Bettie Thompson was a young African American woman who, in 1891, despite opposition, founded the James Street Holiness Church in Danville, Virginia during a time when African Americans, women, and the religious movement she embraced were all being excluded and…
In 1972, Alan Whicker, presenter of the widely watched ‘Whicker’s World’, together with his television crew, entered the silent and hidden world of the cloister. As part of a series ‘Whicker within a woman’s world’, he had astoundingly secured permission…
On 3 August 1914, one day into World War 1, the writer Corra Harris received a telegram from George Lorimer, editor of the Saturday Evening Post, America’s largest circulation magazine: “How would you like to spend a few days in…
In our latest great blog we hear from Leila Kassir about Nell Bacon, a legendary ‘Nippy’! Following the launch in 1894 of their first teashop at 213 Piccadilly, the catering firm J. Lyons & Co. (Lyons) became a ubiquitous presence…
In this blog Dr Pamela Dale tells us about the history of health visitors and their relationship to Florence Nightingale. Today health visiting is an elite branch of nursing: only registered nurses and midwives can train as health visitors. Nurses…
In our latest great blog we hear from Dr Tanya Cheadle about her new monograph: Sexual Progressives: Reimagining Intimacy in Scotland, 1880-1914 In October 1890, the feminist freethinker Jane Hume Clapperton and maverick scientist Patrick Geddes walked together through the…
In our latest fascinating blog we hear from Rochelle Rowe about her book Imagining Caribbean Womanhood: race, nation and beauty competitions, 1929-1970 I recently enjoyed the ‘feel-good’ movie Misbehaviour, which tells the story of feminist protests at the 1970 Miss…
In this blog we are delighted to hear from Professor Emma Griffin about her new monograph, Bread Winner: An Intimate History of the Victorian Economy. I’ve have been interested in the historical possibilities of life-writing since chancing upon some working-class…
In our latest fascinating blog we hear from Emily Priscott about her fascinating new book: Singleness in Britain, 1960-1990: Identity, Gender and Social Change The concept of spinsterhood might seem hopelessly dated, an obsolete category that more than a century…