Happy Women's History Month!

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/this-17th-century-female-artist-was-once-bigger-star-than-rembrandt-why-did-history-forget-about-johanna-koerten-and-her-peers-180987410/

An article on an exhibition in the US of over 40 women artists from the Dutch Golden Age, a term which is now apparently out of favour for fuck knows why.

Some great cultural historical insights:

'For those who weren’t raised in a bustling family workshop, wealth was a deciding factor in whether a woman had access to creative opportunities. Middle- and upper-class families could afford to send their daughters to train with established artists, as Rusych did with still life painter Willem van Aelst. (Leyster, whose family wasn’t particularly wealthy, nevertheless managed to obtain an apprenticeship with a master painter, likely the Dutch artist Frans Hals.) Women born into poorer families, however, had few options when it came to artistic pursuits. They had to work to survive, and this work often involved lace-making.
“Think about all those great 17th-century portraits—Rembrandt, Frans Hals—everyone’s wearing lace,” says Treanor. “Who made all that lace? … It was women, and it was usually women of the lower classes.”
Works on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art present two distinct visions of women’s labor. Nicolaes Maes’ The Lacemaker (circa 1656) shows a young mother leaning over an incomplete piece of lace as the baby beside her placidly peers out at the viewer. It’s “a quiet and intimate moment,” according to Treanor, aptly fitting into the popular 17th-century genre of solitary women at work in serene domestic spaces.'
...
'“Women Artists From Antwerp to Amsterdam” also explores the dark side of the era’s thriving economy, which relied heavily on slavery. Botanical artist Maria Sibylla Merian created watercolors of the flora and fauna of Suriname, which was then a Dutch colony in South America. Much of the information she relayed back home came from enslaved people. “She readily credits them for imparting knowledge to her, for helping her procure specimens, but also for imparting knowledge about the uses of particular plants,” says Treanor. One such plant, the peacock flower, was used by some enslaved women to abort their pregnancies, as they didn’t want their children to be born into slavery. “It’s this really kind of chilling window into this moment in history,” Treanor adds. “It’s this imparting of knowledge from women to women.”'

Some gorgeous paintings, and lace pieces in the article.

Here's another article on Joanna Koerten's amazing papercut art:

https://daily.jstor.org/joanna-koertens-scissor-cut-works-were-compared-to-michelangelo/

Razia Sultan was the only female ruler of Delhi. She lived in the 13th century, and ruled for around three years - til 1240. She was at first made a figurehead, but her political shrewdness and capability meant she gradually took more power, until she ruled the Sultanate entirely. Famed for travelling around on an elephant, she and her husband were eventually deposed and killed by rebels.

Her grave is now largely forgotten:

https://archive.ph/v4rRZ

'Despite being the torch bearer for women, she finds very little space in history. Today she rests in her grave at Mohalla Bulbuli Khana near Turkman Gate in Old Delhi along with her sister Sajia. Although unknown to most people living in Delhi, the residents of the Walled City know about it a little.'

This short film is in Hindi, but you can turn on English subtitles.

The fascinating life of Elizabeth Blackwell, botanist, who produced 'a Curious Herbal' in 1735 in order to raise money for her husband, who was in debtor's prison at the time.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1046/j.1471-1842.2001.00330.x

You can access the Herbal here:

https://archive.org/details/CAT10624328_01/

and visit the Chelsea Physic Garden here:

https://www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk/

Brilliant, thanks Nitro.

https://archive.ph/QlaJt

An obituary for the absolutely awe inspiring General Valérie André, who died in January. France's first female general.

'a helicopter pilot, brain surgeon and veteran of the country’s military adventures in French Indochina (which includes modern-day Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam) in the 1950s and Algeria in the 1960s.'

You can tell she was hardcore, because she smoked Camels.

Irish jokes need a translation, please!

Yes, I recall all of that coming out, too.

Years ago I went to see that exhibition of Dr von Hagans - Bodyworlds. It was profoundly upsetting, and I hadn't expected it to be so. I suppose I'd been told it would be shocking or revolting, so I had steeled myself for that, and thought it'd be fine as I'm not squeamish.

In fact it was horribly sad, and I hadn't been prepared for that. It felt very wrong to have people's bodies on display. Hard to describe, but it suppose it felt like a desecration.

And I'll just reiterate that last wee para:

'In line with the naming convention applied to similar discoveries, ie, the townland where remains are found paired with the sex of the individual, the remains are now to be referred to as the Ballymacombs More Woman.'

😊

An Iron Age body found in Ireland, previously assumed to be male, is revealed to be female:

'Dating to approximately 343 to 1 BCE, the remains are over 2000 years old and date to the prehistoric period known as the Iron Age. Osteoarchaeological analysis has now revealed the body to be female, a discovery made all the more significant as the majority of bog preserved individuals that have been found from this period are male.

The individual had an estimated stature of around 5 foot 6 inches. While the body was well preserved, the skull was absent and was not recovered. Cut marks on the neck vertebrae indicate the cause of death as an intentional decapitation in the bog. This may be part of a pattern of ritual and sacrifice during the Iron Age period.

Part of a woven item made of plant material was also recovered from below the knees and is thought to be part of an associated artefact. The museum is currently working with specialists to identify what this artefact could potentially be and are describing it as a woven plant-based fabric, likely associated with the individual and dating to this period.

As per the naming convention applied to similar discoveries – the townland where remains are found paired with the sex of the individual – the remains will now be referred to as the “Ballymacombs More Woman”.'

https://www.nationalmuseumsni.org/news/ballymacombs-more-woman

Edit to add newspaper article:

https://www.newsletter.co.uk/education/ballymacombs-more-woman-ancient-remains-discovered-in-bellaghy-bog-likely-to-belong-to-young-woman-4999071