The Re-Imagining of Christian Frederick Cole
By Pamela Roberts A cursory glance at this image may elicit recognition of a 19th century music hall minstrel with striped trousers, a banjo in hand, and the title ‘Old King Cole’. But look more closely: the person in the image is wearing an academic gown and a...
In the footsteps of radical Bloomsbury
On Saturday 22 September, the IHR hosted a walking tour of ‘Suffrage and radical Bloomsbury’. The event formed part of the Institute’s year-long ‘Suffrage Series, 1918-2018’ devised to mark the centenary of the Representation of the...
Equal pay for equal work: Jill Craigie’s To Be a Woman
By Jo Fox Equal pay has long been at the heart of feminist activism. The struggle for enfranchisement was but one component of the suffragette’s campaign – equal pay was another, with Millicent Fawcett arguing for ‘equal pay for equal work’ in the Economic Journal in...
Who were London’s ‘Ladies of Quality and Distinction’?
By Janette Bright ‘Ladies of Quality and Distinction’, a new exhibition at London’s Foundling Museum, traces the history of women’s involvement in the creation and running of the Foundling Hospital—from the twenty-one mid-eighteenth century ‘Ladies’, who signed...