Josephine Butler, Octavia Hill, Florence Nightingale: Three Victorian Women Who Changed Their World

286 Pages·1982·26.631 MB·English

by  Nancy Boyd (auth.)

JOSEPHINE BUTLER, OCTA VIA HILL,
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE
JOSEPHINE BUTLER,
OCT AV IA HILL,
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE
Three Victorian Wonzen Who
Changed Their World
Nancy Boyd
M
MACMILLAN
© Nancy Boyd Sokoloff 1982
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without permission
First edition 1982
Reprinted 1984
Published by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS L TD
London and Basingstoke
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
ISBN 978-0-333-37636-2 ISBN 978-1-349-07567-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-07567-6
For these Friends
Ilyana Y. Adams
J
ohn and Marjean Bailey
Susan Herter
Sylvia Stallings Lowe
Ethel Landon Penzel
Leroy and Rita Rouner
Arthur and Helen Siegrist
Contents
Pre/ace
Xl
Acknowledgements XVIll
Introduction - An Age in Need 0/ Heroism:
Great Britain, 1860 1
/OSEPHINE BUTLER
1 A TOUCH OF GENIUS 23
1 Milfield and Dilston, 1828 - 52: Childhood and
Adolescence 23
2 Oxford, Cheltenham, Liverpool, 1852-69: Marriage
and Maturity 31
3 National Association for the Repeal of the
Contagious Diseases Acts 1869-1906: Commitment
and Action 40
2 MOST TENACIOUS CHRISTIAN FAITH 53
1 Worldly Evangelical 53
2 Inclusive Not Exclusive 58
3 Seeking God's Thoughts 60
4 The Crusade: Inaugurated by Prayer 64
5 Christ: The Exponent of the Mind of God 68
3 A NEW DISPENSATION 71
1 Your Sons and Daughters Shall Prophesy 71
2 Our Enslaved Sisters 75
3 The Antidote to the Viper's Sting 82
4 Hell Hath Opened Her Mouth 88
vii
VIU Contents
OCTA VIA HILL
4 IMPRESSIVE STATURE AND FORMIDABLE
ACCOMPLISHMENTS 95
1 Finehley and Highgate, 1838-51: Daughter and
Sister 95
2 London, 1851-55: Artist and Toymaker 98
3 Working Women's Classes, 1855 - 61: Teaeher
and Administrator 103
4 Nottingham Plaee, 1861-65: Sehoolmistress 105
5 Paradise Plaee, 1865-69: Manager of Housing 107
6 Charity Organization Society, 1869-75: Poliey-maker
and Adviser 109
7 Kyrie Society and National Trust, 1875-84: Patron
of the Arts and Conservationist 113
8 Royal Commission, 1884-1912: Celebrity 118
5 THE GROUND ON WHICH WE STAND 121
1 God in Turner and the Wheatfield 122
2 To Help Others Love Nature and Art 125
3 Providenee: The Plot of a Book 126
4 God and the Rent 132
6 A UNIVERSAL FAMILY 143
1 The Prototype of Divine Love 143
2 Charity Begins at Home: Tenant and Manager 150
3 Believing and Doing: A Holy Soeiety 160
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE
7 EMINENT VICTORIAN 167
1 Lea Hurst and Embley, 1820-47: Rebel Daughter 168
2 London, Rome, and Greeee, 1847-51: Pilgrim and
Penitent 174
3 Kaiserswerth and Harley Street, 1851-54: Nurse and
Administrator 179
4 The Crimea, 1854-56: Purveyor, Dea Ex Machina,
and Legend 182
5 Little War Office, St Thomas's, and India, 1856-1910:
Chief, Founder of Nursing, and Governess 192
Contents IX
8 HER STUFF: SUGGESTIONS FOR THOUGHT 197
1 A Critique of Contemporary Thought 199
2 The Plan of Almighty· Perfection 205
3 Revealing the Plan 209
9 MANKIND MUST CREATE MANKIND 214
1 Called to Be Saviours 214
2 Having No Other Will But God's 223
3 The Eternal Becoming 232
CONCLUSION 235
1 Wh at They Were Given: Family, Class, Place,
and Time 237
2 Wh at They Made of It: Feminism and Faith 244
Notes 252
Bibliography 263
Index 271
Preface
Contemporary feminists search the past for models of liberated
women and for the emergence of themes that, because they have
only been partially realized, remain of critical interest: the
assertion of the feminine as a psychological principle of impor
tance; the right of women to legal, economic, educational, and
professional parity. Currently, historians reflect the values of our
society in the push for reform of what we read as abuses, and in
their haste to fill the gaps left by the selective vision of an earlier
