A Healing Sense of Place: The Importance of Environment on healing in the nineteenth century

Throughout the 19th century healing spaces were constantly adapting and changing due to understandings of illness, popular treatment options and public opinion for example, while many people would consider a hospital nowadays to be a site of healing, the 1832 Anatomy Act left many poorer patients and their families concerned that they would face post…

Harriet Martineau – Radical Activism

Abstract Harriet Martineau (1802-1876) was a unique figure in Victorian culture, who contributed to a wide range of intellectual and social debates of the period. She was a writer, sociologist, economist, feminist and disabled activist and abolitionist. As a historical figure she attracts cross-discipline interest for her varied and interesting life. It would be impossible to fit…

In/Visibility, Invalidism and Identity

This presentation was given on 04/10/2019 at the Royal Hospital for Neuro-Disability in London, as part of a Conference on Disability History and Heritage called, "Opening up the Archives"   When I was asked to present, I wasn’t too sure what to present, while my research is interesting, it still feels like it is in…

The Crippled Nutmeg Seller: Gendering Disabled Bodies (Part 3)

This piece uses a primary source about a disabled nutmeg seller as a launchpad to explore concepts of the worthy and unworthy poor in the 19th century. Part1, part 2 is Sensationalistic Voyeurism and part 3 is the Gendering of Disability Disability in the nineteenth century can be argued to have a gendered component. Indeed, the…

The Crippled Nutmeg Seller: 19th Century Worthy and Unworthy Poor (Part 1)

This piece uses a primary source about a disabled nutmeg seller as a launchpad to explore concepts of the worthy and unworthy poor in the 19th century. Part 1, part 2 is Sensationalistic Voyeurism and part 3 is the Gendering of Disability The story of the crippled street seller of nutmeg graters is a small glimpse…

Harriet Martineau and the Victorian Sickroom – Disabled #Herstory

Harriet Martineau (1802-1876) was a writer and intellectual of the Victorian period. She was best known for her short stories on the political economy for the layman. She was deaf from childhood, and required the use of an ear trumpet. Between 1839 and 1845, Martineau became housebound due to a uterine tumor, while in her…