HENRY MAYHEW (1812-1887) AND

of his teaperameat must account fa it." 'lo Tk American histaim. Gatrude Himmelfub, has a
slightly different but similar coac1usion a ht Maw: "While many of his projects were left
unfinished, "indolence*' hardly seems the right wmd for someone who produced as much as be did
and sometimes at breathtaking speed If much of his wcxk was incomplete and ephemeral, that was
the nature of his trade; he was primarily a journalist, not as we have come to think of him, a
sociologist a histaian" " '
In 1973, Himmelfarb established b nhn Labour as an iqa%mt document of Victorian urban
histay. )Iar essay on Mayhew's "cuiture of pmertf was a law d m of andher essay that first
appeared in 1971. 'I2
Maykw's "subtitles r aw than the title*" Himmelfarb believed most
accurately described London Labour's pian and the "bulk of its conterrts." Importantly fa
Himmelfarb, Mayfiew's very first pamphlet, "Of wandaing tribes in general," which charactaized
the streetfolk as a whole, was also the title of the opening chapter of the first volume of London
Labour. In the final analysis, fa Himmelfarb, Mayhew's wcrk continued to be "an enquiry on tk
subject of London Lubour md the London Pwr." 'I3 She is enthusiastic about Mayhew; he was
"one of the m st remarkable chroniclers of the time," a "one-man Royal Commission," 'I4
and an
'I0 Stedman-Jones, Gareth. The Labours of Henry Mayhew. Metropolitan Correspmdent of the Morning
Chronicle*', London Journal, 1984, 10, 1. 80-85. S tedman Jmes brought an importaat cultural and literary
analysis to Mayhew's &don Luhur. He discussed three important issues: (1) changing academic
attitudes and issues in anthropology and history, (2) changing coastituencies or "rather the rapid
disappearance of a coostituency fa wharn Mayhew could have been writing", and (3) changing fams of
inner and outer mloaization. S tedman Jones wrote: "Changes in the way anthropology and history have
been understood in terms of Victorian culture now make Mayhew a much more central wimess to the
shows and exhibitims of -don and the impact of racial attitudes ... Certainly the fears of the industrial
revolu tioa .. . was driven into the exotic and be imaginary museums" (Ibid, 80). This impatan t cultural
and historical approach concerning "'exotic and imaginary museums" of the mind is impatant to my
dissertation.
" ' Himmebb, Gertrude, nMayhew's Pm: A Roblem of Identity", Victorian Srdics. 1971, 14,307-329:
"The Culture of Poverty." In Tire Victorian City, edited by HJ. Dp, 1973, 707-36; Tlre Idea of Poveny.
England in the Early Indus1rial Age, Loadon: F ak & Faber, 1984.
Himmelfarb, 1971, 313.
"3 Himmelfarb, 1973, 718