| Description | Notable Women is a collection of predominantly Victorian biographies of women, aimed at a female reader, including some notable bindings, collected by Maureen Bell. The collection is significant to the genre of 19th Century women's history and biographies, including both 'serious' historical works, elaborate gift presentation books, and more 'ephemeral' cheaper popular texts. They evidence the formation of a popular historical canon of famous women, as well as changing attitudes to models of femininity and patterns of moral education.
Common themes include: conduct and advice books; books on social and moral questions relating to women; women in roles (not always approvingly) such as queens, adventurers, writers, actresses, 'beauties,' religious figures, and pioneers; and women as a dichotomy of heroines and sinners. |
| CustodialHistory | The collection was gathered by Maureen Bell over several decades, related to her academic research in early modern book history, especially the writing, printing, publishing, and reading of books by 17th Century women and the history and biographies of 19th Century women. It was kindly donated to LJMU Special Collections & Archives in 2017 by Bell, prompted by her friendship and collaboration with the late Nickianne Moody. |