Anne Lister Research Summit 2023

This weekend I rose at an ungodly hour of the morning to attend a 2-day online conference of research into Anne Lister and her world. Recordings of sessions (this year and past years) are available through the main conference web page. In the sidebar, under each year’s conference, select the “resources” tab to find them. I plan to check out some of the previous sessions when I have time—in particular, a session from last year on vocabulary that Lister used around sex, and other sexual vocabulary of the time. For those who might be interested, there will be an in-person Lister conference in April 2024 in Halifax (UK). I expect that there will also be future online Anne Lister Research Summits.

The following brief summaries of the talks are my own impressions. Any errors—either of understanding or of interpretation—are entirely my own and should not reflect on the speakers.

Bridging the Listerian Gap (Stephen Turton, Sarah Wingrove, Diane Halford, JY Jiang, and Livia Labate)

Panel discussion between 5 people approaching Lister research from different angles, handling different types of data, with different backgrounds and purposes. Emphasis on the benefits of this sort of collaborative community, e.g., the work of the many non-academic transcribers and “code-breakers” working on converting the diaries into accessible text, who support the work of academics using those transcripts. Treating essential functions such as transcription as equal partners and entitled to citation and credit.

How to create bridges between the “amateur” and academic participants? Issues around access to the data and results of research. Academics don’t always have control over making their work easily available, while non-academics don’t usually have institutional access to non-fee material.

Information flow goes in all directions: not the traditional “academics share their work with the public” but also non-academic researchers (who may be deeply engrossed in specific details and aspects) calling out topics with promise for a closer look.

Anne Lister’s Music (Lisa Timbs)

TImbs had an interest in Regency-era music, did in-costume performances of Austen-era music on period instruments. At Shibden Hall, she came across two notebooks of music in Anne Lister’s collection and began a project to explore and interpret the contents. She plans to make recordings at Shibden Hall (using her own square piano dating to the era). The music notebooks are personal collections of individual pieces of sheet music collected by Lister, then assembled by a book-binder.

Musical performance was expected to be part of a woman’s accomplishments, as music was a popular social entertainment (aside from public music performances, as for church).

The sheet music is printed, but includes pencil notations, e.g., for fingering, as well as some pressed flowers and foliage between the pages.

(A video is included of Timbs performing one of the pieces from the collection.)

The collections were made in 1806-1807(?) shortly after the time Anne was involved with Eliza Raine at the Manor School when both were 13 years old. After the two were separated, they communicated by letter, including the exchange of sheet music. Many of the pieces in the collection are songs with themes of love, longing, and separation, as well as songs about travel. An example is shown of a song from the opera Richard Coeur de Leon, written for the character of Antonio (a “breeches role”) in which Anne has hand-written an alternate ending to the love song. (A recording of the song is presented.)

The collection includes both formal “classical” music, but also popular music of the day, including folk songs, dances, ballads. No flute music, despite Anne’s later adoption of the instrument. The flute was considered “indecent” if played by a woman (similarly the violin and oboe). In 1808 Anne was teaching (probably the piano) to a Miss Alexander, and Timbs suggests that this may have been part of a program of seduction. The collection includes several piano duets.

Anne Lister’s Horoscopes (Cancelled due to presenter illness, but the time-slot became open discussion and I was able to find an excuse to plug the LHMP.)

Copyright: It’s Complicated (Ruth Cummins)

Basics of UK copyright law, especially as it applies to archives.

The Lister-Barlows: An early Rainbow Family (Jann Kraus)

