Who said the Victorian Era didn't have Women Artists? Part 1

Known for introducing celtic imagery and design into the Art Nouveau, specifically in shaping the celtic core inside Liberty & Co., Mary Seton Fraser Tytler Watts (1849-1938) was a genius of the Arts & Crafts Movement.

The Pelican Rug designed for Liberty & Co.

Watt Chapel, Compton

Detail Watt Chapel, Compton

I was familiar with her ceramics and work for Liberty but had no idea the extent of the decoration that goes on inside the Watts Chapel in Compton, Surrey.

 

  Desperately seeking full-size pics for use as wallpapers. Someone please create hi-def versions!

*drool*

She also founded two Potteries which employed local artisans providing a wealth of employment for women who were otherwise bullied out of the workforce.

Compton Pottery Vessel

US National Statuary Hall Collection

Frances Willard was the first woman to be added to the Statuary Hall Collection, today in 1905. So far, of the 102 sculptures added nine of them honor women, that's 6.86%.

 1905

 Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard (1839-1898)
Educator, Suffragist, Author

Marble by Franklin Simmons

1958

 Maria Louise Sanford (1836-1920)
Educator, Activist and oddly Suffragist Resistor
Bronze by Evelyn Raymond (1908-Present)

1959

 Florence Rena Sabin (1871-1953)
Doctor
Bronze by Joy Buba (1904-1998)

1960

Esther Hobart Morris (1814-1902)

Activist, Suffragist, Politician
Bronze by Avard Fairbanks

1980

Mother Joseph (Esther Pariseau 1823-1902)

Architect, Artist, Missionary

Bronze by Felix W. de Weldon

 

1985

Jeanette Pickering Rankin (1880-1973)
 Suffragist, Activist, Pacifist, Politican
Bronze by Terry B. Weaver

2003

 

Sacagawea (1788-1812/1884)

Icon
Bronze after Leonard Crunelle

2005

 

 Thocmentony (Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins 1841-1891)

Activist, Author

Bronze by Benjamin Victor

2009

 Helen Keller (1880-1968)Activist, Suffragist, Author
Bronze by Edward Hlavka

There are slightly more artists represented that are female, twelve of the sculptures at 11.76%.

  1876

Anne Whitney (1821-1915)
 Bronze of Samuel Adams

Image Courtesy of Architect of the Capitol

1889

Blanche  Nevin (1838-1889)

Marble of John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg

 1905 & 1905

Franzisca Bernadina Wilhelmina Elizabet Ney  (1833-1907)

 Marble statue of Sam Houston and Marble statue of Stephen F. Austin

Images Courtesy of Architect of the Capital

1905

Helen Farnsworth Mears (1872-1916)

Marble of Frances E. Willard (1839-1898)

1910

Nellie Verne Walker (1874-1973)
 Bronze of James Harlan

 Image Courtesy of Architect of the Capital

1928 & 1931
Belle Marshall Kinney Scholz (1890-1959)

 Jointley executed the bronze statues of both Andrew Jackson and John Sevier with her husband Leopold F. Scholz

 Images Courtesy of Architect of the Capital

1958

Leone Evelyn Raymond (1908-Present)

Bronze of Maria L. Sanford

1959

Joy Buba (1904-1998)

Bronze of  Florence Rena Sabin (1871-1953)

1960

 Yolande Jacobson Sheppard (1921-1998)

Bronze of Patrick Anthony McCarran 

Image Courtesy of Architect of the Capital

1965

Suzanne Silvercruys

Bronze of Eusebio F. Kino 

Image Courtesy of Architect of the Capital

Genderfrak Friday

Getting to an internet connection this week is proving to be difficult, I'm out of town and rural wi-fi only comes with a cable hookup. Here's a couple of random DQ pics inspired from Miriam's post over at Feministing.

 

eBay find: photo taken c.1920-1924

 

Sigourney Weaver, looking damn fine.

 

Random hard-drive find, source unknown.

 

Musician Chris Pureka

 

And Clementine Ford, just 'cause, well, bring it!

Check out the promising new dapperQ , a genderqueer fashion site.

Language Moosh

Tuesday Birthday Roundup

American poet Amy Lowell was born today in 1874.Though expressibly not a "feminist" Lowell lived and wrote openly and became an activist through her unabashed impressionist poetry.

Image courtesy of the NYPL Digital Library

When you came, you were like red wine and honey,
And the taste of you burnt my mouth with its
     sweetness.
Now you are like morning bread,
Smooth and pleasant.
I hardly taste you at all for I know your savour,
But I am completely nourished.

