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17 February 1847: The Whittington Club (named after the poor...

Building and people item

17 February 1847

The Whittington Club (named after the poor boy who became Lord Mayor of London) held its first meeting. Unlike traditional gentlemen's clubs, it welcomed women and lower-middle-class men.
Woodring, Carl Ray. Victorian Samplers: William and Mary Howitt. University of Kansas Press, 1952.
122

Georgina Munro

GM published five novels, some of the silver fork variety, in the 1840s and 1850s, as well as sixteen contributions to The People's Journal, including essays and short stories. Her magazine writing, including tales...

By April 1929: The Book Society (first conceived of by Arnold...

Writer or writing item

By April 1929

The Book Society (first conceived of by Arnold Bennett ) was launched by Hugh Walpole with himself as chairman; it was the first such society in Britain.
Spurling, Hilary. Secrets of a Woman’s Heart. Hodder and Stoughton, 1984.
23
Feather, John. A History of British Publishing. Croom Helm, 1988.
187-8

By January 1789: The Society for Bettering the Conditions...

Building and people item

By January 1789

The Society for Bettering the Conditions and Increasing the Comfort of the Poor, founded by future Clapham Sect members and others, was planning expansion; its plans for amelioration claimed a scientific basis.
Porter, Roy. English Society in the Eighteenth Century. Penguin, 1982.
297
Henderson, Tony. Disorderly Women. Longman, 1999.
178

1826: Everywoman's Book or What is Love?, by Richard...

Building and people item

1826

Everywoman's Book or What is Love?, by Richard Carlile , was first published as an 18-penny pamphlet.
Fryer, Peter. The Birth Controllers. Secker and Warburg, 1965.
76-7
Jalland, Patricia, and John Hooper. Women from Birth to Death: The Female Life Cycle in Britain 1830-1914. Harvester, 1986.
32

11 November 1965: Ian Smith and the white rulers of the British...

National or international item

11 November 1965

Ian Smith and the white rulers of the British colony of Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) unilaterally declared independence; the UK declared the regime illegal but did not use force against it.
Howard, Anthony. “The Unsolved Mystery of the Money Tree”. London Review of Books, 19 Aug. 1999, p. 31.
31

29 September 1736: An act for Laying a Duty upon the Retailers...

Building and people item

29 September 1736

An act for Laying a Duty upon the Retailers of Spiritous Liquors (Gin Act) came into effect, making it harder to obtain a licence to retail spirits.
Hervey, John, Baron. Some Materials towards Memoirs of the Reign of King George II. Editor Sedgwick, Romney, AMS Press, 1970, 3 vols.
II: 568-9
Henderson, Tony. Disorderly Women. Longman, 1999.
143

11 December 1792: Louis XVI went on trial before the National...

National or international item

11 December 1792

Louis XVI went on trial before the National Convention in Paris.
Tomalin, Claire. The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft. Revised, Penguin, 1992.
158
Soboul, Albert. The French Revolution 1787-1799. Translators Forrest, Alan and Colin Jones, Vintage, 1975.
283

1888: James Viscount Bryce (who later, in 1907,...

Writer or writing item

1888

James Viscount Bryce (who later, in 1907, became British Ambassador to the United States) published The American Commonwealth.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.

By 1 May 1886: Una Ashworth Taylor published her first novel,...

Women writers item

By 1 May 1886

Una Ashworth Taylor published her first novel, Wayfarers.
Athenæum. J. Lection.
3053 (1886): 581
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.

1811: Army regulations set out the system whereby...

Building and people item

1811

Army regulations set out the system whereby regiments ordered abroad on active service were allocated six soldiers' wives' tickets per company, distributed by ballot.
Page, F. C. G. Following the Drum: Women in Wellington’s Wars. Deutsch, 1986.
133, 17-18, 2, and passim
Ham, Elizabeth. Elizabeth Ham, by Herself, 1783-1820. Editor Gillett, Eric, Faber and Faber, 1945.
170

1837: D. Nicholson founded a wholesale mantle manufactory...

Building and people item

1837

D. Nicholson founded a wholesale mantle manufactory to supply ready-made clothes to shops.
Adburgham, Alison. Shops and Shopping 1800-1914: Where, and in What Manner the Well-Dressed Englishwoman Bought Her Clothes. Allen and Unwin, 1964.
123

1973: French feminist Monique Wittig published...

