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A noteable Victorian/Edwardian actress and socialite.

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Meet Lillie Langtry – the Victorian society beauty tells the story of her amazing life

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Crime and punishment presentation for inschool session

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Crime and punishment presentation for inschool session

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Please use the following information to help plan your visit or you can use it to conduct a self-led experience!

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Virtual Tour of Jersey Victorian House, No. 9 Pier Road.

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Powerpoint with an overview of the Victorian Era

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Victorian fashion began with large dresses, bonnets, and modest coverings for the ladies, all while men displayed colour, pattern, and rigidity in their attire. By the end of the era, a simpler silhouette was gaining popularity, leading to the next Edwardian generation.

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This question covers two potential trains of thought. Victorian fashion comprises the fashions worn by those Victorian men and women who cold afford clothes that were about more than just covering their bodies and keeping them warm.

Also styles that ape Victorian trends have been coming and going with amazing regularity in the last few decades, in fact in the 2017 catwalk shows there were a lot of Victorian style detail blouses, rich deep velvet fabrics and lace up boots in the top designers collections which were then aped by the cheaper mass produced producers such as Zara and Gap. And of course in the mid 1980s, corsets were popularised by the likes of Madonna. In recent decades, Steampunk fashion has become popular, which are clothes in an industrial Victorian style featuring many of the Victorian silhouettes and styles but also featuring leather, metal, goggles and gears.

Victorian era fashion trends

The Victorian era was a busy time for fashion with not only changes in tastes and styles but also in fashion technology and the methods of distribution of these clothes. The era was a time of economic growth in England and with the means of mass production of garments due to the reduction in unit costs of sewing machines and industrialisation of other parts of the garment fabrication industry. The means of distribution also developed in leaps and bounds with the growth of the rail network.

The era also saw the availablilty of cheap synthetic dyes to give a greater choice of vibrant colours. Clothing could be made more quickly and cheaply to respond to fast changing fashions. Due to innovations in printing and womens fashion magazines, the masses could see pictures of the latest trends worn by the great and good, opening the market of mass consumption and advertising. By the beginning of the 20th century, most clothing was made in factories and often sold in large, fixed-price department stores rather than by hand by bespoke tailors and seamstresses.

What did upper class women wear?

Upper class women, who did not need to work, most commonly wore a tightly laced corset over a bodice or chemisette, and paired them with a skirt adorned with numerous embroideries and trims, over layers of petticoats. Middle class women wore similar dress styles; however, the decorations were not as ornate and costly.

These garments were layered which made them very heavy. Corsets were stiff and made movement difficult.

For evening attire, a low shoulder neckline which displayed a woman's shoulders was favoured by upper class women.

Corsets were used in women's gowns for emphasizing small waists and serving as an undergarment to be adjusted to pull in the waist and stop the bodice from creasing.

The typical Victorian dress shape was an elongated V-shaped bodice, and full skirts with the sides of bodices stopping at the natural waistline with sleeves that were tight at the top, but wider from the elbow to the wrist. Necklines of day dresses also tended to be in a low V shape therefore the bust area was covered with a chemisette.

Later in the era, skirts expanded with the use of a crinoline in a dome shape. The purpose of the crinoline was to create an artificial hourglass silhouette by accentuating the hips, and fashioning an illusion of a small waist, along with the corset.

During the 1880s as cycling and tennis became acceptable feminine pursuits, a greater ease of movement in women's clothing became essential. The diversification in options and adoption of what was considered menswear at that time coincided with growing power and social status of women towards the late-Victorian period.

Hats (and gloves) were crucial to a respectable appearance for both men and women with upper and middle class men donning the top hat as standard formal wear. For women hats were modest in size and design, straw and fabric bonnets being the popular choice.

By the end of the Victorian era, those typically Victorian garments changed yet again with the stand out feature in women's clothing a wide-brimmed hat covered with elaborate creations of silk flowers, ribbons, and exotic plumes as decoration, a full upper body with puffed sleeves, no bustle, and a skirt that narrowed at the ankles (the hobble skirt was a fad shortly after the end of the Victorian era).

