ABSTRACT
in 1886, in an anonymous letter to the Wigan and District Advertiser (30 January, 1886: 2), Arthur Joseph Munby (1828–1910) wrote, “for my own reasons, I have for more than thirty years, studied the subject of female labor, not merely in books and at second hand, but with my own eyes and on the spot” (my emphasis). 1 Having thus looked, Arthur Munby then rehearsed this proximity in writing detailed accounts in diary notebooks, complete with verbatim conversations recorded in a transcription of Lancashire dialects. (There are nine notebooks devoted to his sixteen visits to the mining district around Wigan between 1853 and 1887.) He also recaptured his visual encounters in photographs of women miners he bought locally or arranged to have taken in one of the many photographic studios operating in Wigan. 2 In one such image, taken on 11 September 1873 at Little’s studio in Clarence Yard, Wigan, Munby is also photographed (fig. 1). It is a rare occurrence, unique as far as I know. The photograph, therefore, represents a moment of proximity. The woman in the photograph is the Robert Little, Ellen Grounds, aged 22 a broo wench at Pearson and Knowles Pits, Wigan, taken 11 September 18/3. (Arthur Munby) 1873, Munby Collection (113–1-c), Trinity College, Cambridge. Reproduced by kind permission of the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315078625/edd51442-eff5-4b7f-a794-3b25a980b8d8/content/fig34_B.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
