Hi! I know this is a medieval blog but I was wondering if there are any blogs/sources you suggest for finding modern European history (1800ish- present). I have a professor that constantly uses the "there just isn't any POC history during this time" we're suppose to write an essay about a European woman in modern history and the choices are all white women. I know she's wrong, I just need some help. I looked through your 1800s tags &FAQ & so if youve answered this already I'm sorry i missed it!
(in relation to the ask I just sent, I don’t just assume you’re gonna do my research for me. I’ve been doing my own but I’m just kinda stuck and I also really value your opinion because this blog is so damn cool and honestly life changing. I genuinely think it is one of the most important sources available to anyone, particularly students. I was just curious if you have a favorite modern Euro WOC that is researched enough to write a 10p biography paper on is basically what my ask is getting at)
First of all, I’m happy to help! And thanks for the compliments. 1800-present isn’t really my wheelhouse, but here are a few suggestions:
Edmonia Lewis (1844-1907) was born in New York, but in 1865 she moved to Rome, where she spent most of her career. She gained international renown as a sculptor, so much so that in 1877 Ulysses S. Grant commissioned her to sculpt a bust of him.
Lady Sarah Forbes Bonetta Davies (1843-1880) was Queen Victoria’s Goddaughter
Suffragette Sophia Duleep Singh (1876-1948)
Sophia also belonged to the Women’s Tax Resistance League, whose slogan was ‘No Vote, No Tax’. Her refusal to pay taxes led to her prosecution several times, and some of her valuable possessions, such as a diamond ring, pearl necklace and gold bangle were impounded. In addition to her Suffragette activity, during World War I she organised collections for Indian soldiers fighting on the Western Front. She also donated money towards the Lascar Club in the East End of London.
Here’s some more about Asian British Suffragettes
There’s William Brown and the other WoC sailors of the British Navy, c.1800-1900:
The most impressive naval career of all the female sailors is that of William Brown, a black woman who spent at least twelve years on British warships, much of this time in the extremely demanding role of captain of the foretop. A good description of her appeared in London’s Annual Register in September 1815: “She is a smart, well-formed figure, about five feet four inches in height, possessed of considerable strength and great activity; her features are rather handsome for a black, and she appears to be about twenty-six years of age.” The article also noted that “in her manner she exhibits all the traits of a British tar and takes her grog with her late messmates with the greatest gaiety.”
Here’s a little more about William Brown.
^ This is Miss LaLa, a circus performer who was painted by Edgar Degas in 1879. There’s a lot written about her, and it might be an interesting perspective to do research around.
Mary Jane Seacole (1805 -1881) was a Jamaican-born woman of Scottish and Creole descent who set up a “British Hotel” behind the lines during the Crimean War, which she described as “a mess-table and comfortable quarters for sick and convalescent officers. She was posthumously awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit in 1991. In 2004 she was voted the greatest black Briton.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/seacole_mary.shtml
The Smith Sisters (Annette pictured above) 1860-1960: Elizabeth, Hannah, Emma, Adelaide and Annette (Nettie) Smith. They were the daughters of the half English and half Fante civil servant William Smith Jnr. Their mother was heiress Anne Spilsbury Smith who hailed from a wealthy Freetown family (Sierra Leone).
Amongst their friends were Queen Victoria’s African Goddaughter Victoria Davies and her family friend Samuel Coleridge Taylor. Together with the Smith Sisters they were frequent visitors to theatres and concerts in Edwardian London, where the Smith sisters returned. The music for some of those concerts was composed by Samuel Coleridge Taylor himself.
I have been approached by members of my own community who have said they want our own period drama on the Smith sisters and, yes, one of them did live in a stately home as she was taken under the wings of a German aristocrat’s wife.
Fanny Eaton, a Victorian artist’s model and muse of the Pre-Rapaelites. When I first posted about her, less was known about her life, but I updated the post with some more recent research.
There’s Savitri Devi Chowdhary:
Having worked as a high school teacher in her native Punjab, Savitri Chowdhary arrived in Britain in 1932 after a four- or five-year separation from her husband, Dr Dharm Sheel Chowdhary, who had come to Britain for postgraduate medical studies and recently begun work at a practice in the small Essex town of Laindon. On arrival, she found her husband had, to a large extent, adapted to English life and encouraged her to do the same. Shedding her saris for dresses and cutting her hair short, Chowdhary sought to fulfil the role of a doctor’s wife in an English town and to immerse herself in community life.
However, she also remained in touch with her Indian self, wearing saris for evening engagements, cooking curry at home, and socializing with the middle-class Indian community in London. Not only did she and her husband help establish early British Hindu organizations such as the Hindu Association of Europe and the Hindu Centre, but Savitry Chowdhary, on the encouragement of an English friend, Miss Cresswell, also became involved with the India League, attending – and occasionally speaking at – political meetings in London.
In the early 1950s Savitri Chowdhary published one of the earliest Indian cookery books with Andre Deutsch, subsequently giving talks on Indian cooking and even making television appearances to demonstrate her skills.
Cornelia Sorabji was the first woman to study law at Oxford University in 1889.
She fought a long battle to sit the law exam alongside her male colleagues, a first victory for opening up the profession to women and equality in higher education. Sorabji was prevented from practicing as a lawyer until the ban on women in the legal profession was lifted in 1919. She returned to India in 1894 to work as a legal adviser. She retired in Britain in the 1930s, working as a writer and broadcaster. She was critical of the Indian independence movement. She died in her home in Finsbury Park in 1954.
JOSEPHINE BAKER!!!!! A lot of people know she was an entertainer, but did you also know she was a frigging French war hero?
Prior to the surrender of France to the Germans in 1940, Baker was made an “honorary correspondent” by a French official. Baker gathered information on German troops from various embassy and ministry personnel at parties. Baker passed the intel on to the French government. Her femme fatale persona allowed her access to confidential military information.Baker housed French Resistance friends at her Southern France castle and procured travel visas. She traveled throughout neutral Europe and South America collecting information about German troop movement, airfields and harbors. As a spy, once again she obtained some of the information by her “beguiling smile” and sensuous charm. The intelligence would then be written on invisible ink on Josephine’s sheet music. On some occasions the info would be pinned on her underwear. An entertainer of Baker’s cache would not be subject to a strip search.Baker’s other WWII activities included a stint as a sub-lieutenant for the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. She also provided performances for French troops free of charge, boosting their morale. For her brave and commendable efforts Baker was the first American-born woman to be awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Rosette de la Résistance and to be made a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor.
Adelaide Hall became Britain’s highest-paid female entertainer in 1941. Her career spanned more than 70 years, and she entered the Guinness Book of World Records in 2003 as the world’s most enduring recording artist having released material over eight consecutive decades.
I hope this is okay for starters, but if anyone has someone they’d like to add here, definitely reblog and add your favorites to this list!
[P.S. A few of the links got messed up while I was making this, but I think I managed to fix them. please let me know if any are still incorrect…]
