Lesley Hoskins

Household Inventories Reassessed

ABSTRACT Contrary to previous belief, there are now known to be substantial numbers of household inventories for nineteenth-century England and Wales. This article discusses what, and how, this “new” source can add to our understanding of the domestic cultures of the period. It describes how these inventories, read through the lens of a material-culture approach in both aggregate and interpretive analysis, not only offer unprecedented grounded evidence for how a sample of “unremarkable” Victorians laid out and equipped the spaces of their homes but also bring to light stories of intention, choice, and change in the furnishing, equipment, use, and meaning of domestic spaces.

Behind the Scenes: Participants and Processes in the Development of London’s Interwar Suburban Shopping Parades

Abstract England between 1919 and 1939 experienced enormous suburban expansion. In Greater London the population grew by about seventeen percent, while the built-up area doubled in size. Thousands of shopping parades were built on suburban high roads and in estates, providing the residents of these new communities not just with a local place to shop for their daily (or more major needs) but also offering a center for local activities and interactions, both informal and formal. These parades are still a familiar feature of the suburban landscape but, until recently, both the buildings and the complex process of their development have been overlooked. Drawing upon existing histories and geographies of shopping, of the commercial property market, and of suburban development and culture, this paper examines four cases in order to bring into the foreground the network of participants and processes in the financing, designing and building of London’s interwar shopping parades.

Putting People on the Page: Material Culture as a Way in to Everyday Life behind the Facades of Tallis’s London Street Views

AbstractTallis’s Street Views describe London as a commercial and professional centre but the visual representation of the street elevations gives an impression of quiet emptiness; it is hard to get a sense of the activity in and around the businesses portrayed. The household inventory of one of Tallis’s advertisers, a dentist who died in 1850, suggests a way of redressing this. An interpretive reading of the list of the dentist’s belongings, disposed around the different spaces of the premises, which housed his residence, his business and other households, gives some sense of the complexity and struggle at a daily level behind Tallis’s apparently orderly professional and commercial facades. This indicates that we can look more generally to material culture – whether in textual and visual representations or as actual artefacts – to provide a deeper understanding of people’s everyday life in a developing city.

Bookreview: Stories from home: English domestic interiors, 1750?1850. By Margaret Ponsonby. Aldershot: Ashgate. 2007. x + 221 pp. #55.00 hardback. ISBN: 9780754652359

This multidisciplinary text draws together key historical and contemporary readings to introduce readers to ongoing debates surrounding the roles and place of animals in society. Highlighting the shifting nature of human–animal divisions, it challenges readers to rethink contemporary animal practices and encourages them to be alert to the differences, continuities and interconnections between people and animals. The book’s six themed sections examine the philosophical and ethical underpinnings of human–animal relations, as well as animals’ roles as pets, food, spectacle, symbols and scientific objects, in a predominately Western context. An examination of ‘Animals as Philosophical and Ethical Subjects’ provides a strong foundation for the collection and encourages readers to consider how the categorization of animals impacts on both the opportunities of people and their ethical obligations to animals. Contributions drawn from Aristotle, Singer, Regan and Nussbaum, among others, introduce contrasting perspectives on the question of animal rights and provide a challenging introduction to later sections. Kalof and Fitzgerald discuss their choice of pieces that ‘have had a major influence in how the Western world thinks about animals’. While they certainly achieve this goal, the inclusion of contemporary non-Western perspectives in the book’s introductory section (and in addition to Levi-Strauss’ contribution later in the book) would complement the text and further challenge readers’ conceptions of human–nature and human–animal divisions in Western society by highlighting alternative ways of seeing and engaging with animals. The editors’ selection of often contrasting pieces sparks debate within the text. With its succinct introductions, which contextualize chapters historically and within the broader field of human–animal studies, this text provides a comprehensive introduction to key debates in a format that is accessible to undergraduate students.