The clergymen, nonconformist ministers, lawyers, academics, and middle-class ladies who collected together in the Ruskin societies to study and to promote Ruskin's work were to a remarkable extent involved in local civic reforms, and national political debate. They helped to promote Ruskin's social message through speaker-meetings and debates. Several branches of the Society engaged in local campaigns, such as better housing for the poor and the abolition of ‘sweated’ labour, the teaching of spinning to blind girls and of access to art for local schoolchildren, and the Birmingham society...

The clergymen, nonconformist ministers, lawyers, academics, and middle-class ladies who collected together in the Ruskin societies to study and to promote Ruskin's work were to a remarkable extent involved in local civic reforms, and national political debate. They helped to promote Ruskin's social message through speaker-meetings and debates. Several branches of the Society engaged in local campaigns, such as better housing for the poor and the abolition of ‘sweated’ labour, the teaching of spinning to blind girls and of access to art for local schoolchildren, and the Birmingham society established the influential progressive Edwardian journal, Saint George. For the first time, this chapter presents an in-depth analysis of this previously underestimated network of Ruskin enthusiasts and demonstrates the nature and extent of its significance, locally and nationally.