Men's fashions

Victorian mens fashions consisted of tight-fitting, calf length frock coats and a waistcoat or vest that was single- or double-breasted. For more formal occasions, a cutaway morning coat was worn with light trousers during the daytime, and a dark tail coat and trousers was worn in the evening. Shirts were made of linen or cotton with low collars, occasionally turned down, and were worn with wide cravats or neck ties. Breeches were used for formal functions and when horse riding. Men wore top hats, with wide brims in sunny weather. Bowler hats were worn by the working class.

During the 1870s, three-piece suits grew in popularity along with patterned fabrics for shirts.

The end of the era - men's clothing habits that endure

In the mid 1880s, the dinner jacket or tuxedo became the modern clothing of choice for more relaxed formal occasions. The Norfolk jacket and tweed or woollen breeches were used for outdoor pursuits such as shooting. Knee-length topcoats, often with contrasting velvet or fur collars, and calf-length overcoats were worn in winter. Men's shoes had higher heels and a narrow toe. By the 1890s, the blazer was introduced, and was worn for sports, sailing, and other casual activities.

Clothes for the poor

The poor would rely on the huge second-hand clothes trade during the period, and take time altering old clothes for themselves and their families to make them fit or to make them more like what the affluent classes were wearing. Clothes could be dyed and the good parts of a garment made into children's clothes or accessories, and areas of wear could be patched. There was even a market for ragged clothes that had been through several owners - these were still worn by the destitute.

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This question covers two potential trains of thought. Victorian fashion comprises the fashions worn by those Victorian men and women who cold afford clothes that were about more than just covering their bodies and keeping them warm.

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The Great Exhibition, housed within the ‘Crystal Palace’, embodied Prince Albert’s vision to display the wonders of industry from around the world

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The Great Exhibition, housed within the 'Crystal Palace', embodied Prince Albert's vision to display the wonders of industry from around the world. Liza Picard looks at the exhibits, the building and the ideas behind the project.

The Crystal Palace

If you took an omnibus along London's Knightsbridge in the summer of 1851, you would see an astonishing sight. Glittering among the trees was a palace made of glass, like something out of the Arabian Nights. It was as tall as the trees, indeed taller, because the building arched over two of them already growing there, as if, like giant plants in a glasshouse, they had been transplanted with no disturbance to their roots. A shower of rain washed the dust from the glass, and made it glitter all the more. Nothing like this had been seen in London, ever. It was the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations.

The Great Exhibition was the brain-child of Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert. Britain was at peace. The Chartists had meekly delivered their Petition to the House of Commons in three cabs, and gone home. Albert could write to his cousin King William of Prussia, that 'we have no fear here either of an uprising or an assassination. England was experiencing a manufacturing boom. This was the time to show off, on the international stage.

The exhibits

There were some 100,000 objects, displayed along more than 10 miles, by over 15,000 contributors. Britain, as host, occupied half the display space inside, with exhibits from the home country and the Empire. The biggest of all was the massive hydraulic press that had lifted the metal tubes of a bridge at Bangor invented by Stevenson. Each tube weighed 1,144 tons yet the press was operated by just one man. Next in size was a steam-hammer that could with equal accuracy forge the main bearing of a steamship or gently crack an egg. There were adding machines which might put bank clerks out of a job; a 'stiletto or defensive umbrella'- always useful - and a 'sportsman's knife' with eighty blades from Sheffield - not really so useful. One of the upstairs galleries was walled with stained glass through which the sun streamed in technicolour. Almost as brilliantly coloured were carpets from Axminster and ribbons from Coventry.

There was a printing machine that could turn out 5,000 copies of the popular periodical the Illustrated London News in an hour, and another for printing and folding envelopes, a machine for making the new-fangled cigarettes, and an expanding hearse. There were folding pianos convenient for yachtsmen, and others so laden with curlicues that the keyboard was almost overwhelmed. There was a useful pulpit connected to pews by rubber tubes so that the deaf could hear, and 'tangible ink' for the blind, producing raised characters on paper. A whole gallery was devoted to those elegant, sophisticated carriages that predated the motorcar, and if you looked carefully you could find one or two velocipedes, the early version of bicycles. There were printing presses and textile machines and agricultural machines. There were examples of every kind of steam engine, including the giant railway locomotives...In short, as the Queen put it in her Diary, 'every conceivable invention'.

