Professor Penelope Corfield | Key Changes in Daily Greetings in 18th Century Britain

The humble handshake requires physical touch without intrusion and can be used with both friends and strangers. The period from 1700 to 1850 saw the rise of the handshake in urban Britain, but what provoked this? In her recent work, Penelope Corfield explores the history of the handshake.

While clasping hands in greeting was not new, in the 17^th century it was not fashionable. However, 18^th century Britain emerged as a financial, colonial and industrial hub, meaning increasing urbanisation. In this urban world, traditional bowing and curtseying based on social status was increasingly reserved for formal occasions.

Among the urban middle class, there was significant overlap in social status. In cities, people were required to work out which greeting to choose each time they met a stranger, and men were the first to adopt the handshake. The handshake did not, of course, abolish social hierarchy, but signalled that participants were fellow members of one, larger community.

By the early 19^th century, daily use of the handshake spread among middle- and upper-class society, including women. This was bolstered by merchants, who shook hands to confirm a deal, which, if broken, would damage their reputation. These traders were not necessarily social equals, but they participated equally when making deals, and began to use the handshake as a daily salutation.

The Quakers, a radical Protestant religious community, also helped to popularise the handshake. Quakers dressed plainly to avoid displays of rank and status, and declined to bow and curtsey to social ‘betters’. Instead, they shook hands in greeting and at the end of worship. As Quaker groups gained members and high-status business leaders, they helped to spread the handshake through society.

Penelope Corfield stresses that, in the case of handshaking, change did not come from the top, but was spread both upwards and downwards by middle class society. And as Britons traded, colonised, fought and explored, they also took handshaking with them.

Finally, then, the egalitarian handshake – as a compromise between a close hug and a distant bow – is likely to retain its cross-cultural utility – not just in Britain but also internationally.