Abstract
Although people are most impacted by epidemics, a majority of the existing scholarship on Victorian London, public health, and the London cholera epidemics are based in political and economic history rather than lived, bottom-up narratives. The scholarship on the 1854 cholera epidemic, for instance, almost exclusively centers physician John Snow and largely ignores social history. Therefore, my thesis builds upon and contributes to these existing fields by focusing on the lived experience of the 1854 cholera epidemic among everyday urban residents. Through this paper, I intend to highlight how Londoners utilized letters and petitioning, Punch Magazine, and the “To the Editor of The Times” section of popular newspaper The Times of London, to share their voices, demonstrate their knowledge of disease and health, and be active agents of change for their city. Moreover, in having a section dedicated to the people written by the people, I argue that this section of The Times was chief in cultivating a sense of media-based urban community that encouraged social interaction through empowering readers to discuss numerous different topics, including their theories on cholera, their self-conducted civilian investigations, potential remedies, and grievances, all when traditional methods of writing letters to public bodies produced no change.
Recommended Citation
Meisenzahl, Emily
(2026)
"Cholera, Community, and Commiseration: A Social Historical Look at the 1854 London Cholera Epidemic,"
Proceedings of GREAT Day: Vol. 17, Article 1.
Available at:
https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/proceedings-of-great-day/vol17/iss1/1