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‘The Virtues of a Drop of Cleansing Water’: domestic work and cleanliness in the British working classes, 1880–1914

This 7,000 word double-blind peer-reviewed article concerns the material culture of the working classes, a relatively under-developed field (research on the domestic interior of 1880-1914 concentrates on the middle and upper classes). The paper places this research within a discussion of the historiography of women’s history, developing an argument distinct from Kelley’s book Soap and Water (output 1) Like all the papers in this special issue of the Women’s History Review, it arose from debate at the ‘Beyond the Widening Sphere’ conference, Royal Holloway (2006). Fellow contributors include Jane Hamlett (Royal Holloway) and Professor Martha Vicinus (University of Michigan). The paper deals with social history, yet fits naturally into the Art and Design panel as its concerns are the materiality and representation of social life, and methods used include those of design history and material culture history.