Hello!
Monday was Temperance Day! While that might not sound particularly exciting to most, it was incredible!
After much drama (the train was cancelled and we
had to change stations) we took the train to Preston and the world's
leading expert on the Temperance Movement in the UK, Dr. Annemarie McAllister
gave us a walking tour. Dr. McAllister brought us to the Temperance Archives at
the University of Central Lancashire where we examined some periodicals. After
a quick lunch in the university cafeteria we headed to a conference room where
Dr. McAllister gave us a funny and engaging presentation about the
Temperance Movement. Right now her work focuses on The Band of Hope, a
temperance organization for children. Her descriptions of the conditions faced
by working class families were extremely touching, and helped further
my understanding of the conditions people were forced to live in.
We also went to a Victorian chocolate shop where we
had the best hot chocolate I have ever had! As a tie in to history, Ben
Franklin was a frequent visitor to Preston as his daughter owned a coffee shop
in the city. Charles Dickens is another well-known visitor; he visited Preston
to interview the working class when writing his novel Hard Times.
Here is a picture of the whole group celebrating Temperance Day:
What you can't see here is that we just yelled "Demon Drink" instead of "cheese"
Tuesday was by far the
most intellectually stimulating day we have had so far. We spent most
of the day at the People's History Museum, it tells the story of democracy in
the UK from the ground up. They tell history from the perspective of the
"radicals" of each time period.
We began the day with a discussion on Friedrich
Engels and his text The Conditions of the Working Class in England in 1844. The
class discussion was really great! We focused on how the conditions of the poor
described in the book reflect conditions in today's society. The
comparison is stark, it was really shocking to realize how little has actually
changed.
After a short lunch break we regrouped at the
museum to walk through the two galleries. One of them was closed because they
were putting up new trade union banners; it looked like we were not going to be
able to enter that gallery, but then our luck changed. Both of our professors
have volunteered at the museum, and as long as we had a museum employee with us
we were able to walk around the gallery. It made us collectively feel pretty
special. We walked through both galleries and then went down to the museum
archives.
The archives were absolutely incredible! I got
to hold a newspaper from 1803 with my bare hands! The paper was made out
of cotton, so it has held up much better than any paper that we have now. I
know I talk a lot about how old everything is, but this was particularly mind
blowing. I have no context for understanding this kind of time.
Emma and I are trying to do most of our studying
outside of the room so we can still experience the city while being diligent
students (right now she is actually doing the reading while I write, but
whatever). I talked about Caffe Nero in the last post, but I have another
story that features around it. We went back to the same caffe today, and the
woman working there recognized us and had our orders up when we got to
the counter. We are regulars now! (If you can be a regular after only
going somewhere once before). It's incredibly exciting for me.
The adventures continue daily!
Madeline
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