~ Selection from A Decade, 1919

Apparently academics call that "highly coded" poetry. Isn't it thrilling to hear that was written and published with acclaim 91 years ago.

Around the Web:
Lowell, Amy @ GLBTQ
Nice selection of Poems by Amy Lowell
Books @ Project Gutenburg

That first line reminds me of Missy Higgins highly coded lyrics in her song Warm Whispers:



AND

Dutch doctor, activist, writer, lecture and suffragist Dr. Aletta Henrietta Jacobs is born today in 1854.

Painted by Isaac Israëls (1919). Present of Mathilde Cohen Tervaert-Israëls at the opening of the IAV in 1936. [Courtesy of Aletta Jacobs.org]

Read more at the Related Posts:
Vereeniging voor Vrouwenkiesrecht

Martha Edna Wright Griffiths: Mother of the ERA

Martha Edna Wright Griffiths (1912-2003) was, amongst many other actions, the first woman to serve on the powerful House Committee on Ways and Means and was instrumental in getting the prohibition of sex discrimination added to the landmark Civil Rights Act today in 1964.

 

Image courtesy of the Library of Congress

Original Image courtesy of The Centre for Legislative Archives

Principle not policy, Justice not favor. Men, their rights and nothing more. Women, their rights and nothing less...

Around the Web:
Martha Wright Griffiths (1912-2003) Women in Congress (also an excellent resource on Women in US Politics)
Griffiths Leadership Society for Women
Marth Wright Griffiths Bio and Documentation at the Legislative Branch Archives

Vereeniging voor Vrouwenkiesrecht

Following a succession of benchmarks, first female to take the pharmacist's assistant admission exam, first female to graduate from a Dutch University, first Dutch woman to become a medical doctor, it is without saying that Dr. Aletta H. Jacobs (1954-1929) met some obstacles on her path. Embracing the challenges that came with her passion she took an active interest in social injustice and helped revolutionize the world on many fronts.

Working for suffrage, womens health and workers rights she was a founding member of the Vereeniging voor Vrouwenkiesrecht (Dutch Womens Suffrage Group) founded today in 1894, a founding member of the International Women Suffrage Alliance, a translator bringing International texts on human rights to Dutch readers, a pacifist participating in the first International Peace Conference, and a firm believer and advocate of birth control, opening the first birth control clinics and revolutionizing a little thing often called a diaphragm or "Dutch Cap".

Does anyone know what device is in the picture below?

Around the Web:

Dr. Aletta H. Jacobs (1854-1929) (Click the British flag in the footer for English translation.)
Aletta Jacobs (1854-1929)
Aletta Jacobs at Spartacus
At My Hero
The Gerristsen Collection of Aletta H. Jacobs (Supposedly one of the largest archives of Feminist Heritage.  It is not accessible unless you are a subscribed paying academic member. Something I'm sure helps the cause. *sarcasm*  It contains texts dating back to 1543!)

Gertrude Stein: Outlaw and Classic

Good Lords, it was Gertrude Steins (1874-1946) birthday yesterday. She's been the same age for a while now.

Gertrude Stein (left) and her companion, Alice B. Toklas, in Bilignin, France, 1938. (Cecil Beaton/From "Gertrude Stein: In Words and Pictures") 

Around the Web:

The World of Gertrude Stein 

Gertrude Stein on Wikipedia

Unstoppable

Not being invited to the strict invite-only George D. Widener Sculpture Competition, today in 1965, didn't stop Geraldine McCullough (1922-2008). Not only did she manage to get her two-hundred and fifty pound sculpture, titled Phoenix, into the event but she took home the Gold Metal!

Around the Web:
Geraldine McCullough at Essie Green Galleries
Geraldine McCullough (1922 - 2008) at Woman Made
Geralding McCullough: Painter Scluptor Exhibit Notes at Parish Gallery, Georgetown
Excellent Slideshow at EbonyJet.com

Renaissance Woman

Once hailed as the 'second Sappho' and 'Fourth Muse', the Poet, Translator, and Artist Anna Roemers Visscher (1584-1651) was born today in 1583. She was a member of the 17th Century artist's group self-named The Muiden Circle. Her writings and correspondence have helped greatly in providing a more realistic portrayal of the post-medieval world and challenge the notion that 'The Renaissance' was a great masculine event in which women played no active part.

For someone so highly praised it is disappointing not to be able to find any English translations of her work around the web and to only find one fragment in her native Dutch. Only a handful of her fine glass engraving are known, most in the Rijksmuseum.

 

 
Much *sigh*. 

Around the Web:
Anna Roemers Visscher Collection at the Rijksmuseum
Anna Visscher at Wikipedia