33-534: The Langham Place group was a women's club founded in England in 1858, including Helen Blackburn , a women's rights advocate who later served as editor of The Englishwoman's Review . The group was named after the address, 19 Langham Place , which was for a decade from the late 1850s also the office of the English Woman's Journal . Its premises included a reading room, a coffee shop, and meeting space for
66-634: A civil engineer who managed the slate quarries on Valentia, of County Kerry and Isabella Lamb of Co. Durham . Her family moved to London in 1859. In London, Blackburn came into contact with the women of the Langham Place Group , especially Jessie Boucherett and Emily Faithfull . Over the years Blackburn and Boucherett worked together on a number of endeavours. Both were editors of the Englishwoman's Review (Blackburn, editor, 1880–90; joint editor, 1890–95). Together they established
99-563: A collection called Words of a Leader (1897). In 1903, in collaboration with Nora Vynne , she created the book Women under the Factory Act . In the book they criticised legislators for treating women as if they had not the intelligence of animals and as if they always needed to be cared for or protected. She and Vynne argued that women should be allowed to take risks with their health in the workplace or they may find themselves always in need to protection as if they were incapable. The book
132-562: A collection, Alice Errol and Other Tales . On completing the only schooling a young woman could then receive, she took posts as a governess, one of the few careers available to her, throughout the 1860s and early 1870s. In 1865 Sarah Mair founded the Ladies' Edinburgh Debating Society, which published a regular writing journal, The Attempt . Charlotte Carmichael had become a member by 1866 and published sundry pieces in The Attempt . In
165-753: A loan fund for training young women. Her name and picture (and those of 58 other women's suffrage supporters) are on the plinth of the statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square, London, unveiled in 2018. Blackburn's books include: [REDACTED] This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Smith, Charlotte Fell (1912). " Blackburn, Helen ". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement) . London: Smith, Elder & Co. Charlotte Carmichael Stopes Charlotte Brown Carmichael Stopes (née Carmichael ; 5 February 1840 – 6 February 1929), also known as C. C. Stopes ,
198-545: A meeting of the society in 1867 Mary Crudelius presented her initiative of creating classes for women at a university level under the auspices of the Edinburgh Ladies' Educational Association . Charlotte Carmichael was present at the meeting. She pledged her willingness to attend such classes and guaranteed another twelve interested persons. The first classes began in 1868, taught by Professor David Masson , Professor of English Literature at Edinburgh University, 'at
231-636: A number of related organisations. In 1880 Blackburn was secretary of the West of England Suffrage Society in Bristol and was the main organizer of a large demonstration. She edited the Women's Suffrage Calendar in 1896 and 1897. Blackburn also took opportunities to study, first in 1875, taking a class in Roman Law at University College London , and later (1886–88) classes at University College , Bristol. In
264-538: A scholarship and later was given a university position, Stopes still had a younger daughter, Winnie, to care for. Her financial difficulties were partly alleviated at the end of 1903 when she was awarded a government pension of £50 a year "in consideration of her literary work, especially in connection with the Elizabethan period". She was awarded another grant in 1907 by the Carnegie Trust, this time for £75
297-555: A time when the University was not open to women and courses were given to them privately by the male Professors'. Although women were not permitted to take a degree, she achieved the highest certificate then available to a female student, in subjects as diverse as literature, philosophy and science, achieving first class honours. In fact, she "was the first woman in Scotland to gain a Certificate of Arts". She used her education for
330-457: A wide audience, her speech being noted in newspapers across Britain. Stopes remained in Norwood until her husband's bankruptcy in 1892, when they were forced to sell the house. To escape the disaster, she took her daughters to Edinburgh, where she enrolled them at the newly formed girls' school, St George's School, Edinburgh . She also attempted to gain a retrospective degree, denied to her at
363-566: A year. As a Shakespearean scholar her recognition continued to increase and in 1912 she was elected as an honorary member of the Royal Society of Literature . In 1914 she became the founding member of a new Shakespeare Association which promoted Shakespearean scholarship through functions and lectures until 1922. Charlotte Stopes died on 6 February 1929 in Worthing, Sussex at the age of 89, from bronchitis and cerebral thrombosis, and
