Education, Travel and the “Civilisation” of the Victorian Working Classes PDF
Preview Education, Travel and the “Civilisation” of the Victorian Working Classes
Education, Travel and the “Civilisation” of the Victorian Working Classes This page intentionally left blank Education, Travel and the “Civilisation” of the Victorian Working Classes Michele M. Strong Associate Professor, University of South Alabama © Michele M. Strong 2014 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-1-137-33807-5 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2014 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-46393-0 ISBN 978-1-137-33808-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137338082 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India. Contents List of Figures vi Acknowledgements vii Introduction: Grand Tours and Workers’ Tours: Rethinking Victorian Travel and Education 1 1 “A True Agent of Civilisation”: Travel and the “Educational Idea,” 1841–1861 17 2 Turning the Educational Idea on Its Head: The Lib–Lab Alliance and the Organization of the Working Men’s 1867 Exhibition Tours 42 3 “The Lessons of Paris”: The 1867 Working Men’s Exhibition Tours and the Artisan Imagination 59 4 “High Attainments”: The Artisan Exhibition Tours and the Campaign for Technical Education, 1867–1889 98 5 Class Trips and the Meaning of British Citizenship: The Regent Street Polytechnic at Home and Abroad, 1871–1903 133 Conclusion: Goody, Gordon, and Shilpa Shetty “Poppadom”: The Politics of Study Abroad from the New Liberalism to New Labour 161 Notes 167 References 219 Index 235 v List of Figures 1 Cook’s excursionists at the Gare du Nord, Paris, 1861 93 2 Cook’s excursionists on the Champs Elysees, Paris, 1861 93 3 “A Sudden Opening for a Young Man” 94 4 “Visit of the Working Men’s Club and Institute Union to the Alexandra Palace” 94 5 “Deputation to France (1867)” 95 6 “Mr. Hogg at Fort Collins, Colorado, in 1886, with some Institute Members Who Had Settled There” 96 7 “Programme: The Polytechnic Co-operative and Educational Holiday Tours (1897)” 97 vi Acknowledgements Like many of the workers’ travels described in this book, my first trip abroad was made as an “educational tour.” I would like to begin this acknowledge- ment by conveying my gratitude to the people and institutions that made research in the United Kingdom possible. Research and writing for this pro- ject was funded by grants from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of South Alabama in Mobile. I am also grateful to the History Department at Trinity University, San Antonio, which helped fund research in 2004, when I was a visiting Assistant Professor. Many cura- tors, archivists, and librarians (and civilians, too) helped guide me through the archives. Kevin Smyth, General Secretary of the Working Men’s Club and Institute Union, kindly brought me up to date on the WMCIU’s his- tory and made sources available to me even while the club headquarters underwent reconstruction. Gordon Fox introduced me to the Working Men’s College and carefully selected interesting documents from its archive to help with my project. Paul Smith graciously welcomed me to the Thomas Cook archive – summer after summer – while Joy Hooper and Jill Lomer directed my attention to its many treasures. Their friendship in subsequent years has been the best treasure of all. I am also grateful for the expert help and warm friendship of Susan Bennett, former curator of the Royal Society of Arts archive and currently Honorable Secretary of the William Shipley Group for RSA History; and, Brenda Weedon, former archivist at the University of Westminster archive. Brenda Weedon’s successor, Elaine Penn, has been enormously helpful in tying up loose ends for which I am grateful. Thanks are also owed to the intellectual generosity of Piers Brendon, former Keeper of the Archives at Churchill College, Cambridge. It would have been madness to write this book without consulting him first or his book on “the great man,” Thomas Cook. Back in the USA, Tommy Nixon at Davis Library (UNC-CH) helped me launch the project at a time when sources about British, working-class travelers were difficult to imagine, much less find. Kathy Jones and members of the ILL staff at the University of South Alabama Library have helped me conclude the project with quick and expert responses to every book request. Much of my work has been shaped in conversation with scholars and friends. At UNC-CH, I could not have hoped for a better advisor than Lloyd Kramer. His spirit of intellectual adventure guides me still. Discussions with James Hevia, Jeanne Moskal, Donald Reid, Jay Smith, Richard Soloway, and Susan Thorne sharpened my analysis. David Anderson, Chris Endy, Mariola Espinosa, Cora Granata, Doina Harsanyi, Brandon Hunziker, Leah Potter, Bianca