Month: January 2018

Tin-glazed white porringers

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The above picture is from the object biography resources folder. In the picture, the second left item, a pair of tin-glazed white earthenware is found to be similar to the described tin-glazed white porringers cataloged in 1789.

In the museum context, to interpret this item using physical tools, we can display this item with some other plain erathenware, plain wash bowls, and the wooden plates used by the paupers to make comparisons. Among the different tableware, we can conclude the common features of tableware used for masters and those for the paupers. Also, we can observe that certain kinds of tableware are more likely to be decorated. Often, if an item is frequently used, it will not be fancily decorated and will be designed to be duable. The same rules apply to the tableware in the workhouse.

To interpret this item using digital tools, we can link much more background knowledge of general tin-glazing technology to the item, and create scenes where the people are simoutaneously eating in different situations with different kinds of glazed tableware. By this tool, we can gain a specturm of scenes that can help us better conclude the significance of the given tin-glazed porringer.

The Master’s Chair

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A chair like the one cataloged at Assington

Cataloged in 1808, the master’s rush-bottomed armchair from the Assington Poorhouse would have been made of wood and either bulrush or cattail and would have likely been where the Master sat while he conducted official workhouse business.

One way to display the chair could be putting it in a lineup of other rush-bottomed chairs from the workhouse to show how similar the master’s chair was to that of the paupers. It could also be interesting to provide some more comfortable or opulent looking chairs and having visitors guess which one they think the masters was. These modes of display could support the idea of the commonness of the chair and help visitors realize that workhouse masters weren’t surrounded by the kingly luxury they are sometimes credited with.

One way to supplement this with digital tools could be providing an interface that would allow the visitors to go through a normal workday of the master while sitting in a replica of the chair. They could meet with paupers through video or look through shipping manifests on a screen in front of them, creating a physical experience that could emulate the life of the master, contributing to a better understanding about the reality of the situation the masters lived in.

Iron Stove

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An iron stove was noted in an inventory of the Carleton Rode House of Industry in 1787. The stove was located in the paupers’ bed chamber and was fixed to the wall. Though a stove is not an intimate, personal object, its function of keeping people warm would have been important at night and in the winter. This object allows us to infer that the chambers of a pauper might have been a relatively comfortable place for them, and possibly even a sanctuary within the workhouse.

An attempt to physically convey the importance of a stove in a museum could engage the senses of a visitor to a museum, and by doing so, help create an authentic representation of the past. Something as simple as placing an iron stove with an electric heater in it in a corner of chilly room allow visitors to experience the comfort this object could have provided, and how important it could be. As visitors gravitate toward its warmth, they would be able to imagine paupers in a workhouse doing the same on a cold winter day. A digital projection of a group of paupers around a similar stove or a fireplace would help them relate this experience to one that an actual inmate may have had.

A small Bible: the symbol of discipline and order in the workhouse?

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A Bible from the 1800s

The small leather bound Bible embellished with gold engravings was found in the hallway of St. Sepulchre workhouse in 1751, reminding paupers of the strict law and order of the workhouse. Institutions, including the workhouse, used Christianity to justify harsh disciplining and used these horrible conditions to deter as many paupers as they can. From the physical object, the Bible may conjure these feelings and representations of the workhouse along with the paupers that resided there. However, using digital tools such as interactive games where the public can decide the fate of a pauper, or a dramatization and “inside look” into a pauper’s “hidden transcript”, the public audience is able to “re-claim, re-contextualize, and re-form knowledge into personally meaningful, and very public, configurations”.(1) Through virtual tools, the audience can experience and see that many paupers actually rebelled against these rules while others found a better religious life within the walls of the workhouse. As a result, the museum returns agency to the paupers and debunks the commonly held belief that the workhouse was a complete total institution.

1 – Sian Bayne, Jen Ross, and Zoe Williamson “Objects, subjects, bits and bytes: learning from the digital collections of the National Museums,” museum and society 7 (2009): 111

Wooden Bedstead

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Beds were everywhere in the 18th and 19th century workhouses, and everyone spent time sleeping in and tending to their bed. Given their ubiquity, a bedstead would be a crucial piece of a museum exhibit seeking to expose this portion of workhouse life.

One possible means of incorporating digital tools into a bed showcase might be through the use of VR. A replica bed could be placed in an open space, and users could approach the real bed while immersed in a virtually reproduced setting. As the user approaches and examines the bed, the room in which it is located could change, to demonstrate the wide range of rooms in the workhouse that had a bed. One could even imagine creating a game that requires you to clean a dirty bedstead to advance through the sequence of rooms. A simpler display could employ projectors to change the setting for the bed.