Discusses the interpersonal dynamics of the period when Anne Lister was involved with Mrs. Barlow (accompanied by her daughter Jane Barlow) in Paris in 1824 and in later interactions. Begins with a discussion of the origins and use of the term “rainbow family” for an extra-legal association of people including at least one “queer” adult and an unrelated child. The speaker introduces the lovely German concept “etwas unselbstverständlich machen”, “to purposefully remove the notion that something is self-evident.” Can we problematize the assumption that concepts didn’t exist if there was no accepted language for them? (The example is: intersex people existed even in eras when there was no language for describing them.) Thus, can we better examine this interpersonal context by calling it (anachronistically) a “queer family” than by avoiding that label? The diaries regularly comment on Lister’s somewhat parental interactions with Jane, but as well Jane’s resentment and jealousy of Lister’s relationship with her mother. Barlow and Lister took some precautions about how intimate they are in front of Jane, but were somewhat open in front of her (as might be similar to a m/f relationship). Lister and Barlow openly discuss issues around gender performance, both in private and public. Their relationship lasted about 4 years, off and on, and continued in correspondence after they no longer met in person. Lister’s decision to break it off primarily due to distaste for some aspects of Barlow’s personality (and perhaps from Barlow’s side, discomfort with Lister’s ongoing relationship with Marianne), but it was a family-like relationship that needed to be overtly rejected, not one that could simply be tacitly dropped. Investigating this nexus speaks to larger questions of addressing queer history. In examining Lister’s relationship “failures” we see the larger and complicated context of what she was seeking and what she was able to create. Conclusions: to investigate “queer families” we need to embrace the concepts of “family” that were in place in the era we’re studying, which could include a broader scope than the “nuclear family”. If family goes beyond romance, marriage, and parenthood for non-queer people, it can go beyond that for queer people as well.

Decoding Anne Lister (Chris Roulston and Caroline Gonda)

This is a discussion about the essay collection Decoding Anne Lister: From the Archives to ‘Gentleman Jack’ (ed. Chris Roulston & Caroline Gonda, Cambridge University Press, 2023; ISBN 9781009280723), which ranges from academic work to popular culture reception. Topics include what inspired them to propose the collection and some of the logistics of finding it a home. There isn’t really a concrete through-line in this discussion, so I’m not going to try to summarize. (Note: Mentioned within the discussion – Chris Roulston is Emma Donoghue’s partner, which ties together some threads involving Donoghue’s recent novel Learned by Heart, about Eliza Raine, and Donoghue’s inclusion within the collection as interviewer of Sally Wainwright.)

“You Could Make Anything of Me”: Anne Lister’s Queer Metaphor (Cee Collins)

This is taken from the presenter’s undergraduate dissertation. It looks at how Lister uses metaphor to communicate and describe those around her in a way that both conceals and reveals thoughts about queerness. When one of the Parisian friends asks her “etes-vous Achilles?” (are you Achilles) we can see a coded way of exploring questions of gender presentation and desire, embedded in learned familiarity with history and literature that could be used as a code as secret as Lister’s “crypt hand.” The “queer metaphor” envisioned here is a two-way connection: not simply using a source domain to talk about a target domain (technical terms are from my own background in metaphor theory, not the speaker’s terms), but also to reflect things known about the target domain back onto the source domain. One of the speaker’s themes is how the use of classical themes metaphorically works to turn Lister’s contemporaries into (fictional?) characters, equated with the classical figures used to describe/refer to them.

“Unvarnished interesting tale”: Storytelling with historical resources (panel)

A wide-ranging conversation about the process of turning historical data into creative storytelling (primarily creative non-fiction, as the discussion focuses on history podcasts, museum exhibitions, etc.). As with other panel discussions, hard to summarize a through-line.

Learned by Heart: Emma Donoghue on interweaving Eliza Raine’s history with fiction (interview)

(Not able to take notes on this one. Very much all over the place Q&A discussion. Check out the novel!)

Cryptic Cycles: Anne Lister's 'Cousin' and 19th Century Menstrual Practices (Anna Clark, Leila Straub, and Elissa Stein)

Lister uses the euphemism “cousin” for her menstrual cycle, as in “my cousin has come to visit” and also used two dots (aligned horizontally) to indicate the start of her period in her diary. For Ann Walker, she refers to Walker’s period as “monsieur” or uses two vertical dots (i.e., a colon) to indicate the start. What did Lister know about the anatomy of menstruation? We know that she had and read a copy of Aristotle’s Masterpiece, a popular marriage manual of the time, which promulgated various folk theories. The diary entries clearly show her awareness of periodicity (mentioning regularity or coming early or late), as well as considering that a “good flow” is healthy. Lister sometimes notes her period “came gently” which seems to indicate a light flow. They have tracked the frequency of both women’s periods during the period they were together (when data is available for both). Lister’s cycles were exceedingly regular, while Walker’s often had gaps, which are also noted in comments. Discussion of menstrual products include references to stockings, to papers (that were burned afterward), to washing or preparing cloths. She sometimes noted not wearing anything for the first day or so. (The panelists are discussing various garments that might be used to absorb. Lister mentions stockings and napkins but it isn’t clear that the other things they’re talking about are from the diary or speculative.) But for the most part Listed noted the existence of her periods and her preparations but felt little need to describe specifics. Periods were discussed in the context of sex, and genital sex seems to have been avoided during menstruation, but there are exceptions. When Lister was with Mrs Barlow, she notes being uncomfortable about Barlow calling attention to Lister’s periods, in the context of taking note of Lister’s femaleness. (Note: There are other similar comments indicating Lister had some gender dysphoria when a partner wanted to participate actively in giving Lister sexual pleasure. So this may be part of a larger pattern of being uncomfortable with being “womanized.”)

