Elizabeth Fry

Regency Portraits Catalogue Entry

Sitter in 8 portraits
Elizabeth Fry was a Quaker minister and social reformer. She began campaigning for prison reform after visiting Newgate prison in 1813, where she found hundreds of female prisoners and their children in crowded, unsanitary conditions. She lobbied to introduce female attendants, a school and paid employment for the inmates. Her success led to a wider campaign of prison inspections and improvements to convict ships. Her humanitarian writings influenced penal reform in Europe and America. In 1821 she founded the British Ladies' Society for Promoting the Reformation of Female Prisoners, the first national organisation for women. She is featured on the five pound bank note introduced in 2002.