scholarship trace the direct lines of ancestry of contemporary
concerns. Such single-mindedness brings a welcome vitality to
scholarship. In the focusing of vision, however, important figures
whose position is not central tend to be ignored. Social historians
chronicle the changes in the position of women and the politics of
the suffragist movement, and biographers gave us revisionist
studies of Mary Wollestonecraft and the li terary women, bu t scan t
attention has been given England's three great nineteenth
century pioneers of social reform - J osephine Butler, Octavia
Hill, and Florence Nightingale.
There was a time when their stock was high. In his gallery of
portraits of people who 'made the century', George Frederick
Watts placed the fragile, haunted face of Josephine Butler, the
only woman in his solemn conclave of notables. Octavia Hill,
described by David Owen as one of the 'classic monuments of
Victorian philanthropy',l was commended by Sir Reginald Rowe
in 1906. 'I doubt if in the field of human service there has ever
been any other woman who has sown seeds from which so much
has grown and is still growing.'2 The Dictionary 0/ National
Biography devoted five pages to Florence Nightingale; her inclu
sion in that delightful compendium of popular history, 1066 and
All That, as 'the Lady with the Deadly Lampshade' is perhaps a
greater tribute to her farne. In 1954 O. R. McGregor, noting the
neglect of many other outstanding women in social policy,
Xl
XIl Preface
attributed it to their having worked 'within the giant shadow'
cast by Josephine Butler and Florence Nightingale.
These reputations are based on arecord of solid accomplish
ments. Josephine Butler against all political odds raised opposi
tion to the state regulation of prostitution and defeated the
Contagious Diseases Acts; she drew attention to the poverty that
gave rise to prostitution and became the leaderof an international
alliance that fought for the civil rights of women. Octavia Hill,
noting the overcrowding and high rents that threatened family
life, provided housing for thousands and created a new profession
for men and women, that of the sodal worker. As a founder of the
National Trust and a great conservationist, she helped keep
England's countryside and its heritage for the British people.
Florence N ightingale notonly established a precedent-shattering
training school for nurses; her pioneering work in the use of
statistical analysis played an important role in the reform of
medical practice and public health.
If these women, eulogized by historians, have been recently
neglected, one must look for the reason not in their accomplish
ments but in their attitudes toward the feminist issues of their day
and in their link with a world-view, Christianity, that is rooted in
the past. To so me of the questions that were of compelling interest
to other women, these leaders remained ambivalent. Florence
Nightingale said that she wished to make a better life for women
yet she also said that she was 'brutally indifferent' to the rights
of her own sex. She signed the petition for women's suffrage
reluctantly, and she gave little encouragement to women who
wished to become doctors. Octavia Hill opposed the extension
of the suffrage, she extolled the 'home-making' virtues of women
as their primary function. Even Josephine Butler, who did so
much for the advancement of women, was in some ways
conservative. She, too, placed a high value on women's
traditional role as home-maker, wife and mother. While she
believed in votes for women, she was distressed by the
suffragists' methods.
The issue of women's rights placed these leaders in a dilemma.
As Christians they affirmed the rights ofthe powerless; they also,
however, placed self-giving and service to others above the
striving for power. As women, they found it difficult to press for
their own self-advantage. In addition, as educated, upper-dass
women of exceptional abilities, they were not always aware of the