Canada sent a fire-engine with painted panels showing Canadian scenes, and a trophy of furs. India contributed an elaborate throne of carved ivory, a coat embroidered with pearls, emeralds and rubies, and a magnificent howdah and trappings for a rajah's elephant. (The elephant wearing it came from a museum of stuffed animals in England.)

The American display was headed by a massive eagle, wings outstretched, holding a drapery of the Stars and Stripes, all poised over one of the organs scattered throughout the building. Although the general idea of the Exhibition was the promotion of world peace, Colt's repeating fire-arms featured prominently, but so did McCormick's reaping machine. The exhibit that attracted most attention had to be Hiram Power's statue of a Greek Slave, in white marble, housed in her own little red velvet tent, wearing nothing but a small piece of chain. This was of course allegorical.

The largest foreign contributor was France. She exhibited sumptuous tapestries, Sevres porcelain and silks from Lyons, enamels from Limoges and furniture. Unlike British exhibits in the same class, many of which were sadly lacking in taste, the visual impact of the French display was stunning. It was backed up by examples of the machinery used to produce these beautiful objects. France was a worrying competitor in the markets on which Britain prided itself, especially in textiles.

The Russian exhibits were late, having been delayed by ice in the Baltic. When they did arrive, they were superlative. They included huge vases and urns made of porcelain and malachite twice the height of a man, and furs and sledges and Cossack armour. Chile sent a single lump of gold weighing 50kg, Switzerland sent gold watches.

Amid all these wonders, there were two which caught the public imagination. The first was the famous Koh-i-Noor diamond. It was supposed to be of inestimable value, but most people found it disappointing, although they crowded round to see it. It lay in a safe like a large parrot-cage, and on special days it was lit by a dozen little gas jets, but it still failed to sparkle. (It was not until it had been skilfully cut that its beauty emerged. It is now part of the Crown Jewels).

The other was a collection of small stuffed animals arranged in whimsical tableaux, such as a set of kittens taking tea, sent by the German Customs Union. (Germany was still at that time a collection of small states.) With that unerring bad taste that distinguishes the British public, admiring crowds were never absent.

The interior of the building

The famous fountain, standing approximately in the middle of the building, was made of four tons of pink glass, 27 feet high, provided a useful meeting place, as well as cooling the atmosphere. There was a police desk for lost children and umbrellas. No alcohol was sold, but there were various areas where light refreshments were available, provided by Messrs Schweppes. And for the first time ever, 'waiting rooms and conveniences' were provided, where you could by spending just one penny have the blessing of a private cubicle.

The construction

The building itself was the most breathtaking exhibit of all. Paxton's innovative design used modules of glass and iron, that could be fabricated off site and in due course taken apart again, since the building was only temporary. Work began on 1 August 1850. By December 1850 more than 2,000 men were working on the site. By means of ingenious machines invented by Paxton, 80 men could fix over 8,000 panes of sheet glass in a week. Over 1,000 iron columns supported 2,224 trellis girders, 4,000 tons of iron, 30 miles of Paxton's newly-invented guttering and 202 miles of sash bar. The 16 vast semi-circular ribs of the transept arch, made of laminated timber, took just one week to fix. The flooring was of boards set half an inch apart, so that machines could sweep the dust through the spaces at the end of each day, but in practice the trailing skirts of the women visitors did the job splendidly.

Facsimile of Joseph Paxton's original sketch for the Great Exhibition from 'A MEMORIAL of the Great Exhibition, 1851'

Facsimile of Joseph Paxton's original sketch for the Great Exhibition, c.1850.

