Sue Taylor

Sue Taylor

12x12x12 Journal

Wednesday 4^th July 2012

I’m working on two themes at the moment to see where they take me. Have booked some time at the library at the Bronte Parsonage to look at their archive on Emily Bronte.  Found t at there are several connections between December and Emily Bronte.  She has always fascinated me, and Wuthering Heights has been a lifelong favourite book of mine, and its dealings with the darker side of human nature.  Wuthering Heights was published in December, and Emily Bronte died in December, also her parents Patrick and Maria Bronte were married in December 1812, and their first home was in Hartshead in Yorkshire.  (There is a street named Hartshead near Bank St Arts).

My second thread of ideas is around the maternal and infant mortality rates in Sheffield in December of 1912.  This is a more local theme and it would be interesting to explore and compare to today.  Need to book out some time at the local studies room in Sheffield Library.

Thursday 5^th July

I have been reading again a fascinating article in my Community Health journal, called ‘Brutal and Negligent: 19^th Century Factory Women and Child Care.’  These women were viewed negatively historically and blamed for the high infant mortality rates particularly in the Northern industrial towns. This article showed the agency and determination of these women  to provide as good care as they could for their children, despite appalling circumstances. 

Also went to the Local Studies section at the library. This was very promising in that there were sections of the local newspaper for December 1912, and also the reports of the Medical Officer of Health for Sheffield for the year 1912.  I have arranged time to view these as they are on Microfiche.

Saturday 7^th July

I visited Bilston Craft Gallery which has a really interesting display of local industries and the goods produced.  Lots of work based on ceramics and miniatures, and leatherwork.  There was a derelict building which was once an Art School and Technical college in the early part of the 20^th century.  A relic of attempts to provide workers with further education.  My Dad attended something similar in Sheffield in about 1930.

Thursday 8th July

I have been reading again a fascinating article in my Community Health journal 'Brutal and Negligent 19th Century Factory Women and Child Care'. These women were viewed negatively historically and blamed for the high infant motrality rates particularly in the Northern industrial towns. Also went to local studies library, which was very promising in that there were sections of the Sheffield newspaper for 1912, and reports of the Medical Officer of Health for 1912, which would link in with my ideas around infant mortality

Wednesday 11^th July.

The local studies section was very good, I found three extremely sad stories reported in the December 1912 local newspaper, all around the issues of poverty and child care.  There was an advert for ‘Nurse Harvey’s Mixture’ which I can remember as a child.  Here it was being advertised to cure all manner of ills! Adverts for an ‘occulist and aurist’ who was holding sessions at a local hotel. There was a very tragic reporting of a neglectful father, and the poor state of his children.  One of the children only possessed two garments one of them a vest, which his mother reversed so the arms were the legs, in order to keep him warm.  The stories were sad and distressing.

Thinking about textile work and manipulation of garments, and also the links to the darker elements in Wuthering Heights.  The mental image of that vest was very powerful, and the desperation of the situation.

12^th July.

Another visit to the Local studies section today.  Continued to look at the local newspaper, and among adverts for domestic servants, patent medicines and fragments of world news, it was the sad stories of the plight of women and small children that I was drawn to.  This must be because of my work with the NHS and the close links I continue to find all the time with my art and nursing.  Many of the early deaths were attributed to rheumatic fever in childhood.  There was a tragic story of a mother who had overlaid on her baby because she could not find room in the bedroom for a crib, as the house was so overcrowded, and this must have happened frequently.  These stories are a reflection of the times as poverty was so endemic, but also still very much present today.  It worries me that we may not have moved that far on!

Still at the information gathering stage and mulling ideas around, and have decided to visit the exhibition at Saltaire, ‘Cloth and Memory’. 

15^th July.

The exhibition at Saltaire was really useful, and also included talks by the artists.  Gained a lot from the site specific aspect of it, and the responses to the space.  Was thinking about one of the newspaper articles from 1912 about a mother who was in court for killing her 19 day old child – did she have post-natal depression? One of the installations in the exhibition worked around our responses to death and tragedy.  What support was there for women with this illness in 1912?  Another article dealt with a servant girl who was found guilty of concealing a birth and she was sentenced to six months in prison.

Also have now got Medical Officer of Health Report for 1912, and the maternal and infant mortality figures, and reasons for death.  Also an article about ‘Working class housing’!

!9^th July

Visited the Foundling Museum in London.  Again made lots of links to my areas of interest and the way that tokens or fragments have such emotional power. 

Have a list of books and information from the Brotherton Library in Leeds re Emily Bronte.  I am not sure if I am going to pursue this line or stick to a more local theme.

6^th August

Been mulling over the statistics I have for infant mortality rates in 1912, and they are alarming. 1 in every 120 babies born died before the age of 1yr , mostly from preventable diseases.  The figures also work well with the 12x12 theme, as they are 12s and 4s.  Thinking about materials to work with, and thoughts of cotton wool, soap and muslin spring to mind – and all readily available.  For the first time in over 30yrs I had a trip to Mothercare!  An alarming array of stuff available, when I last went it was a little  shop on The Moor.  Bought cotton wool and some tiny muslin squares, and also so reduced items in the sale to work on ideas for prints.  Also bought a tiny pair of baby ‘pram shoes’, (not recommended in my role as a Health Visitor!), but am going to make a pair out of some materials I have to hand, and use these as a template.  Lots of ideas buzzing around – need to make some work.

7^th August

Spent the day reading some of my professional mags re current state of affairs in health.  A lot of coffee, and sitting in the garden and drawing a vest!

6^th September.

Thinking about the theme of death, disease and mortality rates, but also how precarious life was in 1912 for a child, but also considering that in 2012 it is still precarious for many children, but now things are more hidden and many layered.  Government cuts always affect the poorest in society and there are many children living in poverty and this is getting worse. Also other issues such as emotional trauma, childhood obesity, mental health problems are rife, but these things are not so ‘in your face’ as the issues in 1912 appeared to be. Use of traditional craft methods to convey this, consider ‘redwork’, embroidery, patching.

20^th September.

Stitched into cotton wool and muslin, also embroidered a childs dress, in a simple stitch,, using the graph of ‘Child Deaths’ in 1912. The soil temperature was measured each month, and correlated with the number of deaths.  Higher soil temp fewer deaths. Looking at the appalling housing conditions and overcrowding, and use of stand pipes for water.  Also got an email from someone in the British Button Society who has also looked into this area and she kindly sent me her info.

September 26^th

The responding 2012 work needs to be a comparison to the lives of 100 years ago, and many things have improved, but reading through current news items there are many similarities still. Ways of demonstrating and commenting on this will need to use modern methods, so looking at transfer printing. Children today have T shirts with transfers on and it is a readily avaiiable way of personalizing clothing. The redwork I used on the other objects (1912), was something that was taught to girls in orphanages and workhouses, to enable them to be employed in ‘service’, and many of the girls who, if they had lived, would have been sent into service.  I need to think of a way of connecting the clothes, a common link.

8^th October

Information in newspapers and professional health journals for current information on what it is like to be a child in 2012.  What is still going on, what has improved, what are the links?  Thinking around government policies, cuts, who is affected.  Experimenting with transfer printing.  How will I present this work?