Sufferers from the Floods

1877

Street Life in London: Sufferers from the Floods, 1877. John Thomson (Scottish, 1837–1921). Woodburytype; image: 11.5 x 9 cm (4 1/2 x 3 9/16 in.); paper: 11.5 x 9 cm (4 1/2 x 3 9/16 in.); mounted: 27 x 20.7 cm (10 5/8 x 8 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Photography Discretionary Fund 2019.52 Smith and Thomson decided to photograph the once-prosperous Rowletts in front of the rag shop that they owned and lived in to show that the floods caused long-term financial losses and health problems that drove even the middle class into poverty. The woman with the baby lived in the house next door; her entire family suffered constant colds and rheumatism from the persistent dampness. Annual tidal overflow of the Thames River flooded less prosperous areas of London, leaving behind “a trail of misery . . . and a damp, noxious, fever-breeding atmosphere.”