Sue Ryder CMG, OBE was a humanitarian dedicated to the relief of suffering. She worked to support people with complex needs and life-threatening conditions internationally, and led many charitable organisations including the one named in her honour. Ryder was born in 1924 in Leeds. As a child, she helped her mother provide help for people …
Josephine Baker was an American-born French dancer and singer who was the first black woman to star in a major motion picture. She devoted much of her life to fighting racism and was a vital member of the Civil Rights Movement. Baker was born in 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri. At the age of eight, …
Barbara Hepworth DBE was an English artist and modernist sculptor. She was a leading figure in the international art scene with a career spanning five decades. Hepworth was born in 1903 in Wakefield, Yorkshire. She studied at Leeds College of Art, where she became friends with Henry Moore. Hepworth then continued her education at the Royal …
Bristol Women’s Voice held a celebration for International Women’s Day at M Shed, Bristol today. As part of the event, I ran a workshop where people could draw women in history that are important to them using some of my illustrations for inspiration. The images above are some of the examples of women that were …
Delia Derbyshire was an English musician and composer of electronic music. She is best known for her electronic realisation of the theme music for Doctor Who and her pioneering work with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Derbyshire was born in 1937 in Coventry, England. Her intelligence became apparent at an early age, and by the age …
Hattie McDaniel was an American actress, singer-songwriter and comedienne. She is best known for playing Mammy in Gone with the Wind, for which she became the first African American to win an Oscar. McDaniel was born in 1895 in Wichita, Kansas to Henry McDaniel, who had fought in the Civil War and Susan Holbert, who …
Lena Horne was an American singer, dancer, actress and civil rights activist. She was one of the most popular African American entertainers of the twentieth century and best known for films such as The Wiz and her trademark song, “Stormy Weather.” Horne was born in 1917 in Brooklyn, New York. Her mother, Edna, was an …
Jane Elliott is an American former third-grade schoolteacher, anti-racism, feminist and LGBT activist and educator. She is best known for her “Blue eyes-Brown eyes” exercise initially devised to teach third graders about racial prejudice. Elliott was born in 1933 in Riceville, Iowa on her family’s farm. She attended a one-room rural schoolhouse before continuing her …
Nancy Wake was a British Special Operations Executive agent during the later part of World War II. She became the Allies most decorated servicewomen of the war, and was given the code-name “The White Mouse” due to her ability to elude capture. Wake was born in 1912 in Roseneath, Wellington, New Zealand. Two years later, …
Harper Lee was an American novelist best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. The book has become a classic of modern American literature. Lee was born Nelle Harper Lee in 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama to Amasa Coleman Lee and Francis Cunningham “Finch” Lee. Finch Lee was a lawyer, and while Lee …