23 AUTOGRAPHS of apparent attendees at a meeting. The meeting was possibly that of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROMOTION OF SOCIAL SCIENCE. de Grey, Maria Georgina; Van Praagh, William; Faithfull, Emily; Holyoake, George; et al - [1870s]

Circa [1870s], [1870s]. Good. - 23 signatures on both sides of an 11-1/2 inch high by 9 inch wide buff sheet of paper removed from an album. The recto and verso of the sheet are numbered "136" and "137" at the top corner and 17 signatures are penned on the recto with another 6 penned on the verso. The paper is foxed with some light minor stains to the edges. Removed from an album, the left edge is rough with 2 tiny chips to the bottom edge. The top right corner is creased and fragile with a tiny chip. Good. <p>Following is a list of the autographs, with brief biographies (when available) of those signers we've been able to identify:<p>H.E. Cartwright.<p>Edward William Cox (1809-1879). English legal writer, publisher and psychic researcher. Described by some as "the greatest entrepreneur of 'class' journalism", Cox founded the weekly "Law Times" and the English journal "The Field". He bought out and edited several other periodicals of the period. He was a member of the London Dialectical Society's committee to investigate spiritualism. Cox also had a keen interest in orchids and in the subject of psychology.<p>[_?_] Baker.<p>Mary Carpenter (1807-1877). British reformer who worked with children in poverty and juvenile offenders. She also worked on women's education in India.<p>[_?_] Wheelhouse.<p>Charles Ratcliff.<p>A. Herbert Safford. Author of papers on alcoholism and infanticide.<p>George Jacob Holyoake (1817-1906). British newspaper editor who coined the words "secularism" and "jingoism". He edited the Secularist paper the "Reasoner" and the Co-operative paper "The English Leader". Holyoake took over as editor of Southwell's atheist periodical the "Oracle of Reason" after Southwell was imprisoned for publishing his beliefs. He was influenced by Auguste Comte, the French philosopher and sociologist who was famous for the doctrine of positivism. Holyoake's later years were spent advocating for the working class and the co-operative movement.<p>William Hardwicke, a London medical officer and coroner, Hardwicke attended the 1877 conference of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science held in Aberdeen.<p>A.P. Stewart. (Possibly the British doctor who wrote on the efficacy of vaccination.)<p>Emily Faithfull (1835-1895). English women's rights advocate. Her interest in the conditions of working-women led her to set up "The Victoria Press" in 1860, a printing establishment for women which published the feminist English Woman's Journal. Her rising reputation and the excellence of the press's work, led her to be appointed printer and publisher in ordinary to Queen Victoria. She published the monthly "The Victoria Magazine" and the first annual report of the Ladies' London Emancipation Society. Her efforts to promote compositor's work as a mode of employment for women upset the male dominated London Printer's Union. Emily Faithfull published her novel "Change upon Change" in 1868. She lives on as the protagonist of Emma Donoghue's 2008 novel "The Sealed Letter".<p>Edmund W. Hollond (1841-1900). Lawyer who pioneered in philanthropic work in London's East End. Author of "The Principles of Pauper Labour" (1870).<p>Herbert N. [_?_].<p>Charles R. Ford.<p>Annabella Jean Ralston Shedden (1823-1873). Sister of William Ralston Shedden-Ralston.<p>William Van Praagh (1845-?). Pioneer of lip-reading [oralism] for deaf-mutes in England. A student of Dr. Hirsch who introduced the oral system of teaching deaf-mutes into Holland, Van Praagh actively disseminated his teacher's system throughout England. He was invited to take over management of the Jews Deaf and Dumb Home in London and published his "Plan for the Establishment of Day-Schools for the Deaf and Dumb", notable as the impetus for the establishment of British day-schools and the boarding-out of disadvantaged children. Baroness Mayer de Rothschild established "The Association for the Oral Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb" with Van Praagh as director (1870). Van Praagh authored "Lip-reading for the Deaf", among other works. <p>Eduard [_?_] van Leiden, Holland.<p>Henry Richmond Droop (1832-1884). English mathematician who devised the "Droop quota" used in elections.<p>Maria Georgina Grey (1816-1906) aka: Mrs. William Grey, a promoter of women's education. She was one of the founders of the organization that became the Girls' Day School Trust. She was the author of "Thoughts on Self Culture Address to Women" and the novel "Love's Sacrifice" among other works<p>Frederick W. Chesson (1833-1888). Journalist who was a prominent anti-slavery campaigner. A supporter of the Union side during the American Civil War, his activity in the Emancipation Committee and the London Aborigines' Protection Society led to his meeting Harriet Ann Jacobs.<p>P.H. Holland.<p>William Bartlett Dalby (1840-1918). British aural surgeon and otologist. Dalby was Consulting Aural Surgeon to St. George's Hospital, as well as President of the Medical Society from 1894-1895 and the 1st President of the Otological Society of the United Kingdom.<p>Arthur John Williams (1834-1911). Welsh Liberal party activist and MP (from 1885 to 1895).