The Women of Punch 

Image by Maud Sambourne, “A Novelty in Novels” June 16th 1894.

Credit: Linley Sambourne Archive, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

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The Punch Contributor Ledgers Project  began at LJMU in 2010 with a Curran Fellowship for Dr Clare Horrocks from the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals (RSVP) enabling a pilot site to be built, identifying Punch Contributors from the 1843 Ledgers held at the British Library. In 2012 the project’s vision was fully realised, when Dr Horrocks secured a partnership with Gale Cengage Learning, enabling all Ledgers from 1843 to 1919 to be transcribed; The Punch Historical Archive 1841 – 1992 was released in 2014. 

The next phase of the project was, for the first time, systematically working to identity the women contributors to the magazine. This project arose from work between LJMU, under Dr Horrocks and the late Nickianne Moody, and the International Centre for Victorian Women Writers (ICVWW) at Canterbury Christchurch University, Kent. Serious illness and bereavement hindered the development of the project until 2023 when Dr Clare Horrocks returned to working with ICVWW on the women contributors project, writing an article on Ada Leverson, Punch and The Yellow Book.  The tenth anniversary of the launch of Gale’s Punch Historical Archive 1841 – 1992 and the 2024 International Women’s Day theme of #InspireInclusion seemed an opportune time to relaunch the LJMU Women of Punch project. We want to open the project up to the academic community, aiming to inspire collaborative attribution, identifying the lost voices of so many women who contributed to Punch in the nineteenth century.