Papers relating to Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury's early public philanthropic work and...

This section contains documents relating to Elizabeth Taylor's early philanthropic work in London during the late 1870s and early 1880s which continued until her marriage to George Cadbury (1839-1922) in 1888 when she moved to Selly Oak. The section includes a variety of material such as correspondence written by Elizabeth Taylor whilst she undertook volunteer work in Belleville and advertisements for concerts and lectures. The section also contains booklets promoting the Scandinavian Sailors' Temperance Home in Ratcliff Highway and papers relating to the Manchester Conference of the Friends' First-Day School Association. The experiences which Elizabeth Taylor gained through this early philanthropic work in the slums of Paris and London slums and through her involvement in debate concerning modern social issues can be interpreted as informing her later public endeavours supporting welfare and education in Bournville and Birmingham.

Finding number: MS 466/141-2, 144-5 and 150/1-3

Biographical information about Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury taken from Richenda Scott, 'Elizabeth Cadbury: 1858-1951' (London: Harrap, 1955), pp. 30-36 and pp. 40-41; Sara Delamont, 'Cadbury, Dame Elizabeth Mary (1858-1951)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/45784] accessed 27th October 2008.

Following the conclusion of her formal education after leaving the North London Collegiate School for Girls in 1876, Elizabeth Taylor participated in public philanthropic work in London throughout the late 1870s and the 1880s. Both of Taylor's parents were actively involved with Quaker philanthropic initiatives promoting temperance and the improvement of educational opportunities for working-class people. Her father John Taylor was the first Secretary of the Friends' Temperance Union formed in 1852. In the 1870s Elizabeth Taylor supported the weekly Mission meeting which her father held in the buildings of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway on a Sunday evening. Taylor also became responsible for teaching a class of children at the Peckham Friends' First-Day School established in the building by members of Peckham Meeting. Taylor began her work at the School overseeing a class of young girls, then young boys, before taking responsibility for a group of between thirty and forty teenage boys aged between twelve and fifteen in November 1880. As well as teaching the boys a Bible lesson each Sunday, Elizabeth Taylor took them rowing on the lake in Battersea Park, organised expeditions to the countryside and played cricket with them. She also formed a choir from the group, delivering concerts and entertainments. In January 1885 Taylor pursued the opportunity to participate in the Manchester Conference of the Friends' First-Day School Association. During this period Elizabeth Taylor was also involved in teaching an adult class for working women in Bunhill Fields, organising a choir and orchestra from the women who attended the class. She also began a Boy's Club at Ratcliffe Highway and supported the work of the Scandinavian Sailors' Temperance Home. In February 1885 Elizabeth Taylor volunteered at a medical mission in Belleville, Paris which had grown out of efforts to provide relief for victims of the Franco-Prussian War. Taylor dispensed medicine, provided religious guidance and supported the work of the Mission's orphanage. Elizabeth Taylor also undertook home visiting in the Parisian slums. Following her return to England she visited slums in London to learn about the living conditions of poorer people in the city. Correspondence and memoirs reveal that Elizabeth Taylor's experiences working in the slums of London and Paris gave her knowledge of the debilitating effects of the urban environment and encouraged her to support philanthropic endeavours to improve conditions for people working and living in industrialised urban areas. Allowed greater freedom and access to education than was typical for a girl living in the late nineteenth century, during the 1870s and 1880s Elizabeth Taylor pursued opportunities to further her education, attending lectures and courses at London University and the London Institution where she heard numerous notable speakers including John Ruskin (1819-1900). She also became a leading member of Quaker reading and debating groups and participated in contemporary social and political debate by presenting papers at meetings of the Portfolio Society.