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 Julia Wedgwood
This friendship was cemented during visits to Linlathen in Forfarshire, the home of Thomas Erskine , who was himself a major spiritual influence on JW . Her letters to Gurney mention meetings with Darwin
Friends, Associates Helen Taylor
HT moved in political and social circles that included Elizabeth Garrett Anderson , Millicent Garrett Fawcett , Louisa Garrett Anderson , Emily Davies , Elizabeth Wolstenholme , Frances Mary Buss , Dorothea Beale , and Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon .
Kent, Susan Kingsley. Sex and Suffrage in Britain, 1860-1914. Princeton University Press.
186
Robson, Ann P. et al. “Introduction and Editorial Materials”. Sexual Equality, University of Toronto Press, p. vii - xxxv; various pages.
xxvii
politics Helen Taylor
HT 's radical socialist principles were evident in her work for educational and land reform, as well as in her effort in 1885 to stand for parliament.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder.
As Philippa Levine puts it in the Oxford...
Friends, Associates Edith J. Simcox
Elma Stuart , who had also been an intimate friend of George Eliot , became a close friend of EJS . In March 1881 they spent a week together at Malvern, where they exchanged...
Friends, Associates Elizabeth Siddal
ES had met some female associates of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood : artists Anna Mary Howitt (daughter of Mary Howitt ) and Barbara Leigh Smith (later Bodichon), as well as Bessie Rayner Parkes .
Friends, Associates Elizabeth Siddal
While recovering from illness in HastingsES visited Barbara Leigh Smith and Anna Mary Howitt at Smith's nearby cottage, Scalands in Sussex.
Marsh, Jan, and Pamela Gerrish Nunn. Pre-Raphaelite Women Artists. Manchester City Art Galleries.
103
Family and Intimate relationships Elizabeth Siddal
ES 's initial engagement to Rossetti, who was involved with a series of other women, ended in the spring of 1858. However, the two were reunited by Ruskin two years later, and Rossetti finally married...
Friends, Associates Evelyn Sharp
She became a close friend of Dr Louisa Garrett Anderson , of Hertha Ayrton , physicist and suffragist, and of Ayrton's daughter, Barbara Gould . These two women, mother and daughter, embodied a thread linking...
Friends, Associates Christina Rossetti
Around this time she became aware of her brother Dante Gabriel 's involvement with Elizabeth Siddal , although she and Siddal met only in 1854 and were never intimate friends. Close family friends of Christina...
Health Christina Rossetti
She suffered a relapse in spring of 1872. Convalescing in Sussex, she made a visit to her friend Barbara Bodichon at Scalands Cottage near Hastings. She felt that her recovery from what came close...
Intertextuality and Influence Christina Rossetti
In From the Antique, a dramatic lyric composed on 28 June 1854,
Rossetti, Christina. The Complete Poems of Christina Rossetti. Editor Crump, Rebecca W., Louisiana State University Press.
3: 449
CR 's speaker laments: It's a weary life, it is: she said:—
Doubly blank in a woman's lot:
I wish...
Reception Christina Rossetti
This best-known poem has had myriad editions, often with illustrations, and generated a wide range of interpretation. It resonates powerfully with CR 's Anglicanism , and more particularly her experience at the St Mary Magdalene Penitentiary
Occupation Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Involved—with his brother , William Holman Hunt , John Everett Millais , and others—in the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood 's critique of the reigning artistic principles and values, DGR has subsequently become one of the most renowned...
politics Eleanor Rathbone
Like her patriotic colleagues Millicent Garrett Fawcett , Barbara Bodichon , and Ray Strachey , ER was a strong believer in women's fundamental responsibilities as citizens, in their commitment to improving the state despite misogynistic...
Friends, Associates Adelaide Procter
The closest friend of AP 's childhood was Anne Leigh Smith , sister of Barbara Leigh Smith .
Hirsch, Pam. Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon 1827-1891: Feminist, Artist and Rebel. Chatto and Windus.
209

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.