Slum Travelers

Ladies and London Poverty, 1860-1920

Ellen Ross

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN:
  9780520249059
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780520940055
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

Late-nineteenth-century Britain saw the privileged classes forsake society balls and gatherings to turn their considerable resources to investigating and relieving poverty. By the 1890s at least half a million women were involved in philanthropy, particularly in London. Slum Travelers, edited, annotated, and with a superb introduction by Ellen Ross, collects a fascinating array of the writings of these "lady explorers," who were active in the east, south, and central London slums from around 1870 until the end of World War I. Contributors range from the well known, including Annie Besant, Sylvia Pankhurst, and Beatrice Webb (then Potter), to the obscure. The collection reclaims an important group of writers whose representations of urban poverty have been eclipsed by better-known male authors such as Charles Dickens and Jack London.

Table of contents

• Cover
• CONTENTS
• LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
• PREFACE
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• ABBREVIATIONS
• MAP OF LONDON IN 1888
• INTRODUCTION: Adventures among the Poor
• 1. “Sketch of Life in Buildings,” 1889: “A LADY RESIDENT”
• 2. “White Slavery in London,” 1888: ANNIE (WOOD) BESANT
• 3. From Makers of Our Clothes, 1909: CLEMENTINA BLACK AND ADELE (LADY CARL) MEYER
• 4. “Marriage in East London,” 1895: HELEN (DENDY) BOSANQUET
• 5. From Munition Lasses, 1917: AGNES KATE FOXWELL
• 6. “A School Settlement,” 1911: CLARA ELLEN GRANT
• 7. “Barmaids,” 1889: MARGARET HARKNESS
• 8. “In a London Tramp Ward,” 1906: MARY (KINGSLAND) HIGGS
• 9. “The Fur-Pullers of South London,” 1897: EDITH (MRS. F. G.) HOGG
• 10. From A London Plane-Tree, and Other Verse, 1889: AMY LEVY
• 11. “A Slum Mother” (1908) and “Guy and the Stars” (1919): MARGARET MCMILLAN
• 12. “Gilding the Gutter,” 1905: OLIVE CHRISTIAN MALVERY
• 13. “The Irresponsibility of the Father,” 1918: ANNA MARTIN
• 14. “Eating the Apple,” 1899: HONNOR MORTEN
• 15. “The Evacuation of the Workhouse,” 1918: MARGARET WYNNE NEVINSON
• 16. Selections from The Woman’s Dreadnought, 1916–1917: SYLVIA PANKHURST
• 17. From The Pudding Lady, 1910: FLORENCE PETTY
• 18. Selections from The Missing Link Magazine, 1878: ELLEN HENRIETTA RANYARD
• 19. Selections from Round about a Pound a Week, 1913: MAUD PEMBER REEVES
• 20. “Drunkenness,” 1878: MAUDE ALETHEA STANLEY
• 21. From London Street Arabs, 1890: DOROTHY TENNANT (LADY STANLEY)
• 22. “Petticoat-Lane,” 1895: ETHEL BRILLIANA (MRS. ALEC) TWEEDIE
• 23. “An Epiphany Pilgrimage,” 1906: KATE WARBURTON
• 24. “Pages from a Work-Girl’s Diary,” 1888: BEATRICE (POTTER) WEBB
• APPENDIX 1: The Geography of London Wealth and Poverty
• APPENDIX 2: The Texts Arranged Thematically
• GLOSSARY OF TERMS, INSTITUTIONS, AND ORGANIZATIONS
• INDEX