Scottish fishwives

A cabinet card showing a group of Scottish fisherwomen who participated in the Great International Fisheries Exhibition, which was held in South Kensington between 12 May and 31 October 1883. One of the many world’s fairs that took place in the second half of the nineteenth-century, the exhibition was the largest special event held anywhere in the world up to that point.

‘The fisherwomen from Scotland and various places abroad who attended the opening of the Fisheries Exhibition were received by the Prince and Princess of Wales at Marlborough House yesterday. Altogether there are forty-eight of these visitors, of whom ten are Belgian and Flemish, fifteen are Boulonnaise, eight are Dutch, and fifteen Scotch. They arrived at a quarter to three yesterday afternoon at the side entrance of Marlborough House, their advent creating some excitement, owing to their costumes. […] All the women wore their Sunday or holiday attire. […] The party were ranged in line along the lawn opposite the doors leading to the drawing-rooms, from which the Prince of Wales escorted the Princess, together with their two sons, the Princes Albert Victor and George, and the three Princesses of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of Connaught, and Princess Henry of the Netherlands. The Prince and Princess were much interested, and conversed freely with the fisherwomen, who seemed delighted and astonished at their reception. After a few minutes the royal party retired, and the fisherwomen were shown through the drawing-rooms of Marlborough House, and entertained at luncheon before leaving.’ That morning they had already been to church: ‘the Roman Catholics to the Carmelite Church in Kensington, the Dutch to the Netherlands Church, and the Scotch to the Presbyterian Chapel in Crown-court’ (St James’s Gazette, 14 May 1883).

Following their reception at Marlborough House, the rest of the day was taken up with a visit to the Zoological Gardens and a tour of Baroness Burdett-Coutts’s residence at Stratton Place, Piccadilly. The previous day the women had been shown over the Mansion House and Guildhall, before visiting the City Fish Market and Meat Market. In the evening some had visited Her Majesty’s Theatre while others had been taken to the Oxford Music Hall.

Photographed by the London Stereoscopic Company. The image was registered at Stationers’ Hall on 19 May 1883.