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Oct. 2021 bo KENSETT Artisans in Britain and America in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries RUTH LEVITT 2014 Copyright © 2014 Ruth Levitt The moral right of Ruth Levitt to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 All rights reserved Copyright under Berne Convention This work is being made available under a Creative Commons Licence CC BY-ND. For licence terms see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/ Copyright and moral rights for the publications made available in King’s Research Portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications in King's Research Portal that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. You may freely distribute the URL identifying the work in King’s Research Portal: http://bit.ly/1x19XOV KENSETT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to John Douglas, William Solesbury and Jane Steele for their extraordinarily generous advice and comments. Thanks to Dr Uta Balbier and the Institute of North American Studies at King’s College London, where I was a Visiting Senior Research Fellow while researching and writing this book. Thanks to staff of numerous libraries and archives in Britain and America for their advice and assistance, notably Senate House Library in the University of London, London Metropolitan Archives, the Frick Reference Library and Smithsonian Archives of American Art in New York. Thanks to the editors of the following journals for publishing articles I have written that draw on the research and writing in this book: The Actuary; BBC History Magazine; Garden History; The Historian; Local History Magazine; The PhotoHistorian, Prologue and Wellcome History. The articles are available to read and download at: http://bit.ly/1x19XOV Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material; please notify any errors or omissions for future editions of this book. Website addresses were correct at the time of writing. Currency comparisons with values in 2012 or 2013 are given in square brackets, using calculators published by MeasuringWorth (www.measuringworth.com). Ruth Levitt November 2014 i KENSETT CONTENTS Acknowledgements ............................................................................ i List of Boxes .................................................................................. IV List of Figures .................................................................................. V List of Tables ................................................................................. VI PROLOGUE ..................................................................................... 1 1 THE KENSETTS ............................................................................ 5 ARTISANS ....................................................................................... 5 THREE BRANCHES OF THE FAMILY ............................................................. 6 HAMPTON COURT/AMERICA BRANCH ......................................................... 8 HAMPTON COURT/AUSTRALIA BRANCH .................................................... 11 SURREY/MARYLEBONE BRANCH ............................................................. 14 KENSETTS AT SCHOOL ....................................................................... 15 KENSETT APPRENTICES....................................................................... 19 FURTHER LEARNING .......................................................................... 20 2 ARTISANS’ LIVES AND DEATHS ................................................ 24 KENSETT LIVES AND DEATHS ................................................................ 24 SARAH NEWBERY’S POISONING ............................................................. 29 LAUDANUM .................................................................................... 31 CHOLERA ...................................................................................... 33 LIFE INSURANCE .............................................................................. 36 3 ARTISANS’ SOCIAL MOBILITY .................................................. 41 SOCIAL MOBILITY ............................................................................. 41 COSTS AND WAGES ........................................................................... 42 POPULATION GROWTH ........................................................................ 47 MIGRATION .................................................................................... 50 LEASES ........................................................................................ 53 PATENTS ....................................................................................... 58 4 ENGRAVERS AND PUBLISHERS ................................................. 61 THOMAS KENSETT ............................................................................ 61 JOHN FREDERICK KENSETT .................................................................. 66 BANKNOTES ................................................................................... 67 LITERACY ...................................................................................... 69 ILLUSTRATED BOOKS AND PERIODICALS ................................................... 70 WAR REPORTING .............................................................................. 74 ii KENSETT 5 THE ARTIST .............................................................................. 79 ARTISTS’ TRAINING .......................................................................... 79 NEW YORK ARTISTS’ STUDIOS .............................................................. 82 ART MARKET ................................................................................... 83 KENSETT’S PATRONS AND COLLECTORS .................................................... 85 THE METROPOLITAN FAIR ................................................................... 89 KENSETT’S IMAGES OF STEAM ............................................................... 91 THE KENSETT SALE, 1873 .................................................................. 95 6 STEAM ...................................................................................... 96 STEAMSHIPS .................................................................................. 97 POSTAL SERVICES .......................................................................... 100 EARLIER TRANSPORT OPTIONS ............................................................ 101 INLAND WATERWAYS ....................................................................... 102 STEAM ENGINES ............................................................................ 104 STEAM TRAINS .............................................................................. 106 RAILROAD COMPANIES ..................................................................... 109 KENSETT’S RAIL JOURNEYS ................................................................ 112 RAIL WRITINGS ............................................................................. 115 TRAIN IMAGERY ............................................................................. 117 7 MERCHANTS............................................................................ 120 COAL ......................................................................................... 120 COAL SUPPLY CHAIN ........................................................................ 123 COAL INDUSTRY IN AMERICA .............................................................. 125 MALT AND CORN MERCHANTING........................................................... 126 CANNING .................................................................................... 129 DRY GOODS ................................................................................