Conversing with Readers in Aunt Judy’s Magazine: Building a Community of Young Middle-Class Philanthropists to Fight the ‘Grim Nurses’
Under the editorship of Margaret Gatty (1809-1873)—an amateur naturalist and the author of several didactic fairy-stories—a new monthly, six-penny magazine was launched in 1866: Aunt Judy’s Magazine. By the time of its first issue, the Hospital for Sick Children at Great Ormond Street (GOSH) had alr...
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Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée
2020-12-01
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| Series: | Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/cve/8137 |
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| author | Matthew Dunleavy |
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| author_sort | Matthew Dunleavy |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Under the editorship of Margaret Gatty (1809-1873)—an amateur naturalist and the author of several didactic fairy-stories—a new monthly, six-penny magazine was launched in 1866: Aunt Judy’s Magazine. By the time of its first issue, the Hospital for Sick Children at Great Ormond Street (GOSH) had already been serving impoverished children for fourteen years. Dr Charles West founded the hospital in 1852 and it quickly became popular with philanthropists, most notably, in the early years, Charles Dickens who described the hospital as counteracting the destructive effects of the ‘Grim Nurses: Poverty and Sickness’. Shortly after the founding of the magazine, in 1868, ‘Aunt Judy,’ the editorial persona used in the magazine, used the rapport she had built up with her child readers to encourage them to donate to GOSH. The magazine and its readers would go on to raise thousands of pounds in individual donations and monthly, quarterly, and annual subscriptions to establish several ‘Aunt Judy’s Cots’ for poor, sick children, in addition to helping with the construction of a new wing of the hospital. This essay does not analyze how Aunt Judy’s Magazine helped the hospital but investigates the ways the ‘Correspondence’ pages were used for the ideological work of creating a new generation of middle-class philanthropists. The analysis of the correspondence pages of Aunt Judy’s Magazine reveals how the conversational tone of the fictional persona of ‘Aunt Judy’ helped build a trusting relationship with the child readers which was instrumental in recruiting them to fight the ‘Grim Nurses’. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-b6bd58b80eb14bada1e5b798669d30b9 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0220-5610 2271-6149 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2020-12-01 |
| publisher | Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens |
| spelling | doaj-art-b6bd58b80eb14bada1e5b798669d30b92025-01-30T10:22:19ZengPresses Universitaires de la MéditerranéeCahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens0220-56102271-61492020-12-019210.4000/cve.8137Conversing with Readers in Aunt Judy’s Magazine: Building a Community of Young Middle-Class Philanthropists to Fight the ‘Grim Nurses’Matthew DunleavyUnder the editorship of Margaret Gatty (1809-1873)—an amateur naturalist and the author of several didactic fairy-stories—a new monthly, six-penny magazine was launched in 1866: Aunt Judy’s Magazine. By the time of its first issue, the Hospital for Sick Children at Great Ormond Street (GOSH) had already been serving impoverished children for fourteen years. Dr Charles West founded the hospital in 1852 and it quickly became popular with philanthropists, most notably, in the early years, Charles Dickens who described the hospital as counteracting the destructive effects of the ‘Grim Nurses: Poverty and Sickness’. Shortly after the founding of the magazine, in 1868, ‘Aunt Judy,’ the editorial persona used in the magazine, used the rapport she had built up with her child readers to encourage them to donate to GOSH. The magazine and its readers would go on to raise thousands of pounds in individual donations and monthly, quarterly, and annual subscriptions to establish several ‘Aunt Judy’s Cots’ for poor, sick children, in addition to helping with the construction of a new wing of the hospital. This essay does not analyze how Aunt Judy’s Magazine helped the hospital but investigates the ways the ‘Correspondence’ pages were used for the ideological work of creating a new generation of middle-class philanthropists. The analysis of the correspondence pages of Aunt Judy’s Magazine reveals how the conversational tone of the fictional persona of ‘Aunt Judy’ helped build a trusting relationship with the child readers which was instrumental in recruiting them to fight the ‘Grim Nurses’.https://journals.openedition.org/cve/8137philanthropypovertyclassconversationAunt Judy’s Magazinechild readers |
| spellingShingle | Matthew Dunleavy Conversing with Readers in Aunt Judy’s Magazine: Building a Community of Young Middle-Class Philanthropists to Fight the ‘Grim Nurses’ Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens philanthropy poverty class conversation Aunt Judy’s Magazine child readers |
| title | Conversing with Readers in Aunt Judy’s Magazine: Building a Community of Young Middle-Class Philanthropists to Fight the ‘Grim Nurses’ |
| title_full | Conversing with Readers in Aunt Judy’s Magazine: Building a Community of Young Middle-Class Philanthropists to Fight the ‘Grim Nurses’ |
| title_fullStr | Conversing with Readers in Aunt Judy’s Magazine: Building a Community of Young Middle-Class Philanthropists to Fight the ‘Grim Nurses’ |
| title_full_unstemmed | Conversing with Readers in Aunt Judy’s Magazine: Building a Community of Young Middle-Class Philanthropists to Fight the ‘Grim Nurses’ |
| title_short | Conversing with Readers in Aunt Judy’s Magazine: Building a Community of Young Middle-Class Philanthropists to Fight the ‘Grim Nurses’ |
| title_sort | conversing with readers in aunt judy s magazine building a community of young middle class philanthropists to fight the grim nurses |
| topic | philanthropy poverty class conversation Aunt Judy’s Magazine child readers |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/cve/8137 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT matthewdunleavy conversingwithreadersinauntjudysmagazinebuildingacommunityofyoungmiddleclassphilanthropiststofightthegrimnurses |