Premo, David Sartorius, and Susan Thuesen also offered important vii viii Acknowledgements insights at various stages of my early thinking and writing. At the University of South Alabama, my work has benefited greatly from a department that both values and supports new scholarship. I owe a special debt of gratitude to the Chair, Clarence Mohr, and to my colleagues Frye Galliard, Mara Kozelsky, and Rebecca Williams for their encouragement, comments on an early chapter draft, and advice about the publishing process. Chapter 5 came into being as conference papers on imperial networks at the Southern Conference of British Studies and at the American Historical Association. I want to thank Alan Lester and Philippa Levine for their insights and encouragement. In many conversations over the years, Douglas Bristol also contributed to my thinking about networks, class, and power, for which I am grateful. Alice Ritscherle and Jeffrey Harris generously read the entire manuscript in its early and late stages (respectively) and offered astute com- ments, editorial turns of phrase, and laughs. I am eternally grateful. All errors, needless to say, are my own. My appreciation extends to the people and institutions involved directly with the publication of this book. De Gruyter Saur granted permission to reproduce my chapter, “‘Clothing Britain’s Legions’ with ‘Intellectual Weapons’ and ‘Sound Science’: The Artisan Exhibition Tours and the Rise of Modern Educational Travel, 1867–1889,” edited by Franz Bosbach and John Davis, in Die Weltausstellung von 1851 und ihre Folgen/The Great Exhibition and its Legacy, Prince Albert Studies, 20 (Munich: K.G. Saur, 2002; Reprint, Berlin: De Gruter Saur, 2012), which comprises portions of Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 of this book. Cambridge University Press and the Journal of British Studies, granted permission to reprint my article, “Class Trips and the Meaning of British Citizenship: Travel, Educational Reform, and the Regent Street Polytechnic at Home and Abroad, 1871–1903,” in Chapter 5 of this book. I want to thank the anonymous readers and, especially, editors Elizabeth Elbourne and Brian Lewis at JBS, for their enormously helpful comments and suggestions. Many thanks also go to Clare Mence, Commissioning Editor, for supporting this project and to Alec McAulay, for his patience and valuable expertise. I also wish to convey my deep appreciation to the anonymous readers of the sample chapters and the completed manuscript. I dedicate this book with love and respect to my sister, Dominique, whose own educational tour is about to commence. Bon voyage! Introduction: Grand Tours and Workers’ Tours: Rethinking Victorian Travel and Education Grand Tours and Workers’ Tours: Rethinking Victorian Travel and Education Sifting through his morning correspondence, Peter Le Neve Foster would have paused at a rough envelope postmarked 5 November 1878, the return address, “Peckham House Lunatic Asylum, London,” scrawled in the cor- ner. It was a letter from Alexander Kay, an unfortunate Scottish joiner with whom he had corresponded since the 1867 “Artisan Tours” of the Paris Exhibition. Foster had neglected to respond to Kay’s September post. Yet here was another letter to pester and perhaps sadden him with the musings of a man who had lost his mind, his capacity for self-government, and his freedom. Foster, the Secretary of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Commerce, and Manufacturers (SA), had been a key organizer of the 1867 Artisan Tours, in which 84 skilled craftsmen (including Kay) had reported on the Paris Exhibition. A quasi-governmental institution, the SA was dedicated to the progress of British industry through national programs such as adult education classes. The SA thus viewed the artisan tours as important peda- gogical innovations to improve workers’ education, their livelihoods, and the prosperity of the nation. The SA also anticipated that the tours would improve relations between the middle-class organizers and the artisans, many of whom would win the franchise in the forthcoming 1867 Reform Act. Kay, however, writing from a lunatic asylum a full decade later, had come to a far different conclusion about the educational utility of the tours, and questioned the intentions of the organizers. Although Kay began his letter congenially enough, saluting Foster as “My dear friend of 1867,” he quickly descended into an odd rant. “I have not received a reply to my September letter,” Kay remonstrated, “but you are well aware that it is very undesirable to lose old friends. As in fact there seems [sic] to be plenty of sharks. But as the Whaler fleet this year have demon- strated the scarcity of whales, we must not be anxious to throw the Jonahs 1
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