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#1732793776157396-767: The Rose Mary Crawshay Prize from the British Academy in 1916 for her Shakespearian research, thirteen years before her death in February 1929. According to Boas, on the day after Stopes died, The Times published the following comment: The Royal Society of Literature has lost a distinguished veteran among its Fellows, and the study of Shakespeare a brave and devoted servant. For much of her later life Stopes had financial difficulties after her husband's bankruptcy (1892) and untimely death (1902). Though daughter Marie became independent when she won
429-742: The Victorian dress reform and the need for comfortable clothes for women. She was a member of the Rational Dress Society and her activity with the society in 1888–1889 gave rise to her identity as a feminist. At a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1889, Stopes stunned the proceedings by organizing an impromptu session where she introduced rational dress to
462-776: The "standard work". She served as secretary of the National Society for Women's Suffrage and the West of England Suffrage Society , and co-founded the Freedom of Labour Defence League. Her name appears on the plinth of the Millicent Fawcett statue in Parliament Square . Blackburn was born in Knightstown , Valentia Island, County Kerry , Ireland on 25 May 1842. Her parents were Bewicke Blackburn,
495-821: The Glasgow meeting that she met Henry Stopes, who, despite his being eleven years the younger, she would marry three years later. After they were married on 3 June 1879, the Stopeses went on a honeymoon across Europe and the Near East, eventually visiting Egypt, before returning to Britain. Charlotte Stopes went to Edinburgh where her first daughter, Marie, was born in 1880. After reaching her husband in Colchester , his family home, they moved to London, where he had an active business. They settled in Upper Norwood on
528-688: The Victoria Press on Great Coram Street. Maria Rye set up an office copying legal documents in Lincolns Inn Fields and in 1862, with Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon , founded the Female Middle-Class Emigration Society . The space served as a sort of counterpart to the gentlemen's clubs then so important in London . The magazine was largely funded by Helena, comtesse de Noailles , and the hire of
561-531: The Women's Employment Defence League in 1891, to defend women's working rights against restrictive employment legislation. They also together edited The Condition of Working Women and the Factory Acts , 1896. Blackburn joined the National Society for Women's Suffrage in 1872 and was secretary of the executive committee of the society from 1874 to 1880. She subsequently held similar positions in
594-474: The advancement of women and pursued scholarly interests in English Renaissance, particularly Shakespearean, literary history. In 1876 Stopes went to Glasgow to help the movement for women's higher education in that city. The trip coincided with a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science , which she attended, beginning her long connection with the association. It was at
627-532: The building by Theodosia Blacker, Baroness Monson . Helen Blackburn Helen Blackburn (25 May 1842 – 11 January 1903) was a feminist, writer and campaigner for women's rights , especially in the field of employment. Blackburn was an editor of the Englishwoman's Review magazine. She wrote books about women workers and a history of the women's suffrage movement in Britain and Ireland which became
660-468: The case for women's suffrage in print, before crowds, and in the courtroom'. Stopes was a member of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies . She wrote pamphlets and spoke publicly in campaigns for women's rights. Her first book was The Bacon/Shakespeare Question , published in 1888: refuting the popular speculation that Francis Bacon was the actual author of Shakespeare's plays. This
693-487: The early 1890s, she assisted Charlotte Carmichael Stopes in her writing of British Freewomen: Their Historical Privilege by supplying her own notes on the subject, then by purchasing the whole of the first edition in 1894. She scaled down her work in 1895 to care for her aged father until his death, then resumed her work. Blackburn inspired and funded two collections. The first was an art collection in 1885 that included pictures and work done by professional women to show
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#1732793776157726-471: The eldest of whom was Marie Stopes , known for her advocacy of birth control. Charlotte Stopes was born in Edinburgh on 5 February 1840 to Christine Brown Graham Carmichael and James Ferrier Carmichael, a landscape painter, who died of tuberculosis when Stopes was fourteen. She had the desire to become a writer, devising stories for her brothers and sisters when she was a child and at twenty-one publishing
