Happy Women's History Month!

Green Party Women are publishing articles all month to celebrate women from history - one woman a day.

https://women.greenparty.org.uk/womens-history-month-2024/

Women and early photography.

Constance Fox Talbert married William Henry Fox Talbert in 1832.

On honeymoon, he realised her artistic skills exceeded his own, and jealousy drove him to create photography.

'When William Henry Fox Talbot sketched Lake Como in 1833, a comparison with his bride’s drawing led the honeymooning Englishman to deem his work a “melancholy” mess.
Despite having used a camera lucida to superimpose the panorama on his sketchpad, he deplored his efforts to trace its contours and vowed to devise a means to capture a view without recourse to his “faithless pencil”.
The result, after much experimenting at his home at Lacock Abbey, was the negative-positive process that is key to photography.'

https://archive.is/Www9T#selection-871.0-883.127

A blurry image of a poem attributed to Constance would make her possibly the first female photographer, although the point at which various processes combined to create a photograph is disputed. Her watercolours, and those of her children, remained hidden while her husband's fame as one of the inventors of photography was feted.

They've recently been put online by the National Trust.

https://www.watercolourworld.org/learn-more/features/the-fox-talbots-of-lacock-abbey/

Other early female photographers:

https://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/about/news-blog/2021/february/unearthing-the-worlds-first-female-photographers/

Anna Atkins is famed for her cyanotypes:

https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/cyanotypes-of-british-algae-by-anna-atkins-1843/

'Atkins became a member of the Botanical Society in London in 1839, one of the few scientific societies which was open to women.'

Another name that is very slight but can be considered a part of the history of photography, and a fascinating life story, is Elizabeth Fulhame, whose 1794 work An Essay on Combustion contained meticulous records of her chemical experiments.

'...she often began with small scraps of silk, which she would soak in a solution of metallic salts. She then treated the pieces in different ways – for example by placing them in a dark closet, drying them by the fire or exposing them to sunlight – and noted the results. Occasionally she was fortunate enough to find her cloth had beautiful colours, like red, purple or gold, or had ‘spangles’, sparkling areas. Historians often credit Mrs Fulhame’s descriptions of photochemical processes as forerunning the science behind early photography.'

https://minervascientifica.co.uk/elizabeth-fulhame/

Elizabeth Fulhame sharply expresses her views on how she may be regarded as a woman promoting these ideas:

‘Some are so ignorant that they grow sullen and silent, and are chilled with horror at the sight of any thing, that bears the semblance of learning, in whatever shape it may appear; and should the spectre appear in the shape of woman, the pangs, which they suffer, are truly dismal.’

Today, a gorgeous picture of an unnamed girl from Orkney.

https://orkneyarchive.blogspot.com/2018/03/a-suffrage-search.html

'The Orkney Women's Suffrage Society was formed on September 25, 1909. A meeting was held in the house of a Mr James Cursiter, Kirkwall where 'all the ladies present joined the association'. The following month a constitution was formally adopted and office bearers were elected.'

It's fascinating if you dig into the Suffrage movement nationwide - small moments of heroic bravery all over the country - women having meetings despite fierce local opposition, sometimes assault, much ridicule, etc.

Yes, although I'm so glad she was reunited with her son.

What an amazing bit of secret family history, SinnerBoy!

Here's an amazing story from the Arctic:

Ada Blackjack, sole survivor of an ill-starred 1921 exploration. An astonishing tale of endurance and hardiness from a woman who was determined to care for her son.

'...by the time a rescue ship crested the horizon nearly two years later, Blackjack, who would come to be known as “The Female Robinson Crusoe,” was the only member of the party still alive—that is, apart from Vic. The shy tailor with the crippling fear of polar bears had taught herself to shoot and trap to stave off the constant threat of starvation, and when she strode out to meet her rescuers in a resplendent reindeer parka she had stitched herself, her gaunt face held a triumphant smile.'

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ada-blackjack-arctic-survivor

The composer of Dr Who's iconic theme tune was a woman. Delia Derbyshire, inventor of electronic music!

Thanks both. We're not even halfway through March yet! I was only on Greeks before I got distracted.

Less time travel and back to antiquity tomorrow. The research is great fun!

https://www.ncdv.org.uk/giulia-tofana-serial-killer-or-heroine/

Let's have a notorious woman from history, today:

'Giulia was born in Sicily in 1620, and had a modest but relatively happy childhood. That was until she was 13 years old when her mother was executed for murdering her husband – Giulia’s father. Things then took a very dark turn for Giulia.
It is thought that Giulia was taught how to make poison by either her mother, or a family friend. For nearly 20 years, she made bottles of poison which was a combination of arsenic, deadly nightshade and lead. She called it Aqua Tofana and it was bottled to look like face cream and was packaged with a picture of St Nicholas – who was the patron saint of children and unmarried people. St Nicholas was famous for helping young women and girls escape what we now call sex traffickers.
The lethal ingredients would apparently cause cold-like symptoms before the unlucky victim dropped dead several days later. The poison was completely undetectable, which meant that women could seemingly commit the perfect crime by killing their abusive husbands and getting away with it, leaving them to be free from the abuse.'