Imperial Mobility: The Colonial Worlds of Sir Anthony and Lady Jeanie Musgrave

Mobility—of people, products, and capital—is a common trope of the contemporary globalized world. Yet, mobility is not only a current phenomenon, but has an integral role in the constitution of past empires. In particular, the governance of empire requires the mobility of administrators and their families: people who, in the service of empire, travel between metropole and periphery, and even more typically, in the multiple circuits between peripheries. The life of Sir Anthony Musgrave, a colonial administrator who served in posts in the Caribbean, Canada, South Africa, and Australia, exemplifies the movement which empire demands. In their travels around the British world of the late nineteenth century, the Musgraves—Sir Anthony, his American-born wife Lady Jeanie, and their three sons—engaged with empire in ways both physical and conceptual. In this essay, I explore how the Musgraves’ mobility contributed to a sense of overlapping colonial worlds that were supported and challenged by the rise of communication and transport technologies, the flows of international labor, and the competing demands of national and imperial identities.     

‘Arsenic of the size of a pea’

It is one of criminology’s (few) established truths that women commit far fewer violent crimes than men do. This has been especially evident when it comes to deadly violence. Besides witchcraft and infanticide there is, however, another serious crime that has been associated with women: poisoning. This article studies female poisoners in 19th-century Sweden. The investigation shows that poisonings were fairly common during this period, albeit far from being an exclusively female affair. The empirical findings reveal that these crimes were directed at several different categories of victims: spouses, children and elderly household members, as well as other women. It is also shown that a considerable number of the women accused of poisoning was acquitted, in many cases thanks to the strict process rules associated with the statutory theory of legal proof. Theoretically, the article hypothesizes an understanding of these poisonings where agency is placed at the centre. They are thus seen as acts where (female) subjectivity was created during this period.     

The Ulster Women's Declaration and the Passion of Women in the Campaign against Home Rule,c.1886–1912*

On Ulster Day, 28 September 1912, Unionist leaders orchestrated the mass signing of the Ulster Covenant and the Women's Declaration against Irish home rule. These were highly emotive documents and the ‘passion’ expressed by women contrasted with the men, as the Covenant implied a pact with God while the Women's Declaration promised to support their male counterparts. The Declaration, with 234,046 signatures, was one of the largest petitions ever organised by Irish (and British women) in this period and expressed the desire of many Ulsterwomen to defend their identities as Unionists and Protestants. This article breaks new ground by examining the Declaration as a form of petitioning culture. It will analyse Unionist women's petitioning through the lens of ‘passion’ and argue that petitioning offered women a way to express their feelings on this important issue. This will be done by analysing the Declaration and the Unionist women's earlier petitioning campaigns to reveal what motivated Unionist women to protest and their political practice. Another perspective is provided by the contemporary criticisms of the Declaration made by suffrage activists. This shows that while ‘passion’ could mobilise women, it could also cause friction. This article will also consider the gendered coverage of Ulsterwomen's political participation by the press. Overall, this article reappraises the political activism of Ulsterwomen from the perspective of petitioning and the power of ideological passion in politics.     

A 19th century post‐mortem specimen from Deal,Kent

A disarticulated cranium from a builder's trench displayed clear evidence for surgical removal of the cranial vault. Documentary evidence indicates that the post‐mortem was undertaken between 1812–1869 and the patient was probably a British serviceman. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Trade in Individual Maps from Ortelius’s Theatrum orbis terrarum after 1612

In 1612, following the death of the Antwerp print publisher Jan Baptist Vrients, Balthasar I and Jan Moretus II, at the time the managers of the Plantin Press, bought the copper plates used to print Abraham Ortelius’s Theatrum orbis terrarium, together with the remainder of Vrients’s stock of the atlas. Subsequently, they reissued various editions of the Theatrum, selling them under their own names. They also traded in individual maps from the Theatrum, printing more when necessary. Hundreds of maps were sent to clients all over Europe. This article gives an overview of this so far unknown distribution of Ortelius’s maps in the first half of the seventeenth century.     

Man vs. Machine: Betty’s Hope and the Industrialisation of 19th-Century Caribbean Factories

Factories of the 19th century have often been viewed as a secondary aspect of Caribbean plantations. However, factories of this period played a vital role in the expansion of cross-Atlantic trade as well as the development of modern social systems. The introduction of steam to the plantation, not just in the factory, revolutionised productive methodologies, spaces and products, forging new modes of manufacture, distribution and worker narratives. This article will discuss the development of steam technologies at the Betty’s Hope, Antigua, the flagship plantation on the island.     

Being a nation through the crown. Banal monarchism and nation-building in Spain, 1833–68

ABSTRACT

Studies on nationalism have rarely given importance to the role played by the monarchy. In the Spanish case, studies have principally underlined its negative impact at the beginning of the twentieth century. This article aims to approach the origins of this political and cultural junction between the crown and the phenomenon of nationalism in Spain. A process that took place during the reign of Queen Isabel II (1833–68) and that followed very similar times and formulas to its neighbouring countries. It is first discuss the challenge that the monarchy faced in resignifying and relocating itself politically and symbolically in the nineteenth century. On this path, the crown found in the nation a perfect partner. However, liberalism also used the historical legitimacy of the monarchy to construct a nationalist discourse where monarchical identity was a structuring and undeniable piece of the national essence. Then, the author studies two typologies of strategies undertaken by them to convey their idea of nation, to mobilize people and to engender national loyalty: royal travel and images of the monarchy – both literal and figurative – used by the state. A comparative perspective with different European cases is always follow, particularly with Queen Victoria.     

Widows,Wives and Witnesses: Women and their Involvement in the 1768 Northampton Borough Parliamentary Election

This article analyses sources relating to the 1768 Northampton borough election to determine the ways in which women were involved in pre‐reform elections. Although there has been literature relating to the participation of women in pre‐reform elections, it has largely focused on elite women. Through a case study of the 1768 election this article will suggest that non‐elite women were involved in a variety of ways. In particular, it will show that these women acted as witnesses during the polling and provided evidence relating to men and their eligibility to vote, and suggest that female householders had an impact upon the election through their property ownership. Through their role as householders, women were able to participate in elections through the exchange of property and enabling men to vote. The activities in which Northampton women were involved had further implications concerning home and its use as a public space.     

Frank Clifford Rose Memorial Lecture: The tale of three trephines: Surgeons and their surgical-instrument makers in Britain,France, and America in the nineteenth century

ABSTRACT

Trephines and trepanning date to ancient times, but a “modern” form of instruments was codified by the seventeenth century. This did not preclude efforts to “improve” the trephine in the late-eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Surgeons and instrument makers in Britain (Jardine and Savigny), France (Thomson and Charrière), and America (Galt and Otto & Reynders) endeavored to make the trephine safer and more precise. In exploring their interactions, this presentation shows the evolving role of the instrument makers not only as fabricators of tools, but as creative design collaborators of surgeons and physicians.     

Ottoman Maps of the Empire’s Arab Provinces, 1850s to the First World War

In recent years the central Ottoman archive in Istanbul has been gradually releasing and computerizing thousands of maps stored in its collections. Our study introduces 137 maps already available to researchers that focus either directly or indirectly as part of broader presentations of imperial domains on the Ottoman Empire’s Arab provinces. These maps, which all date to between the middle of the nineteenth century and the First World War, differ widely in character, content and function. The maps are briefly described according to their content and set in their historical context.