Category: The Collection blog

Abortion, Contraception and the Collection

It is over two years ago now that I first visited the Glasgow Women’s Library and it truly was love at first sight. I am now studying a Masters in Museum Studies, and I got my dream placement of working and being a part of the GWL. A condition of my placement is to conduct research and write a blog post on some objects from the collections. So, given my previous history with the GWL, I thought it only fitting to do my blog about the topic which brought me to value the library so much.

Thinly Populated – Scottish anti-nuclear activism in our archives

In this post we hear from placement student Hannah Grout, who has spent the last 2 weeks at the library cataloguing the personal papers of anti-nuclear activist, Kathleen Miller.

NMRD Object of the Month: Jailhouse Block poster

National Museum of Roller Derby is the UK’s first permanent collection of ephemera and memorabilia relating to the sport of Women’s Flat Track Roller Derby. February’s NMRD Object of the month is a poster for a roller derby bout between Leeds Roller Dolls vs Auld Reekie Roller Girls in 2010.

NMRD Object of the Month

National Museum of Roller Derby is the UK’s first permanent collection of ephemera and memorabilia relating to the sport of Women’s Flat Track Roller Derby. In 2016, to celebrate our new permanent home in GWL’s new Bridgeton HQ, we bring you an ‘Object of the Month’ from our collection.

GWL awarded Recognised Collection of National Significance status

We are so proud to announce that GWL has been awarded ‘Recognised Collections of National Significance’ status by Museum Galleries Scotland, joining Scotland’s elite list of must-see museum collections. This covers GWL’s entire collection of museum and archive holdings.

Women and WW1: 1914 from a Suffragist Perspective

With the outbreak of WW1 in the summer of 1914, the campaign for women’s right to vote was officially put on hold. However, looking at the attitudes in 1914 of leading Suffragists in GWL’s collection of ‘Jus Suffragii’, the mouthpiece of the International Women’s Suffrage Alliance, it is evident that the goal of suffrage was still highly relevant even during this time of upheaval.

A Day in The Life of A Victorian Woman Factory Worker

Anne Marie Shields investigates women working in factories in Victorian times, by reading Anne Donovan’s 21 Revolutions story Lassie Wi’ A Yella Coatie and The Woman Worker from 1908.

Clare Henry’s Article Archive comes to GWL

Clare Henry is one of the titans of Scottish journalism, and Glasgow Women’s Library are proud that Clare has chosen to donate copies of all her articles bound in book form to our collection.

Spotlight on: Women in Parliment 1919 – 2014

With David Cameron’s recent cabinet reshuffle weighing on my mind, I decided to take a browse through the GWL Archives to discover more about our first female figures in parliament. There is no doubt these were inspiring women; the words ‘courageous’, ‘out-spoken’ and ‘quick-witted’ seem to follow them in the archives Suffragette literature.