WOMEN

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. On 12.5 x 3 cm slip of paper cut from letter. Aged and worn, with nick lost from left side, and remains of mount on reverse. Reads: ‘I remain / Yours very truly & affectionately / Sarah Trimmer’. See Image.

An characteristic letter by the author of 'Our Village', written in the year of her move from Three Mile Cross, Berkshire, to nearby Swallowfield, itself eight miles from Pearson's home in Sonning. See the entries on Mitford and Pearson in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 16mo. On the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium which has been unfolded with the fore-edge of the second leaf attached to a nineteenth-century stub. In good condition, lightly aged.

See Forster’s entry in the Oxford DNB. The postcard carries on one side a photograph of a ‘famous entrance hall’, part of the series ‘Simon McBride’s England’. In fair condition, a little browned and worn, with small pin hole at head. Addressed to ‘Miss Margaret Forster / 11 Boscastle Road / LONDON NW5 1EE’. Begins: ‘How nice you are to write about the C4 review of “Lady’s Maid”. She was ‘so pleased’ to see Trollope’s novel ‘The Lady’s Maid’ ‘sitting deservedly in the top ten for so many weeks - roll on the paperback!’ Concludes: ‘And I love the look of your garden. / Joanna T.’

A nice piece of Edwardian trade ephemera. It would appear that W. B. Corsets were running a franchise scheme, providing suppliers with their catalogue and printing the franchisee's name on the back cover: little is to be discovered about either firm. No other copy traced. Hard to date: the corsets have an Edwardian feel, but some features of the illustrations may suggest a slightly later date. A 12mo stapled pamphlet, consisting of 20 pages on ten leaves of shiny paper: unnumbered front and back leaves, and pages on central eight leaves numbered 1-16.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. The valediction of a letter, cut away for an autograph collector. On a slip of paper, around 7.5 x 1.5 cm. On lightly discoloured paper, with tear through signature, attached to piece of card with archival tape. Reads: ‘Very sincerely yours / Ellen Wood’.

A fascinating collection of articles - with added relevance at a time when the position of women in the BBC is much-debated - in which 1920s women broadcasters with at BBC provincial stations (including Aberdeen, BIrmingham, Liverpool, Plymouth) discuss their careers. One Seven original typescripts, totalling 20pp, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged and creased, with occasional chipping to edges. The writing is thoughtful and often enlightening.

One page, 4to, fold marks, good condition. I remember that once, when at a P.T.A. meeting we passed a resolution - I think it was about the need for stricter supervision to prevent children going to Cinemas shopwing films intended only for adults, to make this protest more effective you undertook to circularise other P.T.A.'s. | Now we are very anxious to get into touch with as many such associations as possible. I applied to the Secretary of the London Regional Home School Council & asked if they could furnish me with a list. They replied that it was impossible as the number was too great.

One issue only. Vol. XIV, No. 5, pp.[65]-[79], unbound, some damage and aging not affecting text. It commences with A Parliamentary Chronicle by Ellen Wilkinson. See image

A unique and irreplaceable item in the field of women?s education: the earliest archives of the first institution in the world to award academic qualifications to women (or, as Mrs Alec Tweedie put it in 1898, ?The first College open to Women?), founded in 1848 by theologian and social reformer Frederick Denison Maurice. Consisting of around 340 different pieces of printed ephemera, dating from between 1853 and 1912. Laid down in a nineteenth-century album, with cloth spine and marbled boards, of 102pp, folio. Openings numbered 1-52, with leaf 43/44 lacking.

1p, 16. On the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium of grey paper, with simple drawing in the same ink as the text of a straight plain walking stick stuck in the ground and running up the left-hand margin, with the handle hooked to the right at the top with the dating to its right. In good condition, lightly aged. Reads: ‘le 25 Decembre 89.

Pp. [1]-16 only, 8vo. What remains is in good condition, pages just holding together. I've found just one reference online, an example of one man's brutality (https://blogs.bl.uk/untoldlives/2018/11/a-case-for-the-society-for-the-p...). Contents: case histories of acts of brutality or worse, and their culmination in Court.No other copies traced, or publications by the organisation. No printed matter by this Society has yet been traced.

