Philobiblon

The Observer has a report on an exhibition in Manchester of images of black people in Victorian Britain.

“Her remarkable show reveals black Victorians in all their surprising manifestations, not as marginal figures, but occupying both the centre of the canvas and of their own fascinating lives.”

But what I was particularly interested in was Victoria Davies, born in Britain as the daughter of a black merchant and a woman who had been rescued from slavery as a child and taken in and raised by a naval family. She went to Cheltenham Ladies College! (Now, and I imagine then, one of the poshest schools in England for girls.)

Having been to a more downmarket but broadly similar school in Australia, I imagine she must have had a hell of a time, but maybe the Victorians could be more broadminded than we imagine – would be fascinating to know how she fared.