Child Labor in the British Victorian Entertainment Industry

Dyan Colclough is Associate Lecturer in the Department of History, Politics, and Philosophy at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.

• Introduction1. Raw Material, Labor and the Finished Product  - the theatrical child as employee. 2. Laboring Fairies: The Theatrical Child as a Family 3. The Performing Child and its Audience4. Performing Their Duty: Child savers and the theatrical child 5. Protective legislation and the theatrical child Conclusion

“Child Labor in the British Victorian Entertainment Industry, 1875-1914 provides new insights into the interplay of large social, political, and economic factors with the particularized experience of stage children. It should be read by anyone interested in the history of British childhood, the Victorian era, the economics of theater, and the child-performer industry.” (Shauna Vey, The Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, Vol. 10 (1), 2017)