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Online Talk – Elizabeth Gaskell Goes Shopping
onlineAn illustrated Zoom talk by Anthony Burton Elizabeth Gaskell’s letters, which reveal so much of her life, tell us something of the shops she patronised in Manchester: this talk recalls them from obscurity. Hear about the interesting selection of bookshops, food shops and clothing shops that Elizabeth visited and how Manchester grew into the shopping […]
A Christmas Potpourri
onlineThe Friends of Elizabeth Gaskell's House have asked several enthusiasts to give short illustrated talks about their favourite objects in the House. So please sit back, with some suitably festive refreshments to hand, and enjoy. Tickets are £5.50, for more information and to book follow the link below.
Industrial Labour and Cultural Engagement in the Long Nineteenth Century
Friends' Meeting House Mount Street, ManchesterThis conference is designed to expand on the remit of the 'Piston, Pen & Press' project and to discuss and reflect upon a wider range of cultural activities engaged in by industrial workers – for example, as dramatists and theatre-goers, as musicians and composers, as artists and visitors to exhibitions and galleries – as well […]
Of Song and Speech: Music and Words from Industrial Lancashire
The John Rylands Research Institute and Library 150 Deansgate, Manchester, United KingdomGaskell Society member and good friend, Professor Michael Sanders, in conversation exploring the defining literary and cultural pioneers of the era. He’ll be joined by folk singer, Jen Reid, who sings Lancashire dialect songs. 5:30-6:10: Collections Encounter Drop in at the Rylands and discover objects and books connected to our exhibition Workers' Playtime: Culture and […]
Online Talk: The Gaskells’ Garden on a Plate
onlineElizabeth Gaskell had great hopes for the garden at Plymouth Grove, not just as a beautiful place to relax, but as a source of food for the family. She even joked that ‘I find my proper vocation is farming‘. Now you can find out about what she grew, where and why based on original sources […]
Online Talk: Mary Barton and the Year of Revolutions
onlineMary Barton and the Year of Revolutions: ‘John Barton became a Chartist, a Communist’ Elizabeth Gaskell’s debut novel Mary Barton (1848) is recognised as one of the most important Victorian works to explore the working class Chartist movement, in this case through the character of Mary’s father, John Barton. Popular speaker Prof Mike Sanders is back to reveal […]
Online Talk: Song of the Shirt
onlineWith fingers weary and worn, With eyelids heavy and red, A woman sat in unwomanly rags, Plying her needle and thread— Stitch! stitch! stitch! Thomas Hood wrote the famous poem The Song of the Shirt (1843), in response to a newspaper report about a widow and seamstress named Mrs Biddell who was forced, like many seamstresses of her day, to […]
Online Event: North and South – The Preston Lockouts Anniversary
online2023 marks the 170th anniversary of the Preston Lockouts – the historical strikes that informed the plot and themes of Elizabeth Gaskell’s classic romantic novel North and South and provided inspiration for Charles Dickens in Hard Times. When workers demanded a 10% wage increase in Preston in 1853, the factory owners simply locked the gates and left 18,000 people […]
Online Talk: Victorian Christmas in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Manchester
onlineAt the start of Queen Victoria’s reign, Christmas meant little to commercial Manchester but during the 1840s-1860s the city came to share in an upsurge of enthusiasm for the festive season. Elizabeth Gaskell’s Manchester saw a boom in the Christmas trade in food, wine and gifts, the expansion of seasonal entertainments like pantomime and the […]
The Victorian House: Elizabeth Gaskell’s House in Context
Cross Street Chapel Cross Street,, Manchester, United KingdomIs Elizabeth Gaskell's House a 'typical' Victorian house? Surely houses changed a lot over Victoria's 63-year-long reign? Anthony Burton examines various aspects of Victorian domestic architecture, in order to show how Elizabeth Gaskell's House fits in. Doors open at 1pm and the talk begins at 1.30pm. We'll make a recording available for online viewing after the […]