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The article focuses on the dire conditions within auxiliary workhouses during the Great Hunger, revealing previously unexplored aspects of Victorian Ireland's response to the crisis. Topics include overcrowding, the inadequacy of the Poor Law system, and the challenges faced by both authorities and paupers in providing and seeking relief during this catastrophic period.

This study examines sonic legislation that was increasingly enacted in and around women’s institutions (convents, charity homes, and reform houses) in sixteenth-and seventeenth-century Florence. Monitoring the sounds cloistered women made and heard was considered key to reform, the maintenance of social status, and the advancement of bodily/spiritual purity. Efforts to regulate urban sounds were rooted in the belief that sound was a physical force that acted on the body and soul with direct health implications. Sound, silence, and noise were formative agents. Yet sonic regulation was difficult to apply in any absolute sense, as Florentines on both sides of the cloister crafted dynamic urban soundscapes composed of multiple registers. Examining the links between sound, gender, health, and space, this paper reveals how preoccupations with noise and silence had profound implications in the early modern city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with Pieter de Hooch's enigmatic painting Woman holding a basket with beans in a garden of 1661 (Kunstmuseum, Basel), and, more specifically, with the identity of the man depicted on the window shutter of the building in the foreground of the painting. The author argues that this portrait, which was hidden behind a layer of paint for a long time and only uncovered sometime between 1913-1927, represents the Emperor Charles V, whose portrait still decorates many buildings in the Netherlands. It is also argued that the building in the background of the painting can be typified as a 'hofje' or almshouse, and that its architecture resembles that of the Leiden Eva van Hoogeveenshofje, built by the architect Arent van 's-Gravesande in the 1650s. This suggests that De Hooch did not only paint locations in Delft and Amsterdam, but also in Leiden. The Dutch Republic's seventeenth-century 'hofjes' were renowned, eliciting praise from foreign visitors, not only because of the way the Dutch Calvinist elite took care of the needy but also because of their superb architecture that enhanced the beauty of the Republic's cities. Interestingly, De Hooch painted a servant girl in the garden of the almshouse, which at first may seem incongruous with an institution intended for the poor. However, as will be shown, residents of almshouses in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic were not as poor as is generally thought. Some were even quite well-off and did indeed keep servants. In fact, some contemporaries even likened the Dutch almshouses to palaces. The portrait of the emperor on the window shutter may thus have criticised this type of 'poor relief' and could well have been intended to bring out the resemblance between the 'hofje' and an emperor's palace. The word 'hofje ' after all means 'small court'. As such an overt criticism is unique in De Hooch's oeuvre, it may have been the artist himself who blotted the emperor's portrait out, thus changing the image into a straightforward genre scene. It was precisely this type of scene that was to bring De Hooch some success following his move to Amsterdam in 1660. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As this article is less about charity per se than it is about the relationships between place and institutional policies of benevolence, my intention is to look at how practices and laws of public charity operated in a city whose economic and social geography was changing after 1700, when the streets were populated with vulnerable people driven into poverty and when the subjects of pauperism and poor laws “engaged the attention of the legislature with increasing frequency” (Purdy 287). This article looks at the modus operandi of private and public philanthropic societies in eighteenth-century London in order to observe how both religious- and secular-driven charitable societies were motivated by the same goal of social reform, whether prompted by the Enlightenment or religious values. While the notion of Pietas Londinensis indicated the existence of various operating charities and casual philanthropic acts in the London area, charitable institutions had not been set up until the eighteenth century. In late Stuart and Georgian Britain charitable, London was shaped both by economic forces and by the various cultural meanings people attached to its space, and this new paradigm transferred all matters concerning the poor from parochial obligation to civic responsibility. The article will focus on the mechanisms which made this transfer possible while considering acts of public charity and philanthropic societies that emerged in the long eighteenth century, from hospitals and infirmaries to almshouses and charity schools, with a view to observing the changes in English mentality as a result of charitable activity.

