Table of Contents
Scope and Contents of the Collection
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| Creator: | Tallack, William, 1831-1908. |
| Title: | William Tallack Correspondence |
| Inclusive Dates: | 1830-1907 |
| Quantity: | 0.5 linear ft. |
| Abstract: | Papers of the British social reformer; secretary of the Howard Association, an organization devoted to prison reform. Incoming letters on reform issues in England, particularly prison reform. Correspondents include clergymen (Davidson, Martineau, Stanley, Tait); statesmen (Balfour, R. Churchill, W.E. Gladstone, Parnell); social reformers (Booth, Bradlaugh, Bright, Carpenter, Cobbe, Ouida); philanthropists (Bass, Shaftesbury); and authors (Froude, Houghton, Lecky, MacDonald, Sala). |
| Language: | English |
| Repository: | Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries 222 Waverly Avenue Syracuse, NY 13244-2010 https://library.syracuse.edu/special-collections-research-center |
Biographical History
William Tallack (1831-1908) was a British social activist interested in penal reform and heavily influenced by his Quaker faith. Tallack believed that offenders should be offered opportunities for moral education and reflection, so that they could seek salvation and forgiveness in the eyes of God. He advocated for prevention and treatment of crime in addition to methods of deterrence. He pushed for teaching prisoners new skills in order to educate them in personal responsibility and moral rectitude, and believed in isolating criminals in singular cells so that they would be encouraged to repent. Tallack believed that crime was caused by poverty, neglect, and a lack of moral education, so he attempted to eradicate this by campaigning for better schools, housing, sanitation and restrictive alcohol intake.
In 1863, Tallack became the secretary for the Society for the Abolition of the Death Penalty, and in 1866 he became the secretary of the Howard Association, a group named after an eighteenth-century prison reformer. He remained in this position until his retirement in 1901.
Tallack published his views extensively in articles, letters to the press, pamphlets, and books. His most famous books are Defects of Criminal Administration (1872) and Penological and Preventative Principles (1889).
Source: Forsyth, Bill. "Tallack, William (1831-1908)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (on-line).
Scope and Contents of the Collection
The William Tallack Correspondence is a collection of incoming letters, most of which are in connection with Tallack's position as secretary of the Howard Association, an organization devoted to the cause of prison reform. A tireless social activist, Tallack enlisted the support of authors (James Anthony Froude, Robert Hawker, Richard Houghton, William Lecky, George MacDonald, George Augustus Sala) and clergymen (Randall Thomas Davidson, John Jackson, Henry Parry Liddon, James Martineau, William Pennefather, Henry Richard, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, A.P. Stanley, Archibald Tait, Frederick Temple, William Ullathorne, Herbert Vaughan) as well as philanthropists (Michael Bass, Anthony Ashley Cooper Shaftesbury), social reformers (William Booth, Charles Bradlaugh, John Bright, Mary Carpenter, Frances Cobbe, Ouida), and statesmen (Arthur James Balfour, Joseph Chamberlain, Randolph Churchill, William Gladstone, John Wodehouse Kimberley, John Morley, Thomas O'Hagan, Charles Stewart Parnell).
Most of the letters in the collection are single items of correspondence thanking Tallack for supplying 1) copies of his letters about prison reform which had appeared in various publications; 2) the annual reports of the Howard Association; or, 3) Tallack's own books and pamphlets regarding prison issues, and others of his various religious and political tracts. Responding to the receipt of a reprint of a Tallack letter, Herbert Gladstone writes (3 Oct. 1906):
I hold as strongly now as in 1894 that our efforts shd be to prevent the young criminal from joining the ranks of the habitual; & that the habituals themselves should be dealt with by methods more rational & more deterrent than those now in force. And the very fact that so much has been done to make the prison treatment less repulsive & more hopeful is in itself a reason why hardened old ruffians should not be allowed to reap all its material advantages without the least intention of profiting or endeavoring to profit an the moral side.
A Quaker, Tallack received the support of many of his fellow social reformers who shared his religious convictions (Joseph Bevan Braithwaite, Bright, W.E. Forster). The earliest letters in the collection are from Quakers William Allen, William Forster, Joseph John Gurney, and Joseph Sturge, however these items are addressed to either Simon Horner or John Barry, rather than Tallack.
Arrangement of the Collection
The William Tallack Correspondence consists of 1 box of letters, ordered alphabetically by name.
Restrictions
Access Restrictions
The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.
Use Restrictions
Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.
