Alice Paul was an American suffragist and feminist who dedicated her life to women’s rights. She was one of the leaders of the campaign for the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Paul first learned about the fight for women’s suffrage from her mother, Tacie Paul who was a member of the National American Woman …
Lucy Deane Streatfeild was a social worker, suffragette and one of the first female factory inspectors in the UK. She was one of the first to raise awareness of the health risks of exposure to asbestos. Deane was born in Madras, India to Lieutenant-Colonel Bonar Millett Deane and the Hon. Lucy Boscawen. She was trained …
Dame Ethel Smyth was a celebrated composer, author, musician and suffragette. She was the first female composer to be awarded a damehood. Smyth showed a talent for music at a young age, but had to fight to be able to study it as her father did not support her interests. At 19, Smyth was allowed to …
Sophia Jex-Blake was an English physician and feminist who led the Edinburgh Seven, the first women to matriculate at a British university. Jex-Blake was dissuaded from pursing an education by her parents, who did not believe that women were entitled to equal education. She eventually managed to attend Queen’s College, where she impressed the faculty …
Elsie Edith Bowerman was a suffragette, RMS Titanic survivor and the first woman barrister at the Old Bailey. Bowerman was born in 1889, when she was 11 years old she became the youngest girl to attend the prestigious Church of England girls’ boarding school Wycombe Abbey. In 1907, she travelled to Paris before continuing her …
The biography for this weeks Illustrated Women in History was submitted by Catherine Haustein Godmother to the birth control pill–Katharine Dexter McCormick Katharine Dexter was the first woman to get a science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating in biology in 1904. The curriculum was research heavy and besides the demanding work, she had to …
This weeks Illustrated Women in History was submitted by Ellen Schaeffer of www.persistentsisters.com Adelaide Johnson, born Sarah Adeline Johnson on September 26, 1859 in rural Illinois, is best known for her sculptures of prominent American suffragettes. In her teens, she studied at the St. Louis School for Design. With the help of an insurance settlement she was …
This weeks Illustrated Women in History was submitted by Clare Butler for the Illustrated Women in History exhibition 2017 at Swindon Central Library. Dame Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) was a woman once described as an armoured tank drawing enemy fire. She was a celebrated composer, author, musician, enthusiastic golfer, and, in her own words, a ‘militant …
Sojourner Truth was an African-American abolitionist and women’s rights activist. Truth was born Isabella Baumfree around 1797 to James and Elizabeth Baumfree in the town of Swartekill, in Ulster County, New York. Her father was a slave who had been captured in modern-day Ghana and her mother was the daughter of slaves from Guinea. The …
Edith New was an English suffragette. She was one of the first to smash windows in an attempt to bring attention to women’s suffrage. New had been an assistant mistress at Queenstown Infant School from 1899-1901 before leaving Swindon to teach in deprived areas of Deptford and Lewisham. After hearing Emmeline Pankhurst speak at a …