This article uses a microhistorical approach to investigate the "workhouse experience" of a single pauper in late nineteenth-century London. Its subject is Frank Burge, a remarkably prolific (though by no means unique) correspondent who wrote several lengthy letters of complaint from the Poplar workhouse to the Local Government Board (the central poor law authority) between 1884 and 1885. It places these letters, and the official responses they stimulated, alongside other public and official documents and uses a blended methodological approach to uncover a rich narrative of hardship, struggle, and personal agency. In doing so, it argues that, in contrast to more orthodox histories of welfare, it is only through this kind of painstaking and sensitive historical reconstruction that we truly can understand the nature, and the legacy, of poverty and the "workhouse experience" on the nineteenth-century poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States has long excluded immigrants who are likely to become a "public charge." But while the exclusion has remained unchanged, the nation has changed around it, further blurring its unclear meaning. As public benefits replaced poorhouses, Congress and the courts left the administrative state to reconcile public charge with evolving commitments to public welfare. This Note seeks to identify the causes of public charge confusion by mapping the exclusion's administrative history. A field-guidance document from 1999 marks the only comprehensive effort to reconcile public charge with contemporary grants of benefits. Archived emails, memos, and drafts reveal the causes, scope, and character of the preceding interagency negotiations, as well as a yet-unidentified interagency relationship I term "zero-sum asymmetry," whereby one agency completes its statutory mission at the expense of another's. The guidance's core compromise--a distinction between cash and supplemental benefits--mitigated but could not eliminate this dynamic. Reading the archived negotiations in light of public charge's history, I offer a more compelling account of what public charge requires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following poor law amendment in 1834, unions of parishes bought enormous quantities of goods to feed and clothe their paupers. As institutional poor relief grew dramatically during the nineteenth century, the role of poor law unions as customers in their local economies expanded. Suppliers were not subject to central government's rules, so the unions to whom they sold enjoyed some freedom in their contractual arrangements – in stark contrast to the restrictions surrounding almost every other aspect of unions' practices. This enabled a unique business atmosphere to develop. Poor law procurement was therefore embedded in social, as well as economic, geographies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Albert Bitzius (Jeremias Gotthelf), reformed parson in Lützelflüh, founded, together with colleagues, a local children's poorhouse in Sumiswald in 1835 that moved to a larger place in Trachselwald in 1839. Bitzius managed to convince the government in Berne that financial support of the Trachselwald poorhouse would be a good investment with regard to sustainability. He and his fellow members strove for economic independence and self-sufficiency, which implied that the pupils had to work hard and get used to parsimony and modesty as far as food, bedding, clothing and spare time were concerned. On this basis the school turned out to be more successful than competing endeavours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nineteenth-century Ireland saw the emergence of a campaign to have orphaned and abandoned children 'boarded out' from workhouses to live with families in return for payment. Despite growing anxiety about the unsuitability of workhouses for children, communities could show resistance to having these children, particularly those from urban workhouses, living in their own neighbourhood. Using the case of alleged abuse towards three children boarded out from Belfast workhouse to a family living in a remote rural townland, this paper explores the experience of, and attitudes towards, workhouse children boarded into rural communities. Using testimonies of neighbours and poor law officials at the resultant 1872 Poor Law inquiry, it examines the relationship between the children, their foster family, and the wider community and reveals the extent to which those families who took in workhouse children became subject to surveillance not just from welfare authorities but also from members of their community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expansion of institutional care for the poor and sick in the United States during the late nineteenth century included increased attention on the benefits of farms as a component of institutional life. Farms attached to almshouses or poor farms were publicly funded ways to produce food for the destitute of communities and in this way played a significant part in social welfare provisions. The success or failure of those farms, in turn, affected the quality of meals served to residents of the institutions. Far from being a workhouse, poor farms were institutions that relied on the skilled management of farmers and their wives, who were capable of putting balanced meals on the table. Good farming practices at the institution regularly led to decent meals for the poor. This manuscript explores the role of food production and preparation at U.S. institutions for the poor, and details how food security issues were publicly handled in the late nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The workhouse is the totemic symbol of our understandings about the harsh life faced by the poor of nineteenth-century England. Workhouse paupers provide the human embodiment of this symbol, characterized, according to well-established assumption, in the words of David Englander, as the victims rather than makers of history. This article argues that this assumption is, in fact, false. At the core of its research is the pauper perspective. This is used to understand the role played by gossip in pauper agency at Basford