Writer or writing item

1973

French feminist Monique Wittig published her novel Le Corps lesbien, translated into English in 1975 as The Lesbian Body.
Solo: Search Oxford University Libraries Online. 18 July 2011, http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=OXVU1&fromLogin=true&reset_config=true.
Balén, Julia. “In memoriam: Monique Wittig”. Women’s Review of Books, Vol.
xxi
, No. 4, Jan. 2004, p. 5.
5

April 2005: Béa González, Spanish-born Canadian novelist,...

Writer or writing item

April 2005

Béa González , Spanish-born Canadian novelist, published her second novel, the magic-realist The Mapmaker's Opera, set in late nineteenth-century Spain and Mexico. Her first was The Bitter Taste of Time, 1998.
Canton, Jeffrey. “Reviews. The Mapmaker’s Opera by Béa Gonzalez”. Quill and Quire, Apr. 2005.
“Playwrights. Victor Kazan”. doollee.com.

Doris Lessing

The formidably productive and versatile DL , Nobel Prize winner, set her mark on late twentieth-century fiction and remained a force to be reckoned with in the twenty-first. Her major themes—life in colonial Africa, the...
Doris Lessing Head-shot of Doris Lessing, with her grey hair pulled back, and wearing a colourful patchwork jacket.

Lucy Boston

Best known for her children's books situated in a magical house, Green Knowe, Lucy Boston published, during the later twentieth century, twelve of these in all. She also wrote memoirs, two adult novels, and poetry.

1735: An all-female conger or group of publishers...

Building and people item

1735

An all-female conger or group of publishers (including Elizabeth Nutt and Anne Dodd ) got together to finance the expensive Annotations on the Holy Bible.
McDowell, Paula. The Women of Grub Street: Press, Politics, and Gender in the London Literary Marketplace, 1678-1730. Clarendon, 1998.
43

: Artist Vanessa Bell had eight works included...

Building and people item

Autumn 1917

Artist Vanessa Bell had eight works included in The New Movement in Art exhibition held in Birmingham and at the Mansard Gallery , London.
Vanessa Bell, 1879-1961, A Retrospective Exhibition: April 18-May 24, 1980. Davis and Long, 1980.
8

March 1919: Home and Country began monthly publication...

Building and people item

March 1919

Home and Country began monthly publication in London as the official organ of the Women's Institute .
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
43
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.

Rebecca Travers

RT (with ten titles of her own, besides contributions to joint works) was said to be the most prolific Quaker pamphleteer, theologist, and polemicist of the Restoration period after Margaret Fell .
Kunze, Bonnelyn Young. Margaret Fell and the Rise of Quakerism. Macmillan, 1994.
131
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

1887: The Anatomical Society of Great Britain was...

National or international item

1887

The Anatomical Society of Great Britain was founded.
Gascoigne, Robert Mortimer. A Chronology of the History of Science, 1450-1900. Garland, 1987.
411

24 October 1944: A railway clerk named Mrs W. recorded in...

National or international item

24 October 1944

A railway clerk named Mrs W. recorded in her diary (now in the Mass-Observation archive): I cannot write what I feel about all this evil. My soul cries out in distress. I am a Jew...

21 June 1813: The British victory at the aptly-named Vitoria...

National or international item

21 June 1813

The British victory at the aptly-named Vitoria ended the Peninsular War by driving the French out of Spain.
Page, F. C. G. Following the Drum: Women in Wellington’s Wars. Deutsch, 1986.
12

1835: The London Society for the Protection of...

Building and people item

1835

The London Society for the Protection of Young Females was founded.
Bristow, Edward. Vice and Vigilance: Purity Movements in Britain Since 1700. Gill and Macmillan, 1977.
60

Late 1890s: The York Symphony Orchestra, which played...

Building and people item

Late 1890s

The York Symphony Orchestra , which played for church services and gave public performances, began to accept women as players.
Hillsman, Walter. “Women in Victorian Church Music: Their Social, Liturgical, and Performing Roles in Anglicanism”. Women in the Church, edited by William J. Sheils and Diana Wood, Basil Blackwell, 1990, pp. 443-52.
448