Historical records detailing past attitudes towards prostitution, homosexuality and gender issues

Aug 24 2006

Historical records detailing past attitudes towards prostitution, homosexuality and gender issues will be discussed by archivists at a public event at the University of Liverpool.

Experts will examine a range of sources such as the UK's first-ever sex survey from the 1940s and documents detailing the life of Josephine Butler, the Victorian feminist who campaigned for the welfare of prostitutes.

Caroline Williams, Head of the University's Centre for Archive Studies, said: "Archivists have uncovered newspaper articles, personal diaries, depositions and surveys detailing UK attitudes towards sex, gender and prostitution from the 17th century to the present day. They reveal a great deal about human nature, religion and social policy and how much - and in some cases how little - our attitudes towards sex have changed."

Alan Crosby, Honorary Research Fellow in the School of History, will discuss how members of the public can use archives to trace the activities and attitudes of their ancestors using specialist centres, such as Liverpool Record Office. He will be joined by Dorothy Sheridan, Head of Special Collections at the Mass Observation Archive at the University of Sussex, who will look at extracts from personal diaries, letters and autobiographical accounts of experiences in which people describe the most intimate aspects of their lives.

Dorothy said: "Mass Observation was a pioneering social research organisation set up by a group of young people in 1937. They argued that although anthropologists knew a great deal about far-off island societies, very little was known about our own habits and traditions. By watching, recording and interviewing they created a documentary of British life from the late thirties well into the 1950s.

"Materials in our archive range from holiday makers enjoying themselves on the beach at Blackpool to the experiences of the Second World War when many people, fearing they may not survive the war, were more sexually active than they might otherwise have been."

Other speakers at the event include London School of Economics Archivist, Sue Donnelly, who will talk about gay and lesbian archives, and Jenny Dagger, lecturer in Identity Studies at Liverpool Hope University, who will discuss the life of Josephine Butler.

Josephine Butler was a Victorian era feminist who became especially concerned with the welfare of prostitutes following her visits to Liverpool's Brownlow Hill workhouse. She led a long campaign for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act, which stipulated that any woman living in a seaport or military town could be examined for venereal disease. In her fight against child prostitution she eventually saw that the age of consent to sex raised from 13 to 16.

The lecture, Sex in the Archives, will be held on Saturday, 30 September, at Liverpool Medical Institution, Mount Pleasant, at 2.00pm. Entry to the event is free but tickets are required. To book tickets please contact Lizzie Woulfe on 0151 794 2414.