The Lucifer Match Girl

This engraving was published in Henry Mayhew's study of 'London Labour and the London Poor: The condition of those that will work, cannot work, and will not work', first published in 1851, with an additional volume in 1861 and a revised reprint in 1865. Mayhew commissioned the photographer Richard Beard to make daguerreotype portraits of some of the 'street folk' he interviewed and observed. These were copied to make engravings to accompany the text of the publication.
Mayhew's study does not include an interview with the young girl depicted in the illustration. However he did interview others who made a living selling matches primarily by walking down residential streets and knocking on doors. He concluded many of these sellers were girls and Irishwomen who 'look so imploringly down an area, or through a window, some “shouldering” a young child the while, and remain there so pertinaciously that a box is bought, or a halfpenny given, often merely to get rid of the applicant.'