Regardless of the means, the bed’s exhibit would serve as a recognizable touchstone to transport visitors into the workhouse setting. We all recognize beds as items central to our lives, and that makes them a good point to compare and contrast our experience with that of a workhouse inmate.

 

Factory Acts(1802-1833)

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Poverty, inequality, and negative externalities proliferated in the industrial economy. Child labor, in terms of child participation rates and starting work at very young ages also increased during the classic era of industrialization. The Industrial Revolution expedited the establishments of numerous factories, yet no substantial laws relating to the running of factories and working conditions for labors were issued until the first decades of the 19th century. As a result, factory workers, including child labor, were often exposed to dangers generated by heavy usage of industrial machines and long hours of working.

Against this background, a series of labor Acts were passed by the UK Parliament to regulate the conditions of industrial employment. The early Acts concentrated on regulating the hours of work and moral welfare of young children employed in cotton mills but were effectively unenforced until the Act of 1833 established a professional Factory Inspectorate.

The first pertinent Act was the “Health and Morals of Apprentices Act 1802”, which addressed the concerns about the health and welfare of children employed in cotton mills and set regulations on the construction of factories to ensure the decent working conditions. Then came the “Cotton Mills & Factory Act 1819”, which required that no children under 9 were to be employed and children aged 9-16 years were limited to 12 hours work per day. The legislation of the widely known “Labour of Children in Factories Act (Althorp’s Act)” was introduced in 1833. The Act required the following:

  • No child workers under nine years
  • Reduced hours for children 9-13 years
  • Two hours schooling each day for children
  • Four factory inspectors appointed

Sources:

– The National Archives, “1833 Factory Act”, A The National  Archives, http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/1833-factory-act/

– Wikipedia, “Factory Acts”, Wikipedia, last edited on 8 January 2018, at 16:29

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factory_Acts#Health_and_Morals_of_Apprentices_Act_1802

– Jane Humphries, “Childhood and child labor in the British industrial revolution”, Economic History Review, 66, 2(2013), pp. 395-418. 

 

The Black Act (1723)

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Between 1721 and 1723, a series of riots and poaching occurred in and around the Windsor Forest, dubbed the Waltham affair. The first of these affairs occurred in October of 1721 when sixteen poachers raided the park of the Bishop of Winchester out of supposed “private spite” (Rogers, 468). After subsequent raids of the Bishop’s property and similar elite properties such as the Farnham deer-park, where the Waltham Blacks stole eleven deer and killed many more, the Parliament of Great Britain passed legislation which was essentially a collection of punishments for these poaching raids. The Waltham Black Act ended up being an extremely severe legislative decree laying out more than fifty new offenses that would be punishable by death (Cruickshanks and Erskine-Hill, 358). The “ferocious legislation” included laws prohibiting going into any woods using any sort of disguise or blackened face. People charged with this crime could be prosecuted without any connection to a specific act of destruction or larceny (Rogers, 465). The severity of the Act was designed to “ensure the wholesale suppression” of the gangs of poachers, who were known as “Blacks” because of their practice of blackening their faces in order to conceal their identities (Rogers, 478). Some historians have argued that the Waltham Blacks were lined to the Jacobite movement, supporters of the Stuart monarchy who sought to overthrow the Hanoverian king of England, which is perhaps why the English Parliament was very adamant in creating such intense laws. Other reform laws were proposed by John Locke, who thought the poor were to blame for their own situations. For more information on John Locke’s Poor Laws, check out this link.

Sources:

Rogers, Pat. “The Waltham Blacks and the Black Act.” The Historical Journal 17, no. 03 (1974).

Cruickshanks, Eveline, and Howard Erskine-Hill. “The Waltham Black Act and Jacobitism.” Journal of British Studies 24, no. 3 (1985): 358-65. http://www.jstor.org/stable/175524.

Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations

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Adam Smith was a prominent 18th century moral philosopher who, along with David Hume, established a “civic morality” that was an insightful alternative to the traditional moral codes adhered to by most people. Specifically, Smith stressed that there is a strong distinction between “empathy” and “sympathy.” The former is a person’s inclination to respond to the pain of others, and the latter is the true commitment that one makes only after they take a step back and reflect first.

