ABSTRACT
This chapter illuminates the rise of female foreign correspondents in mid-Victorian England. I show that long before such famous late nineteenth-century reporters as Florence Dixie entered the field, women had not only reported on political conflicts but also presented themselves as models for aspiring women journalists. I focus on three instances of pioneering foreign correspondence by women: Harriet Ward’s reportage on the embattled Eastern Cape Frontier, including her coverage of the Seventh Frontier War (1846–1847), for the United Services Magazine, an armed services monthly, Harriet Martineau’s reportage on post-Famine Ireland for London’s Daily News in 1852, and her transatlantic correspondence for the New York-based abolitionist weekly, the National Anti-Slavery Standard, between 1859 and 1862. By studying each assignment in situ and examining what foreign correspondence entailed in these diverse newspapers and periodicals, this chapter deepens our understanding of the formal diversity of Victorian foreign correspondence. I attend closely to Ward’s and Martineau’s varied journalistic personae, including their diverse negotiations of signature, to show how they stormed this bastion of male journalism.