The visitors

Queen Victoria opened the Exhibition on 1 May, on schedule. She became a frequent visitor. At first the price of admission was £3 for gentlemen, £2 for ladies. They came in throngs, in their elegant carriages, leaving them at a separate entrance to be valet-parked. Saturday mornings were reserved for invalids. From 24th May the masses were let in for only a shilling a head. And they came in their thousands, factory workers sent by their employers, country villagers sent by benevolent landowners, strings of schoolchildren. The country men came wearing their best smocks, staring at all the Londoners and foreigners. The travel agent Thomas Cook arranged special excursion trains. A third-class return ticket from York cost only five shillings. One old lady even walked, all the way from Penzance. There was even a mysterious Chinese man in full mandarin robes, who stepped forward as the royal procession passed. He was treated, just in case he was important, as a visiting dignitary, but he turned out to be the captain of a Chinese junk moored in the river.

By the time the Exhibition closed, on 11 October, over six million people had gone through the turnstiles. Instead of the loss initially predicted, the Exhibition made a profit of £186,000, most of which was used to create the South Kensington museums. Those were Albert's memorial. His Queen commissioned the statue of him, sitting under a gilt canopy opposite the Royal Albert Hall with a copy of the Exhibition catalogue on his knee.

Liza Picard researches and writes about the history of London. She spent many years working in the office of the Solicitor of the Inland Revenue and lived in Gray's Inn and Hackney, before retiring to live in Oxford.

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The Great Exhibition, housed within the 'Crystal Palace', embodied Prince Albert's vision to display the wonders of industry from around the world. Liza Picard looks at the exhibits, the building and the ideas behind the project. If you took an omnibus along London's Knightsbridge in the summer of 1851, you would see an astonishing sight.

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The middle class expanded during the Victoria Era. This resource explores sources surrounding this theme.

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The Victorian middle classes | The British Library

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Liza Picard explores how social change, industrialisation and greater opportunities transformed the aspirations of an emerging Victorian middle class.

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The ultimate Victorian, Queen Victoria | History | BBC Teach

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This English Heritage video explores the life of Charles Darwin.

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History at Home Live! – Charles Darwin and Down House

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Toys in the Victorian Era had educational purposes.
Even though they look like fun, Victorians wanted every toy to have a purpose.  This meant that dolls and doll houses were designed to teach young girls about being a mother and a wife when they were older.  Games like bagatelle were designed for boys to learn about maths because they would be in charge of the money when they grew up.  Even games like ring toss or cup and ball were designed to help young boys learn the skills they might need in the army by training their hand eye coordination.
Queen Victoria made grey and white rocking horses very popular because she had one for her children.  The rocking horse found in the Victorian house is called Polka.

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The first photographic technologies were produced during the 1830s and 40s. The invention of photography would revolutionise culture and communication in the West forever. For the first time, images of ‘real’ life could be captured for posterity and sent around the world.

The British inventor Fox Talbot produced his first successful photographic images in 1834, without a camera, by placing objects onto paper brushed with light-sensitive silver chloride, which he then exposed to sunlight. By 1840, Talbot had succeeded in producing photogenic drawings in a camera. Talbot’s negative-positive process formed the basis of almost all photography on paper up to the digital age.

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Intro

The first photographic technologies were produced during the 1830s and 40s. The invention of photography would revolutionise culture and communication in the West forever. For the first time, images of 'real' life could be captured for posterity and sent around the world. Portraits of royalty and other celebrities (far more accurate than paintings) allowed members of the public to feel they were viewing these people 'in the flesh'. The dead could be remembered, the fleeting could be fixed.

The British inventor Fox Talbot produced his first successful photographic images in 1834, without a camera, by placing objects onto paper brushed with light-sensitive silver chloride, which he then exposed to sunlight. By 1840, Talbot had succeeded in producing photogenic drawings in a camera, with short exposures yielding an invisible or 'latent' image that could be developed to produce a usable negative. This made his process a practical tool for subjects such as portraiture and was patented as the calotype in 1841. The calotype shown here is from 1842. Talbot's negative-positive process formed the basis of almost all photography on paper up to the digital age.

