List of Vistors to Bensham Grove

Here is a (incomplete) list of visitors to Bensham Grove at the time of Robert and Elizabeth living in the house. Most of these would be staying at the house when theye were speaking at either the Lit & Phil, the University or for the Liberal Party. Some would have just been invited by Robert and Elizabeth as they were friends or wished to meet them. As can be seen from the list there is a wide and varied number of visitors including authors, politicians, artists, scientists, social commentators, and activists. They also came from far and wide across the UK, America, Europe and Russia. There also comments in other archival material of visitors from India and Japan. Noted visitors include politicians Earl Spencer, Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman, H. H. Asquith; authors and poets, William Michael Rossetti, and Arthur Conan Doyle; scientist Alfred Russell Wallace; explorer Sir Henry Stanley; social worker and writer Josephine Butler; artists William Morris, Ford Madox Brown, William Bell Scott; activists Sergius Stepniak, Prince Peter Kropotkin; and freed slave and civil rights activists Frederick Douglas. Amongst the ones not included on the list are German revolutionist Karl Blind and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Tags: archive, Bensham Grove, community