Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon

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Standard Name: Bodichon, Barbara Leigh Smith
Birth Name: Barbara Leigh Smith
Married Name: Barbara Bodichon
BLSB 's literary work emerged from her convictions as a feminist. Her accounts of women's political, legal, and educational disabilities (in lectures, pamphlets, and an important periodical) played a crucial role in mid-Victorian legal reform and the campaigns for improved employment and educational opportunities for women. She also published a travel diary.
Black and white photograph of Barbara Bodichon in profile, looking towards the right. Her hair is pulled back in a bun, with some part in a single plait. She is wearing a white blouse with a ruffled neckline, and a black jacket with buttons.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Friends, Associates Louisa May Alcott
LMA was a friend of, among others, Frances Hodgson Burnett , Ralph Waldo Emerson , who helped her family manage their financial difficulties, and Henry David Thoreau , who taught science to her and her...
politics Lydia Becker
The meeting brought her into touch with the work which responded to the aspirations of her life.
Blackburn, Helen. Women’s Suffrage. Source Book Press.
24
She heard Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon read a paper on the enfranchisement of women, and from that...
Travel Matilda Betham-Edwards
MBE travelled, in company with Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon , through France and Spain to Algeria, particularly Oran.
Betham-Edwards, Matilda. Reminiscences. G. Redway, p. vi, 354 pp.
233
Travel Matilda Betham-Edwards
MBE spent a week with George Eliot , George Henry Lewes , and Barbara Bodichon at an old rectory at Swanmore in the Isle of Wight, which Bodichon had rented for a Christmas holiday.
Betham-Edwards, Matilda. Reminiscences. G. Redway, p. vi, 354 pp.
250-1
Friends, Associates Matilda Betham-Edwards
An early literary acquaintance of MBE was the playwright Joseph Stirling Coyne (known as Sterling Coyne), whom she met through her cousin Amelia B. Edwards .
Betham-Edwards, Matilda. Reminiscences. G. Redway, p. vi, 354 pp.
130
MBE pursued a lasting friendship with Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon
Residence Matilda Betham-Edwards
She had there a little house at one end of a picturesque terrace. When Helen C. Black visited her there, her upstairs study was furnished with a Moroccan carpet, pottery from Greece and other countries...
Textual Features Matilda Betham-Edwards
She describes here her journey, with a female friend (actually Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon ), to Spain with the particular purpose of seeing the works of Velasquez , and on to North Africa, in the...
Friends, Associates Jessie Boucherett
Helen Blackburn recounts that JB met Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon and Adelaide Procter after casually picking up a copy of the English Woman's Journal at a railway station. She was so impressed with the contents...
politics Jessie Boucherett
In 1859, along with Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon and Adelaide Procter , JB launched the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women (SPEW). They held their first meeting on 19 June 1859.
Stone, James S. Emily Faithfull: Victorian Champion of Women’s Rights. P. D. Meany.
232n1
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder.
“Obituary: Miss Emilia Jessie Boucherett”. Times, p. 8.
Though all...
Textual Production Jessie Boucherett
During the 1860s JB wrote a number of articles for the English Woman's Journal, the publication begun by Bessie Rayner Parkes and Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon (and of whose successor journal she was later editor).
Lacey, Candida Ann, editor. Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon and the Langham Place Group. Routledge.
225-77
politics Elizabeth Barrett Browning
EBB 's name headed the petition organised by Barbara Leigh Smith and the Married Women's Property Committee and presented to Parliament in December 1855 to lobby for reform to married women's property law: this made...
Friends, Associates Frances Power Cobbe
FPC was a friend of Emily Faithfull , Geraldine Jewsbury , and Rosa Bonheur , and she knew Josephine Butler , Augusta Webster , Lady Battersea , Emily Pfeiffer , Anne Thackeray Ritchie , Helen Taylor
Textual Production Caroline Frances Cornwallis
She wrote this article at the height of the parliamentary debates on the legal rights of married women. Despite being very ill, CFC was determined to participate in this discourse and give aid to a...
Education Edith Craig
Craig then was tutored privately at Dixton Manor Hall at Winchcombe in Gloucestershire, the home of Mrs Cole's sister, Elizabeth Malleson . Malleson had been an active member of the women's suffrage movement since...
politics Isa Craig
Together with feminist colleagues Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon , Bessie Rayner Parkes , and Emily Davies , IC helped publicise John Stuart Mill's parliamentary nomination.
Hirsch, Pam. Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon 1827-1891: Feminist, Artist and Rebel. Chatto and Windus.
216

Timeline

1854: Artists Anna Mary Howitt and Barbara Leigh...

