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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2009
The Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester has recently acquired the Electricity Council archives, a body of material of national scope and a major resource for researchers into the electricity industry. The Electricity Council had previously transferred its collection of electrical artefacts to the Museum to be used in the development of the National Electricity Gallery, opened in March 1986, which it co-funded with Greater Manchester Council. In order to illustrate the content and value of these archives, this paper focuses on the promotion of the domestic use of electricity during the inter-war period, a choice of subject which relates to a strong area of the Museum's object collections. The first section outlines the acquisition and scope of the archives and describes the records therein of the Electrical Association for Women (EAW) and the British Electrical Development Association (EDA); the second section uses the relevant records of the EAW and the EDA to investigate the chosen theme, with particular reference to women's involvement and perceptions of women.
1 Hannah, L., Engineers, Managers and Politicians, London, 1982, 183–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2 Ibid., see chapter 16, 193–207.
3 Area Board Annual Reports and Accounts. A good run from 1948 to 1972 and from 1977 to 1988.
4 Annual Reports of the Electricity Commissioners. Most of the twenty-three reports to 1948 are held.
5 EDA Minutes, 1919–65.
6 Illingworth cartoon on power shortages, EDA, 1651. The cartoon shows factories being disrupted because someone has switched on an electric fire at home.
7 Memorandum and Rules of Association: ES1 1/1/1, ES1 1/1/2, ES1 1/1/3, ES1 1/1/4.
8 Scott, P., An Electrical Adventure, London, 1934Google Scholar, ES1 1/10/2. Randell, W. L., Electricity and Women, London, 1945Google Scholar, ES1 1/10/3.
9 EAW Annual Report 1972, ES1 170.
10 EAW All-Electric Demonstration House, Photographs, ES1 1/6/14.
11 Bachelor Girl's All-Electric Flat Exhibition, Photographs, ES1 1/6/12.
12 All-Electric Working Class Exhibitions, Photographs, ES1 1/6/13.
13 Souvenir and commemorative tea-towels, Photographs, ES1 1/6/16.
14 Haslett, C. (ed.), Electrical Handbook for Women, London, 1934Google Scholar, and subsequent revised editions, ES1 170.
15 The Electrical Age (1938), 3, Summer.Google Scholar
16 Electrical Guides, ES1 170.
17 Certificate for Demonstrators and Teachers Examination, ES1 1/4/1.
18 Home Economics Certificate Course, ES1 1/5/1.
19 Electricity for Everyday Living Examination, ES1 1/4/2.
20 Caroline Haslett Memorial Trust travel scholarships and lectures, ES1 1/8/2.
21 EAW evidence for Government Enquiry: Air Pollution and the Housewife, ES1 1/9/2.
22 Questionnaire and Survey of Domestic Electrical Equipment, ES1 1/7/7.
23 Other factors include availability of credit, see Bowden, Sue, ‘Credit facilities and the growth of consumer demand for electric appliances in the 1930s’, Business History (1990), 32 (1), 52–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
24 See Hannah, L., Electricity before Nationalisation, London, 1979, 183–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Forty, A., Objects of Desire, London, 1986, 188.Google Scholar
25 Some of the early EDA advertising material was cheaply produced and had little visual appeal, e.g. a perforated sheet of seven advertisements (EDA 155), bearing the direction ‘Send this as copy to your local newspaper’, and a series of bookmarks (e.g. EDA 102, 202).
26 See Worden, S., ‘Powerful women: electricity in the home, 1919–40’, in A View from the Interior: Feminism, Women and Design (ed. Attfield, J. and Kirkham, P.), London, 1989, 131–50Google Scholar, for purposes and membership of the Women's Engineering Society.
27 Scott, , op. cit. (8), 108–9.Google Scholar
28 Ibid., 41. The 1934 Memorandum and Articles of Association of the EAW contains a full list of its objectives.
29 See, e.g., Stevenson, J., British Society 1914–45, Harmondsworth, 1984, 83–5.Google Scholar
30 Haslett, C., op. cit. (14)Google Scholar. The tenth edition published in 1983 was revised and retitled Essential Electricity: A Users' Guide (edited by Ann McMullen).
