It grew out of my broad interest in British social and cultural history
... and especially the history of feminism.
... I began spending time here when reading for my PhD..
it was surprising... I suppose it shouldn’t be...
just how conducive the space was to research and learning... it gave me great focus
... and being assisted in the early days by the very helpful Library staff...
my first published writing dealt with women's suffrage and the suffragette movement of the early 20th century...
class, property and the fact that many men also were unable to vote...
The Library has played an ever increasing role in my career...
Well I’m very excited about the Library's digitisation of newspapers...
... this creates possibilities for research that just wouldn’t have been feasible before.
well there’s so much more... I want to continue...
... gender identity in the 19th century, especially looking at women’s place in the economy not only in domestic service, but looking at the whole range of economic roles recorded in newspapers...
... using the photography and print archives... finding images relevant to gender in this period...
and discovering the sound archives, particularly the oral histories...
yes I’m partnering with a local museum...
... illustrating the changing concepts of work and gender...
and more specifically the social histories of the women employed in the mills...
... coming here’s been invaluable...
I can’t really imagine where else I would have had access to such a diversity of material...
or even if I would have made these connections