Strapping,as well as numerate: Occupational identity,masculinity and the aesthetics of nineteenth-century banking

In nineteenth-century Australia a ‘career’ in banking depended on one's technical ability, including a way with figures, good penmanship and attention to detail. However social and cultural factors were also considered equally important. To ensure the recruitment and promotion of trustworthy, dependable and committed staff, banks recruited and promoted through internal labour markets reinforced through significant monitoring and on-going assessments. A major component of these assessments related to social and cultural factors including embodied and aesthetic attributes of middle classness as well as robust notions of masculinity. This article analyses primary data from Australia's Bank of New South Wales at the close of the nineteenth century to highlight the inter-relationship between prevailing notions of masculinity, respectability, occupation and identity.