To celebrate International Women’s Day members and friends of the Women’s Studies Group, 1558-1837 will be delivering a series of short talks in the Museum from 2pm.
Covering topics such as mothers and children, women and the army, actors and writers, risk, sensation and exposure, and the law and society’s attitudes to transgression, these talks will shine a light on women’s history through the lens of the Museum’s Collection. The talks are free with Museum admission.
The talks will be taking place in the Picture Gallery between 2 – 4pm, followed by half an hour of informal discussion and refreshments in the Study Studio.
Itinerary & speakers:
Miriam Al Jamil Introduction
Julie Peakman ‘From Streetwalkers to Courtesans: Sex in 18th-Century London’
Ellie Gregory ‘The Experiences of London Foundling Hospital Mothers, 1739-1782’
Emma Piercy-Wright ‘An Aspirational Elegy: Memory and Hope in a Mother-of-pearl Pineapple Token’
Trudie Messent ‘Oceans Apart: A Mother’s Dilemma’
Carolyn Williams ‘Abandoning Her Baby to Save Her Reputation: Tom Jones’s Real Mother’
Julia Martins ‘The Pen and the Scalpel: Fanny Burney and the Female Experience of 18th-Century Surgery’
Miriam Al Jamil ‘The Lure of a Redcoat’: Women and the Militia’
Nora Rodriguez ‘Isabella, Duchess of Manchester’
Jean G-Owen ‘Readings of Poetry: Risk, Sensation, and Exposure’
Charmian Kenner ‘Writing Our Own History: A Feminist Memoir for My Granddaughters’
The Women’s Studies Group 1558-1837 is a small, informal, multidisciplinary group formed to promote women’s studies in the early modern period and the long eighteenth century. Since it was established in the early 1980s, the group has enabled those interested in women’s and gender studies to keep in touch, to hear about one another’s research and publications, and to meet regularly to discuss topics of relevance.
To find out how to get here, including where to eat and drink, view our visitor information page here.
To find out more about access at the Foundling Museum, including how to book a wheelchair, visit our Accessibility page here.