1p, 4to. In fair condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Considering the tone of the letter, the similarity between the signatories name and that of the prominent suffragist Lady Frances Balfour (1858-1931), and the fact that there is no record of a Sheffield branch of the WNASL, nor of a place in Warrington called ‘Arcadia’, nor of any Balfours living there, one must strongly suspect that this letter is a spoof, perhaps written by in some such scenario as a pro-suffrage child of a member of the WNASL, having got hold of one of the organisations blank letterheads. Or perhaps not.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB, which does not accord her name a hyphen, although she does in this letter. 2pp, 12mo. On grey-paper bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Signed ‘M Bethan-Edwards’ and addressed to ‘Dear Miss Birkett’. She apologises for having to decline her kind invitation: ‘I never can lunch out being busy till 1 pm’. Since ‘the afternoons are now so very short’, and she does not like ‘climbing the hill in the dark’, she proposes calling on her at 4pm. ‘It will then give me much pleasure to see you.’

Two pages, 12mo, remnants of tipping in process, good condition. Printed heading commences: English and Foreign Educational, Industrial, Commercial, Plain Work, Benevolent and Emigration Institute for the Employment of Women. Conducted by Miss FAITHFULL [...........] See IMAGE for the (substantial) rest. Text: All my sympathies I must say are given to the homeless & destitute of the educated classes'[.] [T]hey are so utterly friendless. The working classes have untold benefits.

In 1867 Starr was the first woman to win a gold medal for painting at the Royal Academy, having won a silver two years before. 2pp, 12mo. On bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with minor traces of mount on blank reverse of second leaf. Folded twice. She has ‘just received the ticket for the lecture at the Associated Arts Institute’ which he sent, and is afraid she will not be able to use it herself: ‘as we are going to the Opera’. She wonders whether she ‘may be allowed’ to ‘give it to some friends who I think would like to come very much’.

Both items in good condition, lightly aged and worn. Excessively scarce, with COPAC only listing one copy (at the British Library) of both items. ONE: 'An Irish Cradle Song. Words by W. B. Yeats. From Poems by W. B. Yeats, published by T. Fisher Unwin'. [1914.] 5 + [1]pp., folio. Title page carries the gaelic motto: Goth yani me von gilli beg, | N heur ve thu more a creena. TWO: 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree. Words by W. B. Yeats'. [1917.] 5 + [1]pp., folio. Illustration of tree on bank of lake on front cover.

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. Since 2017 she has been depicted on the Scottish ten pound note. On 2.5 x 8.5 cm slip of paper, cut from letter. In good condition, lightly aged. Laid down on 4 x 9.5 cm piece of paper. Reads 'Yours truly | Mary Somerville'.

2pp, 18mo. On aged paper, with short closed tear to one edge. He has evidently sent her a present of a diary, and she write that it was 'very sweet' of him to remember her over Christmas, adding: 'I shall use your diary every day during the coming year.' She ends with her best wishes of the season and coming year.

Advertising booklet for the school, printed in black on three sides of a 20.5 x 23 cm bifolium of cream wove paper. In fair condition, on lightly aged and spotted paper, with one fold and slight nicking to edges. The item is undated, but must date before Chambers' retirement in 1944. The cover has a distinct modernist feel, with an 8.5 x 20 cm stylised illustration of a village green with old-fashioned houses, presumably including the school buildings, and at bottom right the words 'MALTMAN'S GREEN | GERRARD'S CROSS' in large sans serif capitals.

4pp, 16mo. Bifolium. Forty-two lines of text. Letterhead of family crest in gold and red. In good condition, lightly aged, with traces of white paper mount adhering to last page. Three fold lines. The editor's 'obliging Note' affords her 'sincere pleasure to have the opportunity of expressing her gratitude to him in person', and she asks him not to call some day the following week (she is 'going out of Town' the week after), but not in the morning, as she has 'much business, of a disagreeable and imperative nature to transact now'.

