting the Earl’s moral virtues but also his reserve, implying that there is something unspeakable in the experience of disability, which somehow cuts the Earl off from those around him, forcing them to speculate about his true feelings. Although he is only a child at this point in the novel, he is already represented as being both morally superior and enigmatic to those around him. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Craik, Dinah Mulock. A Noble Life. Vol 1. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1866. Pages 125-8. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Clare Walker Gore Relation A related resource <ul><li> Bourrier, Karen, ed. Women’s Writing 20.3 (2013) Special Issue: Re-Reading Dinah Mulock Craik. </li> <li> Mitchell, Sally, Dinah Mulock Craik. Boston, MA: Twayne Publishers, 1983. </li> <li> Stoddard Holmes, Martha. Fictions of Affliction: Physical Disability in Victorian Culture. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004. </li> <li> Walker Gore, Clare, "Noble Lives: Writing Masculinity and Disability in the Late Nineteenth Century." Nineteenth-Century Contexts 36.4 (2014): 363-375. </li> </ul> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1866 Title A name given to the resource A Noble Life Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Dinah Craik Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Hurst and Blackett Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Eilean Donan Castle, reflects the Scottish setting of A Noble Life. Image courtesy <a title="Eilean Donan Castle" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eilean_Donan">Wikipedia </a>under a Creative Commons License. Dinah Craik Masculinity Novel Orthopaedic Disability https://nineteenthcenturydisability.org/files/original/cde1e133863ba0577af3cdb101bd7874.jpg d4e267a73b13d67e1c7fd0b554c82654 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 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 conversation tube is a non-electric, acoustic device designed to amplify sounds for deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals and is constructed of a flexible tube with a mouthpiece at one end and an ear piece at the other. The device dates to the seventeenth-century, when Puritan couples used them to have private conversations while courting, as social customs of the day limited their interaction in presence of family members (<a href="http://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/image/L0064953.html">Wellcome Images</a>). During the nineteenth-century, many versions of the conversation tube were manufactured for personal use. The device creates a “direct line from the hearer” who wears the earpiece, and the speaker, who spoke through the mouthpiece; the length of the tube allowed for a “polite and comfortable distance between individuals” (Church). Conversation tubes are often synonymously referred as “speaking tubes.” This particular conversation tube is one of the earliest devices at the CID-Goldstein Collection at the Bernard Becker Medical Library. It was designed and sold by Frederick C. Rein in London, who established the first commercial firm for hearing devices in 1800. The maker’s trademark is inscribed on the mouthpiece as “Rein and Son. Improved. 108 Strand, London.” A very simple design, this 56inch conversation tube is composed of an ivory mouthpiece and ear insert, with two layers of red silk woven around the coiled metal tube. Designs of conversation tube were relatively uniform. The <a href="http://phisick.com/items/ent/?s=&sub=conversation-tubes">standard design for a conversation tube</a> included ivory for the earpiece and mouthpiece, with black wool, leather or silk covering the coil. Later designs incorporated different materials for the tubes in attempts to increase hearing amplification, including: wood, rubber, or celluloid. Ornamental designs were also present in some versions that were preferred by aristocratic or fashionable users and were likely more expensive than standard designs. Some manufacturers, however, abstained from using rubber or gum solutions in their designs, in order to protect the device from climatic conditions (Hawksley). In some cases, the designs were a compromise between amplification and portability, especially as some individuals may have preferred smaller designs to be folded and carried in their pockets (Mills, 76). The length of most tubes was 88 to 176 cm, with an average price of 1 guinea for the most powerfully amplified versions (Bennion), which would enable the user to hear at least 20 to 40dB of sounds (Berger). The red silk of this conversation tube is the most striking design feature, suggesting a fashionable and feminine trait embodied into the design. Even more remarkable is the conspicuous nature of the device, suggesting that the user had no qualms about hiding her deafness. <a href="http://phisick.com/item/photograph-of-woman-with-conversation-tube/">Conversation tubes in general, were not disguised devices to be used in private</a>. To use the device, a user needed to make his or her deafness apparent, since the very nature of the device “required the presence of one other person, who might judge you on your plebeian and unattractive listening device” (Church). As the Hawksley catalog of acoustic instruments declares, “A Conversation Tube is the most useful form of instrument for severe cases of deafness, or when a person is only moderately deaf and wishes to carry on a conversation with a friend” (Hawksley). Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jaipreet Virdi-Dhesi Relation A related resource <ul><li> Bennion, Elisabeth. Antique Medical Instruments (Berkley: University of California Press, 1979). </li> <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> Church, Joanna. “Conversation tube, circa 1900,” A Fine Collection: Blog of the Montgomery County Historical Society Maryland <a href="http://afinecollection.wordpress.com/2013/12/18/conversation-tube-circa-1900/">http://afinecollection.wordpress.com/2013/12/18/conversation-tube-circa-1900/</a> </li> <li> Gallery of Conversation Tubes, The Hearing Aid Museum: <a href="http://www.hearingaidmuseum.com/gallery/Non-Electric/ConversationTubes/index-contubes.htm">http://www.hearingaidmuseum.com/gallery/Non-Electric/ConversationTubes/index-contubes.htm</a> </li> <li> Hawksley, T. Catalogue of Otacoustical Instruments to Aid the Deaf, 3rd Edition (London: T. Hawksley, 1895). </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> <li> Mills, Mara. “Hearing Aids and the History of Electronics Miniaturization,” in Jonathan Sterne (Ed.), The Sound Studies Reader (London & New York: Routledge, 2012), 73-78. </li> </ul> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A conversation tube constructed with red silk, ivory mouthpiece, and ivory ear insert, made by Rein & Son. Courtesy of The Central Institute for the Deaf-Max A. Goldstein Historic Devices for Hearing Collection. Becker Medical Library, Washington University School of Medicine (VC703001). Title A name given to the resource A Red Conversation Tube Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Becker Medical Library Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource c. 1800 to 1850 Deafness Material Culture Prosthesis Technology