The video tab displays a modern reconstruction of the calotype process.

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The first photographic technologies were produced during the 1830s and 40s. The invention of photography would revolutionise culture and communication in the West forever. For the first time, images of 'real' life could be captured for posterity and sent around the world.

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The Silk Top Hat came into being in 1797 and made its way to the Netherlands from England via France.
During the Empire Period (1800-1850), the hats - which were much taller and basically straight-sided - were called 'stovepipe hats'.
The black silk top hat was made from cheesecloth, linen, flannel and shellac. During this early Victorian time -around 1830 - top hats were extremely tall, some even reaching 20 cm.
Later in the Victorian era, from 1837 to 1901, the height was reduced to about 16cm and the brim became wider.
Different styles of top hat could be worn for different occasions such as weddings and funerals, or attending the opera.

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It was considered essential for women to cover their heads outdoors, with bonnets and boaters being the most popular styles of hat.

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The use of direct action in order to achieve progressive change has always been debated throughout history. Many argue against direct action because of the violence it creates and think that persuading others is a better means of achieving one's aims.

However, those who have adopted direct action tactics, such as the WSPU, did so because decades of petitions and appeals to authority had achieved very little progress. "Deeds not words" was the WSPU's slogan and the momentum of the movement made the participants feel that they were finally getting the government's attention, as they were now the focus of the political world. As Emmeline Pankhurst suggested at one of her trials, "We are here, not because we are law-breakers; we are here in our efforts to become law-makers." It also appealed to younger women as it seemed more dynamic than the steady approach of the suffragists.

The government may have listened and acknowledged the suffragists' petitions, but it had not made changes to their legal position in society. For some in the women's movement, direct action was seen as the only alternative to bring about change.

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The use of direct action in order to achieve progressive change has always been debated throughout history. Many argue against direct action because of the violence it creates and think that persuading others is a better means of achieving one's aims. However, those who have adopted direct action tactics, such as the WSPU, did so because decades of petitions and appeals to authority had achieved very little progress.

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The life and work of Florence Nightingale (dramatisation) | History - True Stories

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Cholera in Victorian London | Science Museum

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In 1831 a terrifying new epidemic arrived in London, bringing with it fear and panic⁠—and a sense of urgency about the city’s sanitation problems.

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19th Century London and Victorian Transport | London Transport Museum

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Discover what transport was like in London in the 1800s, from riverboats, the first omnibus, trams and early railways.

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Liza Picard considers how the development of transport and the beginnings of mass communication affected all areas of 19th-century life.

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Unfortunately, your browser is too old to work on this website. Please upgrade your browser

Culmination of campaigning

The Public Health Act 1875 was largely seen as a mechanism for consolidating all previous Acts of Parliament relating to public health made during the 19th century.

The Act was seen by many as the culmination of all campaigning for sanitary conditions in Victorian Britain. Under the Act, previous legislative provisions of sanitation, nuisances and public health were brought together.

Role of local authorities

The Act established named local authorities as rural and urban sanitary authorities, replacing local boards of health. These sanitary authorities would have jurisdiction over the newly created urban and rural sanitary districts.

Authorities were obliged to provide clean water, dispose of all sewage and refuse, and ensure that only safe food was sold. It gave them the power to ensure that homes were connected to the main sewerage system. The Act forbade the building of new homes without such connection.

A duty was imposed on local authorities to inspect for nuisances and they were given the ability to serve abatement notices for nuisances. The Act defined a 'nuisance' as anything that would be 'a nuisance or injurious to health', for example, growing deposits of refuse, overcrowding in homes and unclean workplaces.

The Local Government Board was given the power to make regulations to prevent the spread of diseases such as cholera. They also had the power to require two or more local authorities to work together to prevent or reduce epidemics.

Framework for the next 50 years

The reforms instigated by this Act set a framework for the next 50 years in public health.

House of Commons.
Public Health Act, 1875.
Legislation.gov.uk; 1875.

Baggot R.
Public health, policy and politics.
2nd edn.
Palgrave Macmillan; 2011.

