Honest Applicants for Odious Work: Creative Intersections of Digital and Analogue Sources to Enhance Historical Analysis

Greg Smith, University of Manitoba
Stephen Heathorn, McMaster University

Official records often create images of individuals forced to interact with authorities of the state. But how do individuals construct images of themselves for the use or benefit of those in authority in a way that encapsulates their individual agency? Our paper is based on nearly 1000 unsolicited letters of application for the job of common hangman in 1883 archived in the London Metropolitan Archives, which we use to examine how these mostly skilled or semi-skilled workmen presented their abilities and credentials for a job that had no formal requirements of skill and which was perceived by much of society as distasteful. Combining a statistical analysis of the applicant pool with qualitative analysis of the letters and testimonials provided by them, we have sought to investigate the emergence of the ‘job application’ the veracity of these archived documents, and advance the debate about 19th Century working-class respectability and its connection to occupational status. Our analysis of the letters suggests that the expected dictates of respectable status, suggested in the growing number of newspaper advertisements seeking employees, were invoked by the applicants in an effort to demonstrate their suitability for the position despite the social perception of the position as one of extreme odium. The process of compiling and analyzing the letters as sources brought up fundamental issues of trust and distrust about the manuscript archive as well as the known accuracy issues of the 19th Century UK census process in general and the degree of confidence to be placed in the 1881 census in particular. Those applicants that we could positively identify, were real individuals, clearly sincere in their desire for the position. This paper will discuss the issue of trustworthiness of these letters as sources and the methodological issues they present for the historian trying to use them.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 161. Truth, Self-Construction and Data in the Legal Archives