Artifact 1: Street Scene Engraving by Gustave Dore
Sourcing:
Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré was a French artist.
Doré published this picture in a book called "London: A Pilgrimage."
It every popular, but the book was disliked by
many people. Some of these critics were concerned with the fact
that Doré appeared to focus on the poverty that existed in some parts of London.
Doré was accused by The Art Journal of "inventing rather
than copying."
The Westminster Review claimed that "Doré
gives us sketches in which [he shows the worst part of society.]"
Artifact 2: Recreation in Cities
In the first sixty years or
so of the Industrial Revolution, working-class people had little time or
opportunity for recreation. Workers spent all the light of day at work and came
home with little energy, space, or light to play sports or games.
However, later in the
Industrial Revolution recreation
improved along with the rise of an emerging the middle class. Music halls sprouted up in big cities. Sports such as rugby and cricket became
popular. Football became a professional sport in 1885.
By the end of the 19th
century, cities had become the places with opportunities for sport and
entertainment that they are today.
Artifact 3: Life expectancy in cities
The densely packed
and poorly constructed working-class neighborhoods in the cities contributed to
the fast spread of disease.
Roads were muddy and
lacked sidewalks. Houses were built touching each other, leaving no room for
ventilation. Perhaps most importantly, homes lacked toilets and sewage systems,
and as a result, drinking water sources, such as wells, were frequently contaminated
with disease.
Diseases like cholera, tuberculosis, typhus, typhoid,
and influenza ravaged through new industrial towns, especially in poor
working-class neighborhoods. In 1849, 10,000 people died of cholera in three
months in London alone.
Poor nutrition,
disease, lack of sanitation, and harmful medical care in these urban areas had
a devastating effect on the average life expectancy of British people in the
first half of the 19th century. The Registrar General reported in 1841 that the
average life expectancy in rural areas of England was 45 years of age but was
only 37 in London and an alarming 26 in Liverpool (Haley). These are life-long
averages that highlight a very high infant mortality rate; in the first half of
the 19th century, 25 to 33% of children in England died before their 5th
birthday.
Artifact 4: White Collar Jobs Lead to Retail Shops
New urban industries gradually required more of what
we call today “white collar” jobs, such as business people, shopkeepers, bank
clerks, insurance agents, merchants, accountants, managers, doctors, lawyers,
and teachers.
One piece of evidence of this emerging middle class was the rise of retail shops in England that
increased from 300 in 1875 to 2,600 by 1890.
Artifact 5: Primary Source: Excerpt from The Conditions of the Working Class in England, 1844
Sourcing: An excerpt from Friedrich Engels, The Conditions of the Working Class in England in 1844. Engels grew up in Prussia (Germany) and was the son of a wealthy German cotton manufacturer. As a radical journalist and critic of industrialization, he sought to make the public aware of the poor conditions of workers and the negative effects of industrialization. His parents sent him to work in a factory in Manchester, England, hoping it would change his radical thoughts. It had the opposite effect.
"Right and left a multitude of covered passages lead from the main street into numerous courts, and he who turns in [down one of these passages] gets into a filth and disgusting grime, the equal of which is not to be found. … In one of these courts there stands directly at the entrance, at the end of the covered passage, a privy (toilet) without a door, so dirty that the inhabitants (people) can pass into and out of the court only by passing through foul pools of stagnant (stale) urine and excrement (poop). Below it on the river there are several tanneries (places where leather is made) which fill the whole neighborhood with the stench (bad smell) of animal putrefaction (rotting). Below Ducie Bridge the only entrance to most of the houses is by means of narrow, dirty stairs and over heaps of refuse (trash) and filth. The first court below Ducie Bridge, known as Allen's Court, was in such a state at the time of the cholera (a disease) that the sanitary police (health inspector) ordered it evacuated (emptied), swept, and disinfected with [bleach]..."
Artifact 6: Demographic Changes
In 1771, the sleepy town of Manchester, England
had a population of 22,000. Over the next fifty years, Manchester’s population
exploded and reached 180,000.
Many of the migrants
were poor farmers from Ireland who were being evicted (kicked out) from their land by their
English landlords. In the country-side they had nowhere to live and nowhere to go.
In the cities of Liverpool and Manchester roughly 25 to 33 percent of the
workers were Irish.
