The National Lifelong learning team braved the Edinburgh festival crowds last week for the latest Mapping Memorials to Women in Scotland session. While festival goers sweltered in the sunshine outside on George IV Bridge, we took an enthusiastic group on a guided tour of the Women of Scotland website, showing them some of the great monuments and memorials that are already there and finding out what new ones from Edinburgh there are to add. The women at the session were very knowledgable, but it was still difficult to find statues of real women in the Edinburgh area, apart from the African Woman and Child in Festival Square and Queen Victoria.
There was, however, a vintage booklet about Edinburgh’s Women of Acheivement written in the early nineties, a memorial to a nineteenth century midwife and other stories of pioneering women – some have streets named after them, plaques or other monuments which are not yet up on the Women of Scotland website – lots more detective work to be done! The session was lots of fun and the women left full of enthusiasm for discovering more histories of women in Edinburgh and the surrounding area. There are lots of memorials out there, from commemorative plaques, to buildings, gardens and streets named after women and hopefully a few more will now be discovered and added to the map.
Thanks to all the participants for coming along and to Karen and Edinburgh City Libraries for technical support and refreshments (especially the chocolate cookies…)
We are planning another session in Edinburgh in Spring 2013 and other sessions across Scotland, so if you’d like to get involved get in touch by e-mailing info@womenslibrary.org.uk or telephone Morag Smith on 0141 248 9969. Or go to the Women of Scotland website.
