John Ruskin’s faithful stewards, Henry and Emily Swan, made a practical success of an educational ideal. They were the curators of Ruskin’s art-treasures at St George’s Museum, in Walkley. Local metal-workers and visitors from across the world were greeted with courtesy, enthusiasm, and deep knowledge.
In the first biography of the Swans ever to be published, Stuart Eagles digs into the archives to reveal the fascinating story of a couple who embraced Quakerism, vegetarianism and spiritualism. Born in Devizes, Wiltshire, Henry moved with his parents to London. In a life of extraordinary energy and innovation, he became a writing engraver, devised the ‘Regent Method’ of musical notation to teach singing, embraced spelling reform, learned shorthand, and printed some of Isaac Pitman’s publications. An early adopter of the bicycle, he sought to make boomerang-throwing an athletic sport. He was among the first students at the London Working Men’s College, where he met Ruskin, and copied illuminated manuscripts for him.
But it was in the world of stereoscopy, a form of 3D photography, that Swan first made his mark. He invented the ‘Clairvoyant’, a hand-held stereoscope. Then he patented the ‘crystal-cube miniature’, a self-contained, hand-coloured 3D portrait which he marketed through his Casket Portrait Co.
Crucially, Henry and Emily Swan were two of Ruskin’s most dedicated and consequential disciples. Together they helped shape both Sheffield’s cultural heritage and Ruskin’s enduring legacy.
Read a review by Dr Jacqueline Banerjee, Editor-in-Chief, The Victorian Web.
Stuart Eagles is an independent scholar who has written widely on John Ruskin and his legacies. His study, After Ruskin, was published by Oxford University Press in 2011. His most recent book is Medicine and Society in Late Eighteenth-Century Berkshire (2024).
He was formerly secretary of the Guild of St George. He founded and maintains the Ruskin Research Blog.
Ruskin’s Faithful Stewards: Henry and Emily Swan
ISBN: 978-1-3999-9049-3
168pp, pbk, with 20 B&W ills, fully referenced + indexed
RRP £20 (post-free in the UK)
Email contact@stuarteagles.co.uk
Ruskin’s Faithful Stewards: Henry and Emily Swan (August 2024)