759-529: The enterprise, purchased the whole first edition, many copies of which were sent copies to members of the House of Commons . Laura E Nym Mayhall observes that British Freewomen was 'perhaps the single most influential text in casting women's struggle for the vote within the radical narrative of loss, resistance and recovery' since Stopes' arguments, as outlined in successive editions of British Freewomen , were frequently cited by 'suffragists of all stripes in making
792-557: The initiatives which gathered around it, mainly to do with women's rights, access to higher education and wage work (e.g. the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women (S.P.E.W.). Jessie Boucherett and Adelaide Anne Procter through S.P.E.W. offered classes in arithmetic and set up the first commercial school to train women as book-keepers and the first shorthand classes for women. Emily Faithfull trained women as compositors at
825-571: The most popular and influential of her numerous publications. British Freewomen: Their Historical Privilege was published by Swan Sonnenschein in 1894. (The Sonnenschein Archives are at the University of Reading .) It ran to several editions and was a key reference point for the British female suffrage movement. Helen Blackburn , who had supplied Stopes with notes from her own research to help
858-415: The result of women's industry. She was insistent that this would not include voluntary or amateurish work but it would show the products of female professionals. The Loan Exhibition of Women's Industries included portraits of leading women like Florence Nightingale and Mary Carpenter . This was donated to Bristol University , but recent enquiries indicate that this work is now lost. Her second collection
891-445: The southern outskirts of the city, where her second daughter, Winnie, was born in 1884. Henry, being very busy with business, left Charlotte alone in their new house, where she was isolated from the sorts of intellectual life she had been used to. Her response was to organize meetings and classes, including a reading group, a logic workshop and a group focused on issues relating to women's emancipation. Stopes became keenly interested in
924-549: The time of her studies, but she needed a further two courses not included in her certificate. These courses however clashed, so she could not do them in a single year and she abandoned the attempt, returning to London to take up lodgings in Torrington Square close to the British Museum , where she was able to better follow her Shakespearean research. C.C. Stopes' study of British women's history proved to be
957-562: The women's movement allowed her to write her history of the Victorian women's suffrage campaign, Women's suffrage: a record of the women's suffrage movement in the British Isles, with biographical sketches of Miss Becker , finished in 1902. The book provided an account of the movement's formative years and her colleague Lydia Becker but makes few mentions of Blackburn's own contribution. She had previously edited Becker's writings in
990-455: Was a British scholar, author, and campaigner for women's rights. She also published several books relating to the life and work of William Shakespeare . Her most successful publication was British Freewomen: Their Historical Privilege (published 1894), a book which influenced and inspired the early twentieth century British women's suffrage movement . She married Henry Stopes , a palaeontologist, brewer and engineer. They produced two daughters,
1023-525: Was focused on a book collection by women. The books were from her collection, friends and from second hand sources. Bookplates were commissioned and two bookcases. The bookcases were decorated with paintings of Lydia Becker and Caroline Ashurst Biggs who had been the previous chairs of the Central Committee of the National Society for Women's Suffrage . These bookcases were given to Girton College and are extant. Her long term connection with
Langham Place Group - Misplaced Pages Continue
1056-621: Was noted for its accuracy, but the Economic Journal recognised its authors as Freedom of Labour Defence members and suspected that it may have political motives arguing for the "equality of men and women". Blackburn died aged 60 at her home in Greycoat Gardens, Westminster , London on 11 January 1903 and was buried at Brompton Cemetery . She left her archives, and the decorated book collection, to Girton College, Cambridge . Her will also made provisions for establishing
1089-529: Was the first of several works of scholarship concerning Shakespeare and literature of his period. Her books in the field included Shakespeare's Family (1901), Shakespeare's Warwickshire Contemporaries (1907), William Hunnis and the Revels (1910), Burbage and Shakespeare's Stage (1913), The Seventeenth-Century Accounts of the Masters of the Revels (1922) and many published notes and articles. Stopes received
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