Papers of A J Munby including those of his wife Hannah Cullwick

Arthur Joseph Munby was born in York on 19 August 1828, son of Joseph Munby, solicitor, and his wife Caroline. He attended Trinity College from 1848 to 1851 and worked first as a barrister and then for the Ecclesiastical Commission while developing a moderately successful career as a poet. Although his diaries record many of the incidents of the time, his importance to posterity is based on his interest in the lives of working women and the records that he kept of them, both written and photographic. He travelled the country and parts of the continent interviewing women who worked as servants, miners, acrobats, milkmaids and in other trades, taking detailed notes and making sketches and where possible buying or taking photographs himself.

In 1854 Munby met Hannah Cullwick, a maidservant, on a London street. Thus began a long, clandestine relationship, the couple marrying in secret in 1873. However, Hannah was unable to adapt to the role that Munby expected of her after marriage and she soon returned to domestic service. Though for much of their remaining life they lived apart, they remained devoted to each other, exchanging letters and keeping diaries of Munby’s visits to see Hannah. Hannah died in 1909 and Munby the following year.

Diaries of Arthur Munby 1859-98, diaries of visits to Hannah 1885-1907, notebooks 1864-87, Hannah’s diaries 1854-73, letters from Hannah to Munby 1870-1907, manuscripts of Munby’s poetry, manuscript of Faithful Servants, albums of photographs and cartes de visite 1850s-1900s

The Munby archive was bequeathed to the British Museum on the understanding that the deed boxes in which it was held were not to be opened until 1950. The Museum declining them, they were placed in Trinity College Library under the same conditions.

Please cite as Trinity College Library Cambridge: MUNB

Bibliography: Derek Hudson, Munby: Man of Two Worlds, Liz Stanley, The diaries of Hannah Cullwick: Victorian maidservant, Michael Hiley, Victorian Working Women: Portraits from life

A brief list of the archive, a catalogue of the drawing's in Munby's manuscripts and copies of the indexes to Munby's diaries are available in the library.