{"id":1512,"date":"2019-10-22T10:24:13","date_gmt":"2019-10-22T09:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/?p=1512"},"modified":"2021-10-19T13:59:26","modified_gmt":"2021-10-19T12:59:26","slug":"the-life-and-public-memory-of-mary-seacole-1805-1881","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/the-life-and-public-memory-of-mary-seacole-1805-1881\/","title":{"rendered":"The life, and public memory, of Mary Seacole (1805-1881)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mary Seacole [n\u00e9e Grant] (1805\u20131881) is best known as the\nnurse who, after trying unsuccessfully to join Florence Nightingale\u2019s group of\nnurses, borrowed money to fund herself to travel to the Crimean War. Seacole\narrived in the Crimea in February 1855 and remained until July 1856. During\nthis time she opened the \u2018British Hotel\u2019 near the front and used this base to\ntravel back and forth to the battle-front dispensing medical treatment to the\ninjured and dying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seacole is particularly interesting because she was financially\nindependent. Although she faced bankruptcy after the war, being self-funded\ngave her independence from the formal nursing service and this ensured her a\nfreedom of movement denied other women at this time. She was a well-known\nfigure in the mid-nineteenth century amongst Crimean war correspondents, the\nhistorical archives of British newspapers at the time are therefore a useful\nsource for her time in Crimea. A search of her name in the Times Digital\nArchive, for example, reveals a spike of coverage in the year she was in Crimea.\nWhen she was declared bankrupt after the war, appeals to reimburse her Crimea\nexpenses were supported by The Times and Punch.[i]<\/a>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Satiric
Satiric portrayal of Mary Seacole’s activities in the Crimean War. Published in Punch, 30 May 1857<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Seacole also wrote an autobiography, published in 1857:  Wonderful\nAdventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands<\/em>. This autobiography, written to\nraise much-needed funds after her bankruptcy, was the first autobiography to be\nwholly authored by a black woman in England and covers her life up to and\nincluding her time in Crimea \u2013 offering valuable insights into her experience\nas a Black woman in England and abroad. [ii]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite attempts to keep her memory alive \u2013 for example, Seacole\u2019s\ngrave at Kensal Green cemetery was reconsecrated in 1973 and honours her ‘care\nfor the sick and wounded in the West Indies, Panama and on the battlefields of\nthe Crimea’\u201d – Seacole seems to have slipped from public memory until the\nmillennium[iii]<\/a>\nwhen her re-discovery as \u2018The forgotten angel of the Crimea\u2019 began.[iv]<\/a>\nIn February 2004 Seacole was voted the \u2018greatest Black Briton\u2019 in an internet\nsurvey. The following year Penguin Classics reissued Seacole\u2019s autobiography\nand the National Portrait Gallery in London unveiled a newly discovered portrait.\n[v]<\/a>\nIn 2016, following a 12 year campaign, a statue was unveiled in London opposite\nthe Houses of Parliament in the grounds of St Thomas’ Hospital.[vi]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photo
Mary Seacole statue, London<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Library resources are a useful place to start researching the\nlife, and memory, of Mary Seacole. Most of these are online and accessible via\nthe library catalogue: a good place to start is to search for \u2018Mary Seacole\u2019 in\nArticle Search or JSTOR, followed by a trawl through historic newspaper archives\nsuch as The Times Digital Archive \u2013 also available via the Library catalogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also have two print books on display as part of our Black\nHistory Month exhibition:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Wonderful adventures of Mrs Seacole in many\nlands \/ edited by Ziggi Alexander & Audrey Dewjee<\/li>
  2. A short history of Mary Seacole : a resource for\nnurses and students \/ Elizabeth N. Anionwu<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    \n\n\n\n

    [i]<\/a> “Seacole\nFund – The disinterested services of.” Times, 11 Mar. 1867, p. 5. The\nTimes Digital Archive, http:\/\/tinyurl.gale.com\/tinyurl\/ByE9g3. Accessed 21 Oct.\n2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    [ii]<\/a>\nSee images and a transcript of this text at: https:\/\/www.bl.uk\/learning\/timeline\/item126795.html<\/a>;\nfor an analysis of the autobiography see for example: Pinto, S. (2019).\n“The Right Woman in the Right Place”: Mary Seacole and Corrective\nHistories of Empire. ariel: A Review of International English Literature 50(2),\n1-31. doi:10.1353\/ari.2019.0012 and Craig, Christine. “Wonderful\nadventures of Mrs Seacole in many lands: Autobiography as Literary Genre and a\nWindow to Character.” Caribbean Quarterly 30, no. 2 (1984): 33-47.\nhttp:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/40653534.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    [iii]<\/a> Palmer,\nA.  (2006, May 25). Seacole [n\u00e9e Grant],\nMary Jane (1805\u20131881), nurse. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.\nRetrieved 14 Oct. 2019, from\nhttps:\/\/www.oxforddnb.com\/view\/10.1093\/ref:odnb\/9780198614128.001.0001\/odnb-9780198614128-e-41194.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    [iv]<\/a> Carpenter,\nSue. “The forgotten angel of the Crimea.” Times, 4 Sept. 2000, p.52.\nThe Times Digital Archive, http:\/\/tinyurl.gale.com\/tinyurl\/ByDxB7. Accessed 21\nOct. 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    [v]<\/a>  The survey was organised in response to the\nabsence of black people in the top 100 of the BBC\u2019s Greatest Briton poll and\nthis publicity ensured further coverage in the British press. \u2018Nurse is\ngreatest Black Briton\u2019 The Guardian 10 February 2004: https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk\/2004\/feb\/10\/britishidentity.artsandhumanities<\/a>\n(Accessed 21\/10\/2019); “In Brief – Mary Seacole: SURVEYS EDITION].”\nFinancial Times, Feb 05, 2005 ; Watson, Kathy. “The Other Nightingale.”\nNew Statesman, Jan 17, 2005, 48-49,\nhttps:\/\/queens.ezp1.qub.ac.uk\/login?url=https:\/\/search.proquest.com\/docview\/224331441?accountid=1337<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    [vi]<\/a> \u2018Mary\nSeacole statue unveiled in London\u2019 BBC News. 30 June 2016. https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-england-london-36663206<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Mary Seacole [n\u00e9e Grant] (1805\u20131881) is best known as the nurse who, after trying unsuccessfully to join Florence Nightingale\u2019s group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":186,"featured_media":1509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[156,128],"class_list":["post-1512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-black-history","tag-primary-sources"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2019\/10\/Seacole-portrait.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8s7J-oo","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/186"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1512"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1514,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512\/revisions\/1514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}