Union Workhouse. The basic premise here is that much can be learnt from social exchanges, including idle and aimless talk, about the formation of social relationships and the way in which the exercise of power was manifest. This study brings a rarely used perspective to the narrative surrounding paupers under the New Poor Law, a specific focus on workhouse gossip not previously attempted. Overall, the words and writings of Basford Union's pauper inmates, augmented by relevant testimony from people in the community, and from official sources, create a sense that Basford's indoor poor depended on each other. It was they, and not the Union's officers who 'powered' the workhouse machine, and this independency was forged through chatter. Inter-pauper conflict was not unusual and the fracture lines between officer and pauper, and between pauper and pauper, were intertwined. These paupers' participation in the gossip of the workhouse, allowed them, however, to negotiate their own circumstances in a way that has often been under-estimated in the historiography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the contribution of the Abbot of Pskov Nikolo-Lubyatov monastery monk Anthony (the outstanding Russian statesman A. L. Ordin- Nashchokin) to the establishment of private charitable institutions in Pskov at the end of the 17th century. The article traces his interaction in the fi eld of charity with another prominent fi gure of the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich, namely the “gracious man” okolnichy F. M. Rtishchev. The article also looks into the moral infl uence on Pskov residents of the monastic service of the elder Antoniy Nashchokin, who built the church in honour of Mother-of-God of Kazan, as well as the largest charity institution in Pskov for 150 persons of both genders. The Christian example of Ordin-Nashchokin’s deeds of mercy animated Pskov residents, who carried on the charitable care for the poor, the sick, the elderly and the needy. This led to the emergence of a widespread charitable movement, in the course of which by the mid-18th century 37 hospitals and almshouses were established in Pskov; three of them were government-run and 34 were supported by representatives of all layers of society. The nobility had custody of 7 institutions, the clergy and tradespeople of 14 and 13 institutions respectively. On the whole, in Pskov almshouses simultaneously resided more than 400 people, i.e. approximately each 14th resident. The article draws on new documentary sources from both Pskov and metropolitan archives. It is accompanied by the table “Charity institutions in Pskov of the 16th — fi rst half of the 18th centuries” compiled on the material of census books, confessional records and poll-tax registers.

The article focuses on Christian benevolent and missionary social reform attitude in the Morgan County poor farm in Illinois. Topics discussed include the poorhouse's role as health care provider for the poor and pregnant mothers and as a nursing home for the elderly, the poorhouse as a long-term residential facility, and the Illinois poor law of 1819.

As the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws noted in 1909, the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 and the Poor Law (Scotland) Act of 1845 sprang from rather different motives. Whereas the first Act aimed to restrict the provision of poor relief, the second was designed to enhance it. However, despite these aims, it is generally accepted that Scotland's Poor Law continued to relieve a smaller proportion of its population and to spend less money on them. This paper revisits the evidence on which these claims are based. Although the gap between the two Poor Laws was less than previously supposed, it was nevertheless substantial. The paper also explores the links between the size of Scottish parishes and welfare spending, and demonstrates that the main reasons for the persistence of the spending gap were related to different levels of investment in poorhouses and workhouses, and support for the elderly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the place of The Asylum or House of refuge for orphan and deserted girls amongst other mid eighteenth-century London charitable institutions. It was established in 1758 amid concerns about London's working population not keeping pace with the demands for labour and while campaigners were fighting for the moral wellbeing of the metropolis. The article highlights the role played by some female subscribers who, through a Visiting Ladies committee, provided practical advice to the Guardians for improvements to the running of the institution and the quality of the girls' training. Throughout the century, there was a demand for hand-spun yarn to supply the British textile industry. Poorer girls were taught spinning to meet this demand and so emphasise the perceived female characteristics of diligence and industry. However, needlework, not spinning, was the key component of the girls' daily routine and training at the Asylum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a b o ttom -u p perspective to the research on inclusion processes in p oor relief in general and elderly care and almshouses in specific at th e end o f the Ancien Régime. By means o f an extensive study o f the application letters sent to the Brussels Tw a a lf A po s te le n 'almshouse between 1750 and 1800, th e article examines how deservingness is anticipated by th e elderly applicants and how it is argued in th e ir discourses. In addition, th e article offers insight in to th e mental framework o f these elderly men surrounding coping strategies and channels th ro u g h which care should or could be obtained. By doing this, the article examines to which e x tent p ro cesses o f formalization during previous centuries influenced the mental framework o f the elderly d u rin g th e second half o f th e eighteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The two Greek Orthodox communities in Vienna, St George and Holy Trinity, administered several foundations and endowments from the 18th century onwards. This paper aims to reconstruct the communities' role as administrators for those