Isabella Banks (1821–1897): Much loved Manchester novelist and poet
Isabella Banks was born in March 1821, on Oldham Street, Manchester, (today known as Manchester’s vibrant Northern Quarter). She was educated at Miss Hannah Spray’s Ladies Day School and Weeldon’s Academy. Isabella showed early talent as a writer when her poem, ‘A Dying Girl to her Mother’, was published in the Manchester Guardian when she was 16. Yet, it wasn’t until much later that she took on the career of novelist. She married a journalist, George Banks, in December 1846, and she assisted him in his work for a range of provincial newspapers. According to the convention of the day, she published her novels under her husband’s name, appearing in print as Mrs George Linnaeus Banks.
Isabella’s Manchester
Isabella Varley’s parents were both active in local politics in a time prior to the City of Manchester having its own parliamentary representatives. In such a politically charged household it is no wonder she developed an interest in the history and politics of Manchester and the wider World. She was born into a rapidly changing environment — two years after the Peterloo Massacre (1819), an event of huge significance within the city and with ramifications across the country and living in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars (1803–15).
The Writer
The domestic circumstances surrounding her marriage were very difficult. Of her eight children, five died in childhood and her husband developed alcoholism and suffered from suicidal depressions. So it wasn’t until the age of 43 that she picked up her pen and began to write to support her family. From 1865 until 1894 she wrote 12 novels, three volumes of poetry, and 3 collections of short stories which won literary acclaim. Her best known work is The Manchester Man, which was published in 1870 and was a phenomenal success running into 11 editions in her lifetime. Set at the beginning of the 19th century, it provides a fascinating portrait of Manchester, the first industrial city, in the first industrial nation in the world.
The Collector
In addition to writing fiction, Isabella Banks also collected objects. She had a strong sense of history and was fond of acquiring things that had associations with significant figures or events. She also prized objects that connected her to different cultures. All of these items were carefully labelled and stored. The hand written notes describing what they are and where they came from are visible in the images below. But for what purpose was she storing these items? One possible theory is that she used her collection to spark her imagination and give her writing historical accuracy.
However, her Cabinet of Curiosities not only holds these culturally significant objects, but also deeply personal items, which reflect her life, family practices and relationships. Perhaps they offer a different perspective. These items tell the stories of her family, people she knew, and their wider relationships and lives. This collection of ‘dormant objects’ offers an insight into aspects of the material culture of the time and the significance of holding/keeping elements of history, whether that is your own personal history, or as a keepsake of world events.
These items pictured are from Isabella Banks’ Cabinet of Curiosities:
It is interesting to look at the context of Isabella Banks’ collecting in cultural terms. Cabinets of Curiosities, known in German as Wunderkammer, had been a fashionable way of displaying notable objects from around the world during the 16th-17th Century. The Cabinet referring to a room rather than a piece of furniture that the word would denote today. These projects were often undertaken by aristocrats and merchant classes and were a precursor to modern museums — a way to look at the exotic and to try to understand scientific discoveries in an ever changing world. Isabella Banks’ Collection is a smaller, more personal version, one that can be recognised by many today who save gig tickets, milk teeth and other personal trinkets in a ‘shoe-box archive’ of their own. Would she be surprised to see the reverential way our institution looks after her keepsakes, how we interpret them and give them significance still?
Legacy
The Manchester Man was republished in 1991 and again in 1998. Its influence on Manchester is enduring. The recently closed Jabez Clegg, one of Manchester’s most iconic pubs, took its name from the hero of the book. In 2014 the City chose to commemorate Isabella Banks, and 4 other local luminaries, by naming roads after them in a new building development.
Discussion Points
Is it useful to look at the studies of material culture undertaken by sociologist and social anthropologists to gain an insight into Isabella Bank’s life, and to gain an insight into cultural practices of the time?
What do you understand by the term ‘Shoe-box archive’?
Additional Resources
Look at Dr Sophie Woodward, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at University of Manchester, Project on ‘Dormant Things’.
Dormant Things Project: https://sites.manchester.ac.uk/dormant-things/
Dormant Things Blog: https://sites.manchester.ac.uk/dormant-things/blog/
Stuff, by Miller, D, 2009. Min Library, Blue Area Floor 2 339.4 M68 & EBook
Images reproduced with the permission of The John Rylands University Librarian and Director of the University of Manchester Library. All images used on this page are licenced via CC-BY-NC-SA, for further information about each image, please follow the link in the caption description.
