“Mind your points”, by John Gilbert (1817-97)

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Mind your points

Artist: John Gilbert (1817-97)

Engraver: Unsigned, but probably J. Knight

1867

Wood-engraving

16 ½ x 12 ½ inches

Illustration for the front cover of the British Workman .

[Click on image to enlarge it.]

See commentary below

Details and related material

Locomotives

Passengers including a child

Switchman and train shed roof

Punch on railway safety

Victorian railways

Scanned image and text by Simon Cooke

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Gilbert’s journalistic image visualizes his subject as heroic type, in celebration of honest labour while also stressing the idea of the trustworthiness of working-class men in positions of the highest responsibility. The image especially resonates in its historical period; the years from 1859 to 1866 were marked by a series of railway disasters, some of them (notably at Brighton and Staplehurst) as the result of drunkenness and staff incompetence. Travelling on the train was a cause of anxiety unimagined today. Gilbert’s image is both a general affirmation of the value of the working-man, and a reassuring sign of the moral quality of those servicing the railway: ‘safe in his hands’.

Related Material

An introduction to the Band of Hope Review

Bibliography

The British Workman, 146 (February 1867): cover. London: Partridge, 1862.

Last modified 4 January 2013