[Children at the Ipswich Ragged School]
The motley crew of children pictured here brings to mind Charles Dickens’ description of a similar class he visited in 1846—“a fluctuating swarm of faces young in years but youthful in nothing else.” Such children, victims of poverty and often-truant parents, were wards of “Ragged Schools,” so called because of the students’ shabby, tattered clothing. The school in Ipswich, co-founded by the photographer Richard Dykes Alexander, was a part of Victorian charitable movements aimed at disadvantaged children. Alexander, a member of a wealthy banking family, was a noted philanthropist and abolitionist; he also founded a hospital and temperance hall.
Artwork Details
- Title: [Children at the Ipswich Ragged School]
- Artist: Richard Dykes Alexander (British, Ipswich 1788–1865)
- Date: ca. 1859
- Medium: Albumen silver print
- Dimensions: Image: ca. 4 3/4 x 5 7/8 in.
Mount: ca. 10 1/4 x 12 1/2 in. - Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Gift of Jill Quasha, in honor of Maria Morris Hambourg, and in celebration of the Museum’s 150th Anniversary, 2019
- Object Number: 2019.305.1
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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