Description:This is an additional miscellaneous resource list of materials on the subject of 'women at work', developed during research seminars held by the Birmingham Stories project. The references below can be used in conjuction with the resources in the learning guide on ‘Votes For Women: Tracing The Struggle in Birmingham"
[Submitted by Angela Skitt, Birmingham Archives and Heritage]
'Women at Work in the Archive'
Industry
Engravings showing women making pens at the manufactory of Messrs. Hinks, Wells & Co. in Birmingham, taken from the Illustrated London News 22 February 1851 [Women Workers 23 and 24]
Photographs. Women Jewellery Workers at T. Winkles & Co., Vittoria Street, Birmingham, c.1920 [MS 1610/30]
Photograph. ‘Group of Forewomen 1906’ Cadbury works [MS 466/3/97A]
Photograph. Cadbury works, Card box department, women workers, 1905 [MS 466/3/37]
‘An appeal to the servants girls of the United Kingdom on behalf of the Flint Glass Washer’s Friendly Society’, 13 January 1859, from a volume of letters, accounts and documents relating to the Union Glass Works, Dartmouth Street, Birmingham 1817 - 1882 [ZZ35 370962]
Wartime work
Papers of Miss Hopkins relating to the Women’s Volunteer Reserve (Midlands Battalion). Typescript diary with photographs of Colonel Miss Hopkins [MS 3194 282741]
Photograph. Land Girls at Woodgate, c.1943 [WK/B6/157]
Photograph. Women workers at Nechells Gas Works during World War One [WK/S2/181]
Medicine
Photograph. Nursing staff at the Birmingham General Hospital, Not dated [c.1920?] [HC/GH/5/6/6]
Photograph. Resident staff at the Birmingham General Hospital, December 1933, [HC/GH/5/6/5]
Of the eighteen staff pictured, four are women: Miss C.A.M. Robson, Anaesthetist, Miss L.M. Buxton, H.S., Miss M.E. Gould, H.S. and Miss E.M. Hutton, Spec. H.S.
Papers and correspondence of Ruby Florence Gertrude Grant,[HC/GH/6/4/2/1]
Ruby Florence Gertrude Grant (b. Birmingham, 4 November 1905) trained as a nurse at the Queen’s Hospital, qualifying as a registered nurse in 1928. She worked at the Queen’s Hospital, qualifying as a registered nurse in 1928. She worked at the Queen’s until its closure in 1941, and then at the Birmingham Accident Hospital and Rehabilitation Centre which took over the old Queen’s Hospital buildings. In 1958 she moved to take up a post with the Bristol Hospital Management Committee.
The personal papers shown here include a nurse’s training chart and examples of nursing examination papers from the 1920s.
Photography
Photograph of Doreen Mary Watkins at work in a photographic studio. [Accession 2005/24]
Programme from the International Exhibition of Colour Photography, 1953 showing an example of Miss Watkin’s work. [Accession 2005/24]
Photographs taken by Claire Smith (MS 2315) Born in Birmingham, Clare Smith is Lecturer in Photography at the University of Central England. The images on display are part of a sequence of 11 photographs, produced by Claire Smith whilst studying Photography at Bournville School of Art in 1993-4. The series was intended as a record of the changing nature of women’s work – ranging from ‘traditional’ roles as mother and nurse to new jobs in the construction industry and the church.
Builder - Teresa Hussey, Northfield [MS 2315/2]
Deaconess – Janet, St. Peter’s Parish Church, Harborne [MS 2315/4]
Recent
Photograph of Inspector P.E. Wren (Miss) of Birmingham Police, 1959 [Women Workers 13]
Birmingham Directory of Women in Business, 1992 [LP22.7]
Overview items
Press cuttings ‘Women in Birmingham 1870 – 2005’