Books / Margaret Crump
Biography published of eminent early Victorian scientist James Cowles Prichard of the Red Lodge
Margaret Crump is an independent scholar of 19th century British intellectual and cultural history, who also teaches pottery at Bristol Folk House.
She has now written the first in-depth biography of the eminent early Victorian scientist James Cowles Prichard (1786-1848), who moved to Bristol in 1810, and lived at the Red Lodge – where a blue plaque now bears his name.
Prichard is described not only as an “intellectual giant in the developing human sciences”, but also “a pioneering psychiatric theorist in the formative years of the discipline and one of Europe’s leading anthropologists”.
is needed now More than ever
His writing also characterises him as the foremost proponent of anti-racism of his time, advocating for the abolitionist movement and challenging racism within academia.
“This door-step of a book is about the Bristol life, struggles and achievements of a man with a mission” reflects Crump.
Cover of James Cowles Prichard of The Red Lodge – photo: Margaret Crump/University of Nebraska Press
“Prichard’s contributions to developing the disciplines of psychiatry and anthropology had one thing in common: he was intent on securing the preservation and rights of the Empire’s Indigenous peoples and the care and just treatment of the insane.
“And from a bit of body snatching and a lot of bloodletting, leeching and purging at the Bristol not-yet-Royal Infirmary, to unwrapping a mummy at the temple of Bristol science on Park Street, the book is a window onto early nineteenth-century Bristol.”
For Crump, this book has been many years in the research and writing. She is all the more proud that it has been published by a university press, although she is not an academic historian.
“I am also proof that it’s never too late to publish a first book”, she smiles “– at the tender age of 75.”
James Cowles Prichard of the Red Lodge: A Life of Science during the Age of Improvement, by Margaret M. Crump, is published by University of Nebraska Press.
Main photo: Margaret Crump
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