Pornography, now easily accessible through the internet but available on top-shelves or on backstreets for several centuries, continues to hold an ambiguous social role in the current world. For some, pornography is for harmless sexual release, to help spice up…
Author: WHN
Coping with Miscarriage in the Nineteenth Century.
Miscarriage was a common event in the lives of women in the past as it is today. In an era where baptism was important for the salvation of babies, midwives and doctors were given instructions on how to respond to…
Remembering Scottish Women’s Aid in the 1970s and 1980s
As part of my research into marriage and marriage breakdown in late twentieth-century Scotland, I have been lucky enough to be able to examine a series of twelve oral history interviews that were conducted as part of the Scottish Women’s…
Cross-dressing in historical perspective.
In 1825, Harriet Moore, a native of Sligo, Ireland, found herself the subject of national publicity after it emerged that she had lived as a man for the last six or seven years. At age 14, Harriet’s parents died and…
‘Bella the Welder’
Bella Keyzer, born in 1922, was a jute weaver, a munitions worker, an assembly line worker, but most famously a welder. I came across an oral history interview with her recorded in 1985 as part of the Dundee Oral History…
The Ladies of Llangollen
‘In early life they formed a romantic attachment, as deep as it proved to be lasting, and determined to enjoy their friendship in perfect seclusion.’ The ladies of Llangollen, or Lady Eleanor Charlotte Butler (1739-1829) and the Hon Sarah Ponsonby…
Women’s Social and Political Union in Ireland
In June 1914, the WSPU sent a letter, on headed notepaper with ‘Votes for Women’ emblazoned in purple at the top, to William Walsh, Archbishop of Dublin, demanding that he take interest in their cause. They enclosed the above photograph. Their letter read:…
What’s in a name? Or leaving your patrilineage behind.
As tends to happen when you get to a certain age and your friends set to marry themselves off, the question of naming suddenly becomes a topic of discussion. Should you choose to take your husband’s name? And, what are…
Maud Allen: The Salome Dancer
Maud Allen (1873-1956), born as Beulah Maude Durrant in Toronto, Canada, was an early twentieth century performer. She was a favourite of the music hall and popular theatres, where a population from diverse social backgrounds went to watch a variety…