Building item

1854

Artists Anna Mary Howitt and Barbara Leigh Smith were invited to join the Pre-Raphaelite Portfolio Club , a group which offered critical appraisals of members' work.

December 1855: Barbara Leigh Smith, later Bodichon, founded...

National or international item

December 1855

Barbara Leigh Smith , later Bodichon, founded the Married Women's Property Committee (sometimes called the Women's Committee) to draw up a petition for a married women's property bill.

February 1856: Matthew Davenport Hill distributed Barbara...

National or international item

February 1856

Matthew Davenport Hill distributed Barbara Leigh Smith 's A Brief Summary in Plain Language of the Most Important Laws Concerning Women to the Personal Laws Committee of the Law Amendment Society .

February 1856: The Waverley Journal: For the Cultivation...

Writing climate item

February 1856

The Waverley Journal: For the Cultivation of the Honourable, the Progressive and the Beautiful, began fortnightly publication, advertising itself as Edited and published by Ladies.
Harrison, Royden et al. The Warwick Guide to British Labour Periodicals, 1790-1970: A Check List. Harvester Press.
589

1857: The Society of Female Artists was founde...

Building item

1857

The Society of Female Artists was founded.

February 1858: Bessie Rayner Parkes described to George...

Building item

February 1858

Bessie Rayner Parkes described to George Eliot , in a letter, the limited company established by the Langham Place group to support The English Woman's Journal.

March 1858: The English Woman's Journal, a monthly magazine...

Women writers item

March 1858

The English Woman's Journal, a monthly magazine on the theory and practice of organised feminism, began publication in London, with financial support from Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon and others, under the editorship of...

Late 1859: The offices of The English Woman's Journal...

Women writers item

Late 1859

The offices of The English Woman's Journal moved from Cavendish Square to 19 Langham Place, where a ladies' club was also planned.

August 1864: The English Woman's Journal, a practical...

Building item

August 1864

The English Woman's Journal, a practical and theoretical source of organized feminism from London, merged into The Alexandra Magazine and English Woman's Journal.

23 May 1865: The Kensington Society, a quarterly women's...

Building item

23 May 1865

The Kensington Society , a quarterly women's discussion group devoted to social and political issues, held its inaugural meeting in London.

7 June 1866: John Stuart Mill presented to the House of...

National or international item

7 June 1866

John Stuart Mill presented to the House of Commons a suffrage petition signed by 1,499 women, drafted by Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon , Jessie Boucherett , and Emily Davies .

Autumn 1867: The London National Society for Women's Suffrage...

Building item

Autumn 1867

The London National Society for Women's Suffrage was formed under the direction of Frances Power Cobbe , Millicent Garrett Fawcett , and others.

1868: The report of the Schools Inquiry or Taunton...

National or international item

1868

The report of the Schools Inquiry or Taunton Commission supported the view of Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon , Emily Davies , and others that girls' education required reform.

18 August 1882: The Married Women's Property Act gave women...

National or international item

18 August 1882

The Married Women's Property Act gave women the right to all the property they earned or acquired before or during marriage.

15, 17 June 2011: The Visual Arts Data Service (VADS) released...

Building item

15, 17 June 2011

The Visual Arts Data Service (VADS) released a digitized version of documents, photos, banners, and personal mementoes from the struggle of British women for suffrage, housed at the Women's Library and the British parliamentary archives.
Doherty, Teresa. Emails to the Women’s History Network.

Texts

Bodichon, Barbara Leigh Smith. A Brief Summary in Plain Language of the Most Important Laws Concerning Women. John Chapman, 1854.
Bodichon, Eugène. Algeria Considered as a Winter Residence for the English. Editor Bodichon, Barbara Leigh Smith, English Woman’s Journal Office, 1858.
Bodichon, Barbara Leigh Smith. An American Diary, 1857-8. Editor Reed, Joseph W., Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972.
Bodichon, Barbara Leigh Smith. “Middle Class Schools for Girls”. English Woman’s Journal.
Bodichon, Barbara Leigh Smith. Objections to the Enfranchisement of Women Considered. Bale, 1866.
Bodichon, Barbara Leigh Smith. Reasons For and Against the Enfranchisement of Women. National Society for Women’s Suffrage, 1872.
Bodichon, Barbara Leigh Smith. Reasons for the Enfranchisement of Women. Chambers of the Social Science Association, 1866.
Bodichon, Barbara Leigh Smith. “Women and Work”. Waverly Journal.
Bodichon, Barbara Leigh Smith, and Catharine Maria Sedgwick. Women and Work. C. M. Francis, 1859.