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Constructing South Kensington: the buildings and politics of T. H. Huxley's working environments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Sophie Forgan  and
Graeme Gooday
Sophie Forgan
Affiliation:
History Group, Institute of Design, University of Teesside, Middlesbrough, Cleveland TS1 3BA.
Graeme Gooday
Affiliation:
Division of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT.
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Extract

Biography and geography do not always sit easily together in historical narrative. With a few notable exceptions, due weight is rarely given to the significance of territorial features in tales of talented individuals. Biographers perhaps play down the untidy contingencies of civic, institutional and domestic spaces in order to present a historiographically coherent portrait of their subject. However, once the vicissitudes of environment and everyday life are taken into account, the identity and accomplishments of the ‘great individual’ begin to merge inextricably with the vagaries of local politics and fluid socio-cultural alliances. For a figure with as formidable a posthumous reputation as T. H. Huxley, such a deconstruction might, at first, seem mundane and of little scholarly value. Yet there is considerable evidence that Huxley was not always successful in his efforts to gain power and influence within the many and varied sites of his working environments. Careful scrutiny of such evidence will show new perspectives on Huxley's complex career in Victorian London. It will also document problems in the construction of the South Kensington suburb as a credible site and fruitful resource for Huxley's remarkably diverse activities in education and science.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 29 , Issue 4 , December 1996 , pp. 435 - 468
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 1996

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References

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6 This is not to say that Desmond ignores the social tensions inside such spaces. Nevertheless there is much contrary evidence cited by both Desmond and Bibby that Huxley was far from being a marginal figure in the 1850s and 1860s. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1851 at the tender age of 26 after winning prizes and medals since his student days in the 1840s, first became a Council member 1853–54, and again in 1859–60 and 1866–67.

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29 With thanks to Anne Barrett for her information on Working Men's Lectures in the Museum.

30 Between 1860 and 1870 the numbers ranged between five (1862, 1866) and a high point of twenty-four (1869). Figures given in the annual Report of the Department of Science and Art.

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39 Select Committee on Scientific Instruction, 1867–68, [432] XV, 397–403, qu. 7958. It should of course be remembered that the Select Committee had specifically been set up to deal with such matters, and scientists were naturally going to make the most of such an opportunity.

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