Poverty, Philanthropy and Social Conditions in Victorian Britain
Discover what life was like for the poorest communities in Victorian Britain, and explore the social reform and philanthropic efforts of charitable institutions that sought to alleviate poverty.
This digital resource documents the interactions between government policy and public philanthropy in Victorian and early twentieth-century society, tracing developments in welfare reform and the social tensions surrounding poverty. Discover the conditions of workhouses and the administration of the new poor relief system through the official government correspondence of the Poor Law Commission and explore the demonstrable shift in social conditions and welfare reform through a variety of material.
The resource offers rich opportunities for both teaching and research, covering a breadth of topics including workhouses and outdoor relief, health and medicine, disability, housing, sanitation, education, and social reform.
Highlights
- The Family Welfare Association Library contains a wealth of rare contemporary printed sources, gathered by the pioneering Charity Organisation Society, founded by Octavia Hill and others. Its library covers a huge range of social issues from the 19th and 20th centuries
- Unique material from The National Archives, UK, focuses on the Poor Laws and the workhouse systems, providing access to the correspondence of the national Poor Law Commission and Inspectors. The incredibly rich material provides insight into the conditions of workhouses and the 'outdoor relief' system
- Sourced from the British Library, periodicals and annual reports from a range of Settlement Houses provide a fascinating insight into the University Settlement Movement, a reformist social movement with the goal of getting rich and poor to live closely together in an interdependent community.
Included in
Key data
Period covered
Source archives
- British Library
- Senate House Library
- The National Archives, UK
- Charitable institutions and friendly societies
- Education and children
- Health, medicine and disability
- Manufacturing, technology and trade
- Race and immigration
- Sanitation, slums and housing
- Social order and discipline
- Social reform and welfare
- Socialism and political movements
- The Poor Law, workhouses and outdoor relief
- Correspondence
- Newspaper clippings
- Pamphlets
- Periodicals
- Registers
- Reports
- Anthony Brundage, California State Polytechnic University at Pomona
- Geoff Ginn, University of Queensland
- Bernard Harris, University of Strathclyde
- Peter Higginbotham, Historian
- Steven King, University of Leicester
- Seth Koven, Rutgers University
- Lucinda Matthews-Jones, Liverpool John Moores University
- Samantha Williams, University of Cambridge
- Great Britain, Republic of Ireland and Northern Irish Studies
- Sociology, Social History and Social Science
- Contextual essays from academics
- Video interview from historian Peter Higginbotham, exploring the workhouse system and its challenges as an area of research
- Interactive chronology providing contextual information on key events surrounding the New Poor Law, social welfare and government legislation during the period
- Case studies from academics provide introductions to key themes from which users can begin their research
Reviews
Poverty, Philanthropy and Social Conditions in Victorian Britain.
- Publisher: Library Journal
Recommended for lower-division undergraduates through faculty
- Author: Dawn Behrend, Lenoir-Rhyne University
- Publisher: Choice