Department of Health.
Prevention and health: everybody's business. A reassessment of public and personal health.
HMSO; 1976.

Jones K.
Making of Social Policy in Britain: From the Poor Law to the New Labour.
3rd edn.
Continuum; 2000.

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Public Health Act 1875 | Policy Navigator

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Unfortunately, your browser is too old to work on this website. Please upgrade your browser The Public Health Act 1875 was largely seen as a mechanism for consolidating all previous Acts of Parliament relating to public health made during the 19th century.

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What was life like at a Victorian Reformatory School? | History - Victorian Villains

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British Empire | The Victorians | The National Archives

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What was the British Empire? Use historical sources to find out. Make notes on the sources, and write a summary. For stage 2 (age 7-11)

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How did the Victorians view compulsory vaccination?

Smallpox was a common killer in nineteenth century Britain. It spread rapidly and killed around 30% of those who contracted it and left many survivors blinded or scarred. In 1850s, the government passed a series of laws that made vaccination against smallpox compulsory. Some people and healthcare professionals supported vaccination while others objected to it. There were many reasons why people opposed vaccination: some claimed vaccination were unsafe, or unnecessary, whilst others argued that compulsory vaccination was government interference. The growing feeling for anti-vaccination reached full force in the 1890s with the National Anti-Vaccination League. The group organized protests and produced its own publications to distribute anti-vaccine propaganda. Ultimately, the voices of the anti-vaccination movement became too loud for the government to ignore and the government made it possible for people to opt-out of vaccination.

Understanding the range of views regarding vaccination is critical for understanding the role of science in society. In addition, delving into this important, yet little known history of vaccination in Victorian society may give us insights into present day anti-vaccination movements.

In this lesson, you will investigate several sources which reflect some of the different attitudes towards vaccination in the Victorian period.

Tasks

Look at Source 1

Look Source 2

Look at Source 3

Look at Source 4

Look at Source 5

Extension questions

Background

Resistance to vaccines has been around as long as vaccinations have existed. The James Gillray cartoon entitled 'The Cow Pock: or the Wonderful Effects of the New Inoculation' included in this lesson captures some of the early prejudice towards vaccination.

Edward Jenner sparked the push for widespread vaccination beginning in the 1790s. Before Jenner, variolation⁠-purposely infecting patients with smallpox in the hope that they would get a weakened form of the disease and acquire immunity⁠-was common practice. However, variolation was risky, sometimes patients died from the procedure. Jenner is credited with making a key discovery that people who got cowpox- a mild virus contracted by those who milked cows- did not get smallpox. To test his theory, Jenner transferred pus from the spots of a woman with cowpox to an incision in the arm of a young boy who subsequently became ill with a mild form of the virus. The boy quickly recovered and then Jenner variolated his patient with smallpox to see if immunity from cowpox would protect him from smallpox. As hoped, his patient did not contract smallpox. When successful, this process⁠-termed vaccination⁠-gave patients immunity to the disease.

1840 marked the first in a series of laws regarding vaccination in Britain. After the scientific community built a better understanding of how infectious disease spread, the British government outlawed the practice of variolation with the first Vaccination Act of 1840. The Act of 1840 also provided free vaccinations for the poor through the new Poor Law Unions. The government ramped up its focus on improving vaccination rates and subsequently passed the Vaccination Act of 1853. The Act made it compulsory for all infants under three months old to be vaccinated. Local registrars of births, marriages and deaths gave out vaccination certificates to parents of newborns which had to be returned signed by a doctor. Negligent parents could be fined or imprisoned. In 1867, the government increased its efforts and made it compulsory for all children under the age of 14 to be vaccinated against smallpox. However, this was not the case for many children.

For some Victorians these laws marked an infringement of civil liberties for the sake of improving public health. Also, the principle of laissez-faire was central to economic life. Perhaps, this example of state intervention was arguably designed to prevent greater evils that might threaten a free-trade economy- probably not to provide positive benefits for its citizens. Who would work in the factories or mines if large numbers of the population died from smallpox? Others did not like the idea of compulsory vaccination because of its association with the Poor Law or objected to it on religious grounds.