Subject Headings
Persons
Corporate Bodies
Subjects
Places
Genres and Forms
Occupations
Administrative Information
Preferred Citation
Preferred citation for this material is as follows:
William Tallack Correspondence
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries
Finding Aid Information
Created by: KM
Date: 2001-01-01
Revision history: 28 Aug 2007 - converted to EAD (JPK);
19 Dec 2018 - correspondence alphabetization fixed (MS)
Inventory
| Correspondence | |||||||||||
| Box 1 | Allen, William 1831 - written to Simon Horner (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Argyll, George Douglas Campbell 1868 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Balfour, Arthur James Balfour 1888, 1907 (2 letters) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Baring-Gould, Sabine 1899, 1905 (4 letters) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Bass, Michael Thomas 1869 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Booth, William 1891 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Bradlaugh, Charles 1888 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Braithwaite, Joseph Bevan 1905 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Bright, John 1865 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Brougham and Vaux, Henry Brougham 1865 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Burns, John Elliot 1905 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Carpenter, Mary 1868 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Cecil, Hugh Richard Heathcote 1905 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Chamberlain, Joseph 1881 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Churchill, Randolph Henry Spencer 1888 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Cobbe, Frances Power 1871 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Cobden, Richard 1864? (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Coleridge, John Duke Coleridge 1872 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Cranbrook, Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy 1872 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Curzon, George Nathaniel Curzon 1898 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Davidson, Randall Thomas 1905 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | du Cane, Edmund Frederic 1872 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Dufferin and Ava, Frederick Temple Blackwood undated (1 fragment) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Ewart, William 1864, 1868 (2 letters) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Farrar, Frederic William 1876, 1879 (2 postcards) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Forster, William 1831 - written to John Barry (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Forster, William Edward 1868, 1869 (2 letters) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Fowler, Robert Nicholas 1868 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Froude, James Anthony 1889 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Gilpin, Charles 1868 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Gladstone, Herbert John Gladstone 1906 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Gladstone, William Ewart 1868, 1877, 1878, 1895 (1 letter, 5 postcards) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Gurney, Joseph John 1830 - written to John Barry (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Hampton, John Somerset Pakington 1871 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Harcourt, William Vernon undated (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Harrowby, Dudley Ryder 1872 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Hawker, Robert Stephen undated (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Hill, Rowland 1866, 1872 (2 letters) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Houghton, Richard Monkton Milnes 1868? (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Iddesleigh, Stafford Henry Northcote 1872 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Jackson, John 1872 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Johnson, W.S. 1905 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Kimberley, John Wodehouse 1878 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Kitchin, George William 190? (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Lawrence, John Laird Mair 1875 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Lecky, William Edward Hartpole 1897 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Lichfield, Thomas George Anson 1868 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Liddon, Henry Parry 1884 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Lusk, Andrew 1868 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | MacDonald, George 1888 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Martineau, James 1896 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Morley, John 1900 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Morley, Samuel 1872 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | O'Hagan, Thomas O'Hagan 1867 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Osborne, Sidney Godolphin undated (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Ouida 1892 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Parnell, Charles Steward 1883, 1885? (2 letters) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Pennefather, William 1869 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Richard, Henry 1868, 1888 (2 letters) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Richmond, Charles Henry Gordon-Lennox 1888 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Rosebery, Archibald Philip Primrose 1885 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Russell, George William Erskine 1903 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Russell, John Russell 1868 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Sala, George Augustus Henry 1883 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Salisbury, Robert Cecil 1892 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Selbourne, Roundell Palmer 1888 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper 1876 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Sharp, Isaac 1895 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Spencer, John Poyntz Spencer 1885 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Spurgeon, Charles Haddon 1876, undated (3 letters) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn 1872 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Sturge, Joseph 1848, 184? - written to John Barry (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Tait, Archibald Campbell 1872, 1875, 1876 (3 letters) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Taylor, James Hudson 1887 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Teignmouth, Charles John Shore 1868 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Temple, Frederick 1870 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Thomson, William 1876 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Ullathorne, William Bernard 1887 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Vaughan, Herbert Alfred 1901, undated (2 letters) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Victoria, Empress, consort of Frederick III, German Emperor 1888 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Wilberforce, Samuel 1872 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Wilberforce, William (autographed title page to Jonathan Gray for An Inquiry into the Duties of Men by Thomas Gisborne) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Unidentified 1872 (1 letter) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Miscellaneous 1872, 1874 (2 items) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Miscellaneous envelopes (3 items) | ||||||||||