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The Testimony of the Victorian Poor, c. 1834-1900

The project identifies, transcribes, and geo-references c.14–15,000 letters from Victorian paupers, wider poor and their advocates, adding them to the open-access "Voices of the Victorian Poor" database.
Project status
Ongoing
Programmes
Academy Research Projects: Ongoing and past awards

Dr Paul Carter

ARP24\250692

The National Archives

We will identify, list and transcribe c.14-15,000 letters written by Victorian English and Welsh paupers, wider poor and their advocates, found within the Poor Law Union Correspondence volumes (MH12 at The National Archives-TNA). We will geo-reference and subject-code each letter, and upload each transcription to the open research database "Voices of the Victorian Poor".

The infrastructural creation of this database came from two earlier funded projects (AHRC standard and follow-on grants) for which TNA was a partner and already contains c.3,500 pauper letters. The additional letters will mean that some c.18,500 letters will be accessible globally through ArcGIS software for free in perpetuity.

As well as the numerous and unique public online resource for historical research, the project will afford the lead and co-applicant the planned opportunities (contained within our Plan of Action) to develop and submit two major nineteenth-century poverty/welfare research applications over the projects lifetime.

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