A formal pressure group, the Anti-Vaccination League, formed in London after the Act of 1853. Later the Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League was founded in 1867 in response to the new law in 1867 and argued through its well organized public campaigns that this was an infringement of personal choice. In the 1870s and 1880s, a host of anti-vaccination pamphlets, books and journals were printed to spread the protest movement's message including their paper, the "Vaccination Inquirer". Later the new National Anti-Vaccination League emerged determined to expand support for its ideas on a more national basis in 1896.

Certainly the outcry from anti-vaccination protesters had an impact on British vaccine policy. In 1885, a massive anti-vaccination protest in Leicester attracted a crowd of nearly 100,000 people. In response, a Royal Commission was formed to understand attitudes on all sides regarding vaccination. The commission heard from opponents and supporters of vaccination for seven years to advise the British government on how to move forward. Their report in 1896 stated that vaccination was effective in protecting against smallpox. It also recommended that the government abolish the penalties for not vaccinating. In 1898, a new Vaccination Act removed these penalties and introduced a new clause known as the "conscientious objector" clause that allowed parents who did not believe vaccines were safe or effective to obtain a certificate exempting their children from vaccination.

Whilst vaccination is one of the greatest accomplishments in improving public health, there are parallels between the Victorian anti-vaccination movement and today. Of course, the means of communication have changed since Victorian times, social media posts and Tweets have replaced the pamphlets and etchings of the 19th century⁠- but many of the anti-vaccination sentiments are similar.

Compulsory vaccination for smallpox in the UK in ended in 1948, and in 1978 the World Health Organisation announced that the virus had finally been eradicated.

Teachers' notes

In this lesson, a collection of contemporary sources from The National Archives are used to highlight some of the attitudes towards vaccination against smallpox in Victorian society. Source 1 sets the scene for the lesson enquiry with Gillray's familiar satirical engraving: 'The Cow Pock: or the Wonderful Effects of the New Inoculation'. Source 2 describes a plan in the middle of the nineteenth century to erect a statute in to commemorate Edward Jenner. This also presents an opportunity to discuss with students the notion of historical significance. The other sources in the lesson are employed to reveal the different sides of the debate on the need for vaccination and allow students to appreciate that not everyone at the time felt the same way on the matter. Again these sources can be used to understand the concept of public health policy and government responsibility.

The documents offer students a chance to develop their powers of evaluation and analysis. Encourage your students to read the original sources if possible, although some are more difficult than others. However, all documents are captioned and transcripts are provided and more difficult vocabulary is explained in square brackets. Ensure too that they are familiar with terms like 'Board of Health', 'Medical Officer', 'Home Office' or 'Secretary of State' before they start.

Students can study the document extracts and questions in pairs and report back to the whole class. Alternatively, they can work through the tasks independently.

We have also provided a student friendly guide (PDF, 1.6 MB) if they wish to extend their research on this topic. This guide walks students through the process from searching our online catalogue to refining the results and ordering documents at The National Archives.

Students can search the document series MH 13 using our online catalogue Discovery, to gain an understanding of the rich seam of documents available on a wide range of issues connected with public health in this period.

Sources

Source 1: Engraving that shows a scene from the Smallpox and Inoculation Hospital at St. Pancras by cartoon satirist, James Gillray, 12 June, 1802. [Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons]

Sources 2: Extract from a letter dated 12 August 1857 concerning the erection of a statue of Edward Jenner (1749-1823) who pioneered vaccination. It was designed by William Calder Marshall in 1858 and originally placed in Trafalgar Square, (Catalogue ref: WORK 20/33.)

Sources 3: Letter from Andrew Lowden to the Secretary of State, protesting about the compulsory vaccination bill, May 1856, (Catalogue ref: MH 13/250/188 f430.)

Source 4: Extract from report from Thomas Woollett to the Newport Local Board of Health, Officer of Health, to the General Board of Health on the sanitary condition of Newport. 29 September 1857, (Catalogue ref: MH 13/133/20 f395.)