Additionally, Smith also emphasized the distinction between “feudal” and “commercial” civilization. The feudal civilization consists of prayers, warriors, and workers, while the commercial civilization consists of landowners, laborers, and capitalists. In commercial civilization, people can voluntarily participate in various clubs and societies thereby having the opportunity to discover what independence and liberty truly is.

Smith believed that with the proper effort and sympathy, the middle class could become “natural aristocrats.” However, he also believed that most laborers lack the time and desire to be educated, and therefore can’t appreciate that their interests are harmonious with society at large. Smith was most cautious of capitalists because of their inclinations to pervert public interest and demoralize laborers for personal benefits. Much of what Smith believed speaks contrary to John Locke’s belief that the poor are to be blamed for the situations they are in, as Smith seemed to think their unfortunate situations are a product of social dynamics.

Finally, Smith believed that the key in defending society against problems that arise from both types of civilizations is the social and ethical wisdom gathered by those participants who are independent-minded and make decisions about their own lives voluntarily. Ultimately, Smith’s works contributed to the decline of mercantilism and the rise of free trade and laissez-faire economics.

 

  1. Fideler, Paul A. Social Welfare in Pre-Industrial England. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
  2. Gee, J. M. A. Adam Smith’s Social Welfaire Function. Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 1968.

John Locke publishes his plan to reform the poor laws

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John Locke (1632–1704) was a political philosopher known for advocating for human rights [2]. He is famously known for saying that men are by nature free and equal, and that all people have the inherent right to life, liberty, and property, regardless of governments [2]. While these statements portray him as an advocate for human rights, his stance on assisting the poor differs significantly from the sentiments expressed above. Locke’s essay on The Poor Law even seems to contradict some of the aforementioned principals he is so famously known for. In his essay, Locke states that the reason for the increasing poverty rates “can be [caused] by nothing else but the relaxation of discipline and corruption of manners…[such as] vice and idleness” [1]. Locke’s view that the poor are to be blamed for their poverty drives his suggested reforms, most of which are harsh and focused on disciplining the poor and instilling them with positive characteristics like hard work. The first step in Locke’s proposal for poor reform is the “suppressing of superfluous brandy shops and unnecessary alehouses,” which sets the tone for how his poor reform is based upon his beliefs that the poor are to blame for their situations [1]. Locke’s main proposal for poor reform centers around workhouses and his beliefs that for the “effectual restraining of idle vagabonds” the poor should be put to work. Vagrants could be forced into service in the army/navy, hard labor,  severe punishment, and working on plantations [1]. Locke’s proposed reform of the poor laws is based on his view that the purpose of poor reform is to suppress idle vagabonds, superseding providing assistance to the deserving poor, which seems to contradict the very ideals he is known for.

  1. Locke, John, and Mark Goldie. Locke: Political Essays. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
  2. Tuckness, Alex. “Locke’s Political Philosophy.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. November 09, 2005. Accessed January 22, 2018. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke-political/.

The Irish Poor Laws (1838)

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The Irish Poor Law of 1838 represented a culmination of the pressures of poverty in Ireland and increasing British autonomy over Ireland. Poverty was a major issue in Ireland leading up to the 1830s but it was largely dealt with through private charity. The poverty in Ireland was due to cycles of crop failures and shortages and less economic development than their neighbor, Britain. The Act of Union, which united Ireland and Great Britain in 1800, led to increasing British control over Ireland with decreasing autonomy within Ireland.  In the 1830s, the British government sent George Nicholls, a Commissioner of the English Poor Law, to Ireland to assess the situation and decide on future plans in addressing poverty in Ireland. Nicholls proposed a system similar to that of the English Poor Law in which workhouses would provide relief for the state of destitution. However, as opposed to in England, outdoor relief was not permitted in the Law, meaning that all relief would be provided through workhouses. Despite opposition from Irish government members, the British government passed the new Poor Law in 1838. The ultimate goal of the Irish Poor Law was to stimulate economic development by pressuring Irish landlords to consolidate their holdings, leading to an investment of capital in Ireland. Not only that, but the Irish Poor Laws sought to keep as many people out of the workhouses as possible through deterrence and limited access. British officials also sought to prevent an influx of Irish into Britain during periods of food or labor shortages by removing Irish from workhouses in England and returning them to Ireland.

 

Sources:

Kinealy, Christine. “The Rags and Wretched Cabins of Ireland 1845”. This Great Calamity: The Irish Famine. Roberts Rinehart Publishers: 1995. (18-27)