Introduction

Lectures provided a means for delivering information across many audience types at early Victorian Bournemouth. For the most part, lecturers instructed or educated but they often introduced entertainment and interest by using visual material. Some used lecturing as ways to educate working people in a controlled context, while keeping them from the tavern.

Subjects and venues

Science, politics, culture

Public lectures combined instruction with entertainment. Their success depended on the popularity of the advertised content. One advertisement worked hard to reassure audiences, promising that Dr John Cummings would lecture on ‘deeply interesting subjects’. Sometimes, audiences chose not to attend.  For example, few came to George Dawson’s lecture on ‘Some Passages of Russian History’. Lectures advertised or reported in the press at this period roamed over a wide range of interests. Audiences had the opportunity to hear subjects on the following subjects: the Tabernacle; customs and manners found in India; astronomy and the moon; volcanoes and other aspects of natural history; a consideration of the evolution from savagery to high civilisation. Not long after his assassination, an audience in Bournemouth came to hear about President Lincoln. Lectures, therefore, indicate the nature and extent of cultural interest amongst a community, both affluent and working people: science, politics, and culture.

Venues

Audiences attended public lectures either in the Belle Vue’s Assembly Room or the National School. The former perhaps had greater capacity than the latter but may have had higher rental charges as a result. People came to the Assembly Room to hear Dr Edward Theodorani give his views on “Italy and the Pope, politically considered”, a repeat of a session at Poole (1857). Professor Reynolds brought his lecture and demonstration of electro-biology to the Assembly Room. Professor Bushell did likewise. Perhaps subjects having less public appeal took place at the National School. For example, the Reverend Salmon’s talk about the ‘Tabernacle of Israel’ happened at the school, also Mr Woodcock’s session about Indian customs. Reverend A. M. Bennett, who saw the school as an extension of his church, gave lectures there. He aimed these at working people, seeking to wrap moral guidance and recruitment in the packaging of education.

Styles and lecturers

Styles

Some lectures sound, from their description, like music-hall entertainments. These concerned the exciting new world of electro-biology, packaged with professors to reassure the audience in case of doubt and to increase credibility. One Mr Mackintosh provided a curious hybrid lecture connecting recent astronomical discoveries with musical breaks. His wife sung in the latter. Her offering included ‘Eve’s Lamentation’, ‘Angels ever bright and fair’, and ‘Praise the Lord’. The press approved of her delivery: ‘her higher notes, which are screamed by most vocalists, being remarkably pure and sweet’. Other lecturers, less glamourous perhaps, nevertheless used engaging visual material. In several instances, reports referred to images accompanying the lectures. A session about volcanoes included illustrations. For example, for a talk about the moon, the lecturer brought along a globe and diagrams. The Reverend Salmon appeared to have advanced equipment, for he illustrated his talk on the Tabernacle ‘by some excellent dissolving views’.

Lecturers

Contemporary educational and literacy levels meant that most lecturers came from a privileged background. No mention of artisans talking about joinery or bricklaying has emerged. Two lecturers mentioned belonged to higher levels of Bournemouth’s residential society, each giving talks at nearby Mechanics’ Institutes. Christopher Creeke (Ruskin’s ‘seven lamps of architecture’) and E. V. Mainwaring (’animal mechanics) had professional qualifications: architect; physician. Insufficient genealogical information has survived to examine in depth the social position of other lecturers, but some clues exist. George Dawson, the Russian historian, had the tag ‘B. A., Birmingham’. Several of the lecturers worked as clergymen, most, if not all, therefore, having benefitted from higher education. Mr Woodcock, Esquire, talked about India having lived there for twenty-five years, some of them as a magistrate. Arthur Potter, on the other hand, worked as a telegraph engineer, talking about establishing the new service connecting Poole and Bournemouth.

Educational lectures for working people

Beginnings

As discussed elsewhere, an interesting contest flared during the early 1850s. One group thought they had agreement for a Mechanics’ Institute at Bournemouth, but it encountered opposition. Not long after, several courses of lectures took place aimed at working people. The Reverend A. M. Bennett gave at least one lecture, but he may have supervised the whole programme. He lectured about Australia, although perhaps not from experience. H. T. Turner, Esquire, Sea Grove Villa, gave the seventh in a series of lectures, his subject ‘the Moon and the Earth’. Mr Woodcock’s Indian lecture also went to working people. These lectures took place in the school-room, each a component of a course programme consisting of several events. Lectures at the Assembly Room, by contrast, went no further than the single session. These events, therefore, represented a concerted attempt by affluent people to exert their influence on their working counterparts.

Development

The educational lectures for working people attracted little further mention in the press. The emphasis on ‘plain but interesting’ content may have affected attendance, although reports claimed popularity for the series. A religious subtext may have caused difficulties, Reverend Bennett always keen to spread his version of Christianity. Congregationalism grew its presence as time progressed, despite his efforts. Later, a workmen’s club began to gain press attention. This employed a different approach to achieve its objectives. It had a free supply of newspapers and periodicals and offered tea or coffee at low prices. Members could play board games as well as hear readings, recitations, and songs. The emphasis seemed to fall on collaborative events where sharing of literary passages might encourage attendees to pursue their own reading. The Reverend Bennett remained involved, but lectures involving an authoritative figure transmitting information to a deferential audience perhaps had declined.

Takeaway

As Bournemouth’s growth continued, its audience drew the attention not only of concert musicians and actors, but public lecturers. The range of content offered acts as one gauge of contemporary public culture. For a while, lectures also featured in the attempts by religious and temperance bodies to exert their influence on working people, but may have lost popularity in favour of alternate methods.

References

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