2pp, 4to. On first leaf of bifolium, the second leaf carrying the address to 'Lady Palgrave | Hampstead Green', with four postmarks, one dated 29 July 1837. In fair condition, on aged, worn and creased paper. Lady Elizabeth Palgrave was the wife of the archivist and historian Sir Francis Palgrave (1788-1861, né Cohen), and daughter of the banker, naturalist and bibliophile Dawson Turner (1775-1858) of Yarmouth.

The item is from the papers of the second wife of the geologist Alexander Henry Green (1832-1896), previously Miss Wilhelmina Maria Armstrong of Clifton. 3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. An interesting letter, indicating a positive and encouraging response from a member of the Victorian scientific establishment to a female worker in the field. The letter begins: 'Dear Mrs. Green. | Enclosed are two notes from Dr. Armstrong relative to your paper. As I informed you I thought there was just a doubt whether the paper was exactly of a style for the Chem. Soc. Journ.

1p., 12mo. Stained and on aged paper. Reads: 'THANK you most gratefully for your share of the Car, which is already in use, and saving me more than I can say. It is not too much to say that it halves my fatigue and makes my work a happiness instead of a burden. I do not like driving in a car while others go in 'buses, but since my lameness really hampers me, I console myself with the delightful thought that it has been given me by those who work in the same causes and towards the same end that I do, and that I shall work the better for their kindness.'

On 10.5 x 19.5 cm piece of paper. in good condition, laid down on part of a leaf removed from an album. Good firm signature and strong handwriting. Reads: 'Dear Mr. Bull | It is a pleasure to accede to your request | Truly yours | A: Pearse'.

One page, 4to, fold marks, edge curled.

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. She apologises for having missed Mrs Allchin's 'party at the Prince's Hall', as she had to meet her husband 'in Paris on his way home from Italy, and we were detained there longer than we had expected'. She had hoped that they both could have attended the party, but they were 'detained there longer than we had expected'. Louisa Starr married the civil engineer and industrialist Enrico Canziani (1848-1931) in Dover in 1882.

Two First World War postcards, with the poems printed in black lengthwise on one side, and 'POST CARD' and the usual arrangement printed on the other side. Neither item with any manuscript text or other additions. Both in fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Valuable artefacts, filled with information about the workings of a munitions factory, and reflecting the tensions between the male and female workers. No other copies traced, either in the Imperial War Museum, on OCLC WorldCat, or on COPAC. ONE: Headed 'An Appreciation. | (Copyright.)' At foot: 'Composed by Mr. G.

Both items stitched and unbound 16mo pamphlets. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper, both from the Board of Education Library, and with the former carrying a shelfmark label and the latter the Library's stamp. ONE: 'Association for the Education of Women | Oxford | Home Students | Second Annual Report, 1896-7'. 14pp., 16mo. Containing a list of officers, 'Regulations for Home Students', three-page Report - by 'B. J. Johnson, Principal' - of Home Students' Committee, 1896-7', lists of honours and appointments. Scarce: the only other copies traced at Oxford.

Three pages, 8vo, black border, fold marks, small closed tears, text complete and clear. With official printed stamp next to signature, "Le Lt-Colonel DIEULAFOY | Charge du Service du Genie des Etapes". He has received an article in "L'Eveil" by his correspondent concerning his "chere compagne" [ Jane Dieulafoy, distinguished archaeologist, explorer and feminist, who died in May 1916, hence the black border to this letter ]. He specifies the putting in relief of the "initiative prise par ma chere compagne au printemps le 1913 [conscription of women, conference 1913 - see notes below].

The item derives from the papers of Sir Richard Harington, 12th Baronet of Ridlington (1861-1931), who volunteered for the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve on the outbreak of the First World War, and was promoted to the rank of Chief Petty Officer in the Anti-Aircraft Corps, serving in that capacity until 1916. 2pp., foolscap folio. On both sides of a leaf of paper with embossed Government crest. In fair condition, lightly-aged and worn, with a few short closed tears to edges. Mimeographed duplication of a manuscript poem parodying Thomas Moore's poem 'The Minstrel Boy'.