Sources from the time about Living Conditions in Towns

For each of the following cartoons consider what the cartoonist wanted people to think (you have already seen one of the images before so it should be familirar). How are they useful sources to us when wanting to know about 19th century living conditions? What do they reveal? There is some guidance in your Public Health revision book about how to carry out good source analysis, and there is also a timeline that you can use to place the images in their ‘context’.

Remember: A lot of sources from the time were from people wanting to see reform  – a lot of political cartoons especially were trying to shame the authorities or water companies into action. It tells you a lot about attitudes at the time and therefore cartoons are always useful even if they are not always reliable.(i.e. they could be  exaggerated to help make a point more strongly.) The magazine ‘Punch’ often contained satirical/sarcastic cartoons that had a serious point to make.

A cartoon published in 1852 in Punch Magazine

A cartoon published in 1950 in Punch Magazine