Two exhibitions in Leeds are exploring the lives of female ancestors in the home, school and workplace, to mark the centenary year in 2018 of the first women getting the vote.
A Woman’s Place? at Abbey House Museum in Kirkstall, opening on 20 January, reveals how everyday life has changed for women since the Victorian era. Brought to life through witty illustrations by Jacky Fleming, the exhibition features stories and objects from 1860 to the present day linked to pioneering women; from suffragette Leonora Cohen’s WSPU badge to a gown worn by Councillor Joyce Challenor in the 1960s.
Four relatively unsung heroines who lived and worked in Leeds are also being honoured with new commemorative ceramics by local artist Katch Skinner: 1940s all-female jazz band leader Ivy Benson, from Holbeck, Morley cycling champion Beryl Burton, suffragette Mary Gawthorpe and Edith Pechey, one of the UK’s first female doctors, who practisays and workshops.
Meanwhile, Leeds Industrial Museum at Armley Mills is revealing untold stories of the working class women elected to represent some of Britain’s greatest industries, from coal to cotton, in its new Queens of Industry exhibition, on show now until September 2019. Queens of industry were a 20th century phenomenon; the first Railway Queens were elected in the mid-1920s and the last Coal Queen was crowned in the early 1980s.
The competitions were inspired by the Rose and May Queens beloved of villages and towns, and the queens of industry went on to represent their industry, county or nation in what often proved to be a life-changing opportunity. The exhibition features rarely seen objects from Leeds Museums and Galleries plus loans from major museums and private collectors.