Three Visits to America

The Victorian printer Emily Faithfull (1835-95) published Three Visits in 1884. The work is an account of her American lecture tours that took place in 1872-3, 1882-3 and 1884. Faithfull, a controversial and independently minded figure, campaigned for the employment and education rights of women. In 1860, Faithfull set up a printing establishment for women, the Victoria Press, where, despite fierce resistance from the printing trade, she employed and trained women as compositors. In 1862, she was made Printer and Publisher in Ordinary to Queen Victoria. Faithfull, a talented speaker, lectured widely on how America was dealing with the changing position of women, and the campaign for women’s employment rights. This account remains a key source for the history of liberal feminism and the emancipation of nineteenth-century women.