Source 5: Letter from Medical Officer to the General Board of Health about vaccination in Evesham, Worcestershire, 31 January, 1878, (Catalogue ref: MH 12/14007 f529.)

External links

Find more cartoons and contemporary sources in the Wellcome Institute blog:
https://wellcomecollection.wordpress.com/2017/07/13/outsiders-the-child/
The Reece Collection [London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine] contains further contemporary reports on vaccination and documents from Edward Jenner:
https://archive.org/details/lshtmlibrary
Archives and manuscript sources on vaccination and vaccines are available from the Wellcome Collection: https://wellcomelibrary.org/content/documents/31302/vaccination-and-vaccines-archives.pdf

Connections to curriculum

OCR GCSE:
Unit: The People's Health, c. 1250 to present
Period: Industrial Britain, c. 1750-c. 1900; Public Health Reform in the nineteenth century.

Excel GCSE:
Option 11: Medicine in Britain, c. 1250-present and The British Sector of the Western Front, 1914-18: c.1700-c. 1900: Medicine in eighteenth and nineteenth-century Britain; new approaches to prevention: the development and use of vaccinations

AQA GCSE:
Thematic studies: Revolution in medicine; the role of public health reformers; local and national government involvement in public health.

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Victorian Health Reform - The National Archives

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Smallpox was a common killer in nineteenth century Britain. It spread rapidly and killed around 30% of those who contracted it and left many survivors blinded or scarred. In 1850s, the government passed a series of laws that made vaccination against smallpox compulsory. Some people and healthcare professionals supported vaccination while others objected to it.

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Back in London, Mary and Sally, her faithful maid, are very poor. Mary has debts that she can't pay and she can't afford to keep Sally on. Sally is devastated and angry that everyone seems to have forgotten how much Mary had done during the war.

Then, fortuitously, they receive a surprise visit from William Howard Russell, the journalist who had written about Mary during the Crimean War. When he hears about Mary's plight, he is determined to remind the British people of her work in the Crimea. He writes a story in his newspaper and asks his friends to raise money to help her.

Finally there is a huge party to honour Mary and celebrate her work - with a message of congratulation from Queen Victoria.

for a transcript of the episode (pdf).

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The story of Mary Seacole's life is told in three short video episodes. Mary begins her story with her journey from Jamaica to London - and then onward to the Crimea during the Crimean War and her meeting with the journalist William Howard Russell.

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One of our education Officers can guide your class around the Victorian House - No. 9 Pier Road at the Museum. The session will include:

Short history of the house

Guided visit into the house and rooms

Visit to the Prison treadmill in the Museum to compare rich and poor

Please email: education@jerseyheritage.org to book a visit or for more information.

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Victorian Timeline for England and Britain

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Victorian Timeline for England and Britain

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Queen Victoria visiting Mont Orgueil Castle

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Queen Victoria landing at the St Helier harbour in 1848

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Procession of Queen Victoria through the Royal Square

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Postcard of the procession of Queen Victoria through the Royal Square

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Postcard of Queen Victoria's procession through Broad Street on September 3 1846

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This information sheet will give you information on where to spot Victorian architecture around St Helier.

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One of our Education Officers can guide your class around St Helier town. Over a walk of approx hour, we will point out the:

Victorian features of Town

Victorian buildings

Victorian date stones

Explain some road names

Explain the obelisk in Broad Street

We can attach a walk onto a visit to the Victorian House or do it separately.

Please email education@jerseyheritage.org to book or for more information

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One of our Education Officers can come into your classroom to show handling objects relating to the Victorians, answer questions or give an introduction to events of the time.

education@jerseyheritage.org

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Please use this hazard information to inform your own Risk Assessment. Please note this document does not take the place of a RA.

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We have available for pupils and teachers:

Sensory backpack (with timers, fidget toys and ear defenders)

Visual / Sensory Story if required

Free Pre-visit for teacher if needed

Please email education@jerseyheritage.org for more information or to book a pre-visit