31 E.g. ‘How It Works 7–9’ covered the electric suction cleaner (upright and cylinder types) and the electric refrigerator.
32 See The Electric Age (1936–1942), 3Google Scholar. The original title was shortened in 1932.
33 Electrical Housekeeping, EDA, London. The Electricity Council archives contain numbers 12, 14, 18, 21, 23 and 25–29, from the period 1936–40
34 Forty, , op. cit. (24), 190.Google Scholar
35 E.g. leaflet EDA 91 ‘Healthy radiant heat’ and booklet EDA 1131 ‘On cooks and cooking’.
36 E.g. leaflet EDA 129 ‘Use the electric vacuum cleaner and you will not fear the sunshine’.
37 See booklet EDA 1440 ‘How to protect your family from food danger’.
38 Many examples, including: leaflet EDA 57.1.20 ‘Freedom from domestic worry… by one who has secured it’: booklet EDA 253 ‘Put your house in order for the summer’; booklet EDA 139 ‘Woman's work is never done’.
39 Illustrated by the leaflets EDA 347 ‘The magic of spring’, EDA 357 ‘In kitchen cool’ and EDA 386 ‘Iron in comfort the electric way’.
40 Leaflet EDA 1139 ‘Washing day, washing play’.
41 E.g. leaflet EDA ‘Silent aids to comfort’ states that: ‘Electricity in the home is a universal servant with an eternal willingness to work.’
42 E.g. leaflet EDA 1140 ‘Don't be old-fashioned mother’ describes electricity as ‘the cleanest, hardest working, most willing and cheapest servant under the sun’ and itemizes an electric servant's wage bill.
43 E.g. leaflet EDA 560 ‘The electric cleaner beats the beater’. Leaflet EDA 6/2 ‘Use electricity – the silent servant’ states: ‘it will go far to solve the problem of domestic help. In the electrified home it is easier to keep servants and less difficult to do without them.’
44 ‘Indeed, what we know of the reduction in the number of servants in some of the larger households makes it quite possible that by 1931 more households than ever before were enjoying some kind of domestic help.’ – Stevenson, , op. cit. (29), 132Google Scholar. See also Forty, , op. cit. (24), 213–14.Google Scholar
45 Edwards, E. E., Report on Electricity in Working Class Homes, London, 1935.Google Scholar
46 See Frieden, B., The Feminine Mystique, Harmondsworth, 1965, 205–25Google Scholar; Oakley, A., The Sociology of Housework, London, 1974, 92–9Google Scholar; Davidson, C., A Woman's Work is Never Done, London, 1986, 191–2Google Scholar; Cowan, R. Schwartz, ‘The “Industrial Revolution” in the home: household technology and social change in the twentieth century’, Technology and Culture (1976), 17 (1), 1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
47 Practical Aspects of Kitchen Planning, EAW Twelfth Annual Conference, London, 04 1937.Google Scholar
48 ‘Kitchen planning and fatigue study in the home’, The Electrical Age (1938), 3, 169–70.Google Scholar
49 See Hannah, , op. cit. (24), 186–203.Google Scholar
50 E.g. leaflet EDA 401 ‘Electrical gifts are practical and beautiful’.
51 Booklet EDA 1140 ‘How to protect your family from food danger’, p. 9.Google Scholar
52 Leaflet EDA 263 ‘Help!’. Again a middle-class frame of reference is established by statements such as: ‘You may have an adding machine in your office. Why not add something to your domestic equipment and bring it a little more up-to-date?’
53 See EDA Council Minutes 16 July 1937, item 72 (ii) and attached memorandum.
54 See EDA Council Minutes 18 June 1937, item 60 (ii).
55 See EDA Council Minutes 16 July 1937, memorandum to item 72 (ii).
56 See Williams, T. I., A History of the British Gas Industry, Oxford, 1981, 278.Google Scholar
57 See The All-Electric House, EAW, London, 1935.Google Scholar
58 See Randell, , op. cit. (8), 85.Google Scholar
59 See Scott, , op. cit. (8), 104.Google Scholar
60 Davidson, , op. cit. (46), 43.Google Scholar
61 See Worden, , op. cit. (26).Google Scholar