foundations whose capital was invested in immovable property. The focus lies on three Stiftungshäuser and on nine mortgage-backed buildings located in today's first and second district of Vienna. The history of these buildings -- from the purchase to the benefactors' death, and from the establishment of the foundations to the buildings' sale -- will be reconstructed by taking into account Vienna's urban development and housing situation in the 19th-century. Furthermore, the benefactors' identities as homeowners and their relationship to the buildings and their residents will be examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In January 1866, journalist James Greenwood entered the Lambeth Workhouse disguised as a vagrant. Greenwood's account of his experience inspired a host of imitators, and inaugurated a mania for slum journalism. Critics have noted the voyeurism and the homoerotic subtext of Greenwood's ‘A Night in a Workhouse', but the impact of Victorian popular theatre on his narrative has received scant attention. This essay recuperates the links between workhouse and theatre: examining paupers' reception, criticism, and appropriation of popular forms of entertainment such as the pantomime and the music hall song, analysing the representation of the workhouse on the Victorian stage, and finally proposing the concept of the workhouse itself as a performance space. Greenwood provides a valuable source of information about the theatregoing habits of the houseless poor, the most marginalised demographic within audiences at the Victorian theatre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the aspects of the history behind the practice of child migration from Great Britain and shares some first-hand experiences of some of the children that were sent to Australia. Topics discussed include reason children were sent from Great Britain, information on the workhouse system established to house the homeless in Great Britain, and social conditions of children during the period of enforced child migration from Great Britain to Australia.

Poor relief has received less attention from historians of southern Europe compared with northern Europe. This article seeks to challenge the frequent assumption that the strength of family ties in southern Europe mitigated the need for welfare provision. It provides new data for men and boys entering the Barcelona workhouse in the period 1780-1803, and compares these with data from an earlier study of women and girls who entered the same institution over the period 1762-1805. We establish the characteristics of those who sought relief in terms of age, place of origin, marital status, and occupation. We use the information on reasons for entry and exit to ascertain family circumstances. We show that there were significant differences between males and females in terms of why they entered and left, and length of stay, particularly among the elderly. The bulk of the population of the workhouse, however, was comprised of children and adolescents. For this group, entry into the workhouse represented not just a temporary solution to life cycle poverty and periodic unemployment, but also a longer-term strategy aimed at smoothing entry into the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sheremetev's Almshouse was the first private institution of social welfare in Russia which openly proclaimed that not all the poor deserved relief and exposed the applicants to inspections by the administrators. The study demonstrates that the recipients of the Almshouse relief did not belong to the lowest tiers of Moscow population but originated from its middle stratum. They were clerks and ranked officials, the military of middle ranks, and priests, or their families. Considerable number of them had additional sources of income before they obtained allowances from the Almshouse, only for a few of them the relief was crucial for survival. This paradox can be explained by examining the reports on the recipients written by an administrator of the Almshouse. The document reveals that the Almshouse supported those Moscow dwellers who were involved in the network of patronage or were connected by the relations of military or civil service with the administration of the Almshouse and with Moscow aristocracy. The support from the patrons served a better guarantee for the Almshouse's administration than the evidences of the neighbours or relatives. On the basis of the unearthed archival documents, the study brings out that the Almshouse was an institution deeply rooted in the Moscow patronage and protective network which connected people of middle stratum and the aristocracy. Selecting recipients of relief, the administration of the Almshouse was guided by the logic of privilege and assertion of status opposed to economic definitions of poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1984, the Monroe County Parks Department in the Highland Park section of Rochester, New York, accidentally unearthed part of an unmarked cemetery while landscaping. The cemetery was in use from approximately 1826 to 1863 and was associated with the Monroe County Almshouse. Anthropological examination of dental and skeletal pathology revealed a high incidence of dental infection, known to occasionally be a causal agent of maxillary sinus infection. Therefore, maxillary sinus infections in this sample were studied to ascertain their relationship with dental infections, sex, and age at death. The maxillary sinuses of 99 skeletons were examined for evidence of infection. The presence, location, type and extent of dental infections in the posterior teeth were also recorded. Half the sample exhibited bone remodelling in the maxillary sinus (54 individuals). Dental infections were observed in 82 individuals. Forty-eight demonstrated signs of dental infection and maxillary sinusitis. Statistical analysis revealed that dental infection and maxillary sinus infection were not statistically related. Rather, a rhinogenic method of infection seems likely, which would appear related to the squalid air quality the 19th-century poor were exposed to in the almshouse and city tenements. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]