GCPP Parkes 6/69-105. Some of the letters have been transcribed: where a transcript exists for a given letter, this is indicated in the catalogue entry. Many of the letters are addressed from 17 Wimpole Street, London. Others are addressed from the offices of the English Woman’s Journal; from La Celle St Cloud; from Algiers; and from other locations to which Bessie travelled. The letters include frequent discussion of close friends and colleagues, including the following:
Sam Blackwell (cousin of Elizabeth Blackwell, an ironmaster, who courted Bessie Parkes for many years, d. 1867);
Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon (1827-1891, artist);
Eugene Bodichon (husband of Barbara);
Ellen Cantelo (circa 1825-1898, artist);
Isa Craig (later Knox, 1831-1903, poet);
Marian Evans (George Eliot, 1819-1880, novelist);
Adelaide Procter (Mary Berwick, 1825-1863, poet and women’s activist).
The letters discuss, inter alia, Bessie’s attempts to persuade Mary to live in London and work with her on emigration projects and other charitable pursuits; her editorial work and writing for the English Woman’s Journal, the Waverley Journal and Chambers Daily News; her relationship with Sam Blackwell; her leanings towards Catholicism; and the effects on her life of the Franco-Prussian War.