Searching for Ann 2023 (Diane Halford and Leila Straub)

A discussion of new information about Ann Walker and the process of researching the details of her life. Begins with a note from a young Ann Walker to Anne Lister (contained in the Lister archives) that also correlates with an entry in Lister’s diaries about some chemises that Walker sent her. The note was kept because Lister then used it as scratch paper for taking notes on her reading. With regard to the note, Lister records in her diary “I wonder if she likes me.” At the opposite end of their relationship, a letter between two of the Sutherland family noting that George Sutherland is traveling to Moscow and Teflis (Tblisi) to meet Walker after Lister’s death and escort her home. Anne Walker’s letter to the Sutherlands with news of Lister’s death arrives 7 days after the death. (I’m not going to detail all the items being discussed. Basically it covers data about the documentary evidence from Walker.)

Unpacking Gentleman Jack Season 2 (informal discussion about the tv show)

Anne Lister in the Garden (Dr Suzanne Moss and Lynn Shouls)

Starts with a high-level history of science in the 18th century and women’s participation in botany. Then a survey of famous gardens that Lister is known to have visited and a description of either projects she implemented at Shibden or plans she had that were never realized.

Waxing Lister-ical: A Journey into Wax Sealing (Steph Gallaway)

This is a basic introduction to wax seals and the practice of sealing letters (including live demonstrations). I’m going to skip taking notes on this one.

4 miles from Xtiania (Henriette Stensdal)

A detailed review of the 17 days that Lister and Walker visited Norway in 1839. A very creative presentation done as a travelogue with maps, documents, and on-location narration with a soundtrack. (The on-location recordings have some sound issues, but I love the overall concept.) You must check out this recording! Don’t miss how the presenter anonymized passers-by with overlaid images of historic portraits.

Suing Miss Walker: An analysis of Horncastle v Walker (Marlene Oliveira)

Convoluted details of a lawsuit over a land deal.

Lister's Web: Interweaving Personal Connections in Anne Lister's Social Circle (Shantel Smith, Marlene Oliveira, Kat Williams, and Steph Gallaway)

(I’m really interested in this session that looks at the interpersonal connections within Lister’s social circle. One of the valuable things her diaries make clear is that being an early 19th century lesbian was not an “isolated” experience. Her wide social circles included a significant number of women that she had erotic relations with (and who had erotic relations with each other).)  This discussion will only cover a limited subset of Lister’s community. The Belcombe and Norcliffe families had connections dating back before Lister was in the picture, including long-term visits among the young women. And Tib Norcliffe appears to have been the person who introduced Lister to Marianne Belcombe. Lister’s lover Vere Hobart also had familial connections to the Walkers. Even random women that Lister met in Paris are recorded as having distant family connections that link into the larger community she was familiar with. In this connection, the panel discusses how much Lister’s various lovers knew about each other. The Belcombe sisters give evidence of having various levels of awareness of each others’ relationships with Lister. When Lister is staying at Layton Hall with the Norcliffes, there are conversations recorded in Lister’s diary about various erotic relationships among their social circle. Sexual jealousy is a significant aspect of the discussions and commentary (all as reported via Lister), though there’s a sliding scale of concern whether it has to do with attention or sexual involvement. We bring up Lister’s conversations with Frances Pickford, in which there are delicately-negotiated discussions of f/f romantic connections. When Lister is in Paris, Pickford is with a different woman than the partner (Miss Threlfall) she was with in Halifax.

Conclusion

An entertaining and informative conference, blending the work of academics and independent scholars, with a variety of formats. The content very much highlights the work of the many people contributing to the transcription and deciphering of Anne Lister’s diaries and papers.