Established | 2015 |
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Location | London Barking, IG11 7BB United Kingdom |
Coordinates | @51.533766, 0.075335 51°32′01.6″N0°04′31.2″E / 51.533778°N 0.075333°E |
Type | Women's museum |
Founder | Co-founder: Sara Huws, Sarah Jackson [1] |
Director | Rachel Crossley |
Website | https://eastendwomensmuseum.org/ |
East End Women's Museum (EEWM) is a virtual, pop-up museum and the only dedicated women's museum in England. It was established in 2015 as a positive protest to a "Jack the Ripper Museum" in Cable Street. While the EEWM sought to open a permanent location in Barking town centre in 2023, the museum faced difficulties finalising the lease. The museum continues to have a pop-up museum that hosts temporary exhibitions—both online and in-person—as well as community workshops and educational events. [2]
The mission of the East End Women's Museum (EEWM) is to "Research, record, share and celebrate the stories of east London women past and present." [3]
East End Women's Museum (EEWM) is a small museum dedicated to the stories and voices of women of east London. Its aim is "to give representation to all women, particularly those traditionally marginalised, including women of colour, women with disabilities, lesbian and bi women, trans women, working-class women, older women, women from migrant or itinerant communities, women who are refugees or asylum-seeking, and women working in the sex industry." [3] Women are underrepresented within British historical record and female voices have often been overlooked; for example, only 14% of English Heritage's blue plaques honour women. [4] In order to provide more opportunities for female voices, its goal is to challenge gender inequality and encourage women to express their thoughts and tell their own stories.
East London, including but extending beyond the East End of London, has been a place full of intense political activism and women's equality movements. England's ‘first feminist’ , Mary Wollstonecraft, spent her early childhood at Barking. The matchgirls' strike of 1888 occurred at the Bryant & May match factory in Bow. The sewing machinists strike at Ford Dagenham in 1968 was a landmark labour-relations dispute which led to the passing of the Equal Pay Act 1970.
The suffragette movement was strong in the area. When Sylvia Pankhurst and her followers were expelled from the Women's Social and Political Union in 1912, they set up the East London Federation of Suffragettes. The last surviving suffragette, Annie Clara Huggett, lived locally and has a women's centre in Dagenham named after her. [5]
As a virtual, pop-up museum, the EEWM seeks to engage local communities through temporary exhibitions, workshops, talks and events, different research, online learning and touring around East London. Its pop-up exhibitions have been all over East London: [6]
The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham is a London borough in East London. It lies around 9 miles (14.4 km) east of Central London. The borough was created in 1965 as the London Borough of Barking; the name was changed in 1980. It is an Outer London borough and the south is within the London Riverside section of the Thames Gateway; an area designated as a national priority for urban regeneration. At the 2011 census it had a population of 187,000. The borough's three main towns are Barking, Chadwell Heath and Dagenham. The local authority is the Barking and Dagenham London Borough Council. Barking and Dagenham was one of six London boroughs to host the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Dagenham is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Dagenham is centred 11.5 miles (18.5 km) east of Charing Cross.
Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst was an English feminist and socialist activist and writer. Following encounters with women-led labour activism in the United States, she worked to organise working-class women in London's East End. This, together with her refusal in 1914 to enter into a wartime political truce with the government, caused her to break with the suffragette leadership of her mother and sister, Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst. Pankhurst welcomed the Russian Revolution and consulted in Moscow with Lenin. But as an advocate of workers' control, she rejected the Leninist party line and criticised the Bolshevik regime.
Barking is a riverside town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. It is 9.3 miles (15 km) east of Charing Cross. The total population of Barking was 59,068 at the 2011 census. In addition to an extensive and fairly low-density residential area, the town centre forms a large retail and commercial district, currently a focus for regeneration. The former industrial lands to the south are being redeveloped as Barking Riverside.
Archant Limited is a newspaper and magazine publishing company with headquarters in Norwich, England. The group publishes four daily newspapers, around 50 weekly newspapers, and 80 consumer and contract magazines. The company is a subsidiary of Newsquest, which is owned by American newspaper publishing company Gannett.
The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom founded in 1903. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership and policies were tightly controlled by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia. Sylvia was eventually expelled.
Barking & Dagenham College is a general further education college in East London, England. It has four campuses across the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham with its main campus being located in Rush Green less than a mile from the Romford town centre. Their other campus are located in Barking town center at the Technical Skills Academy, The Broadway Theatre and Barking Learning Centre.
East London is the northeastern part of Greater London, England, east of the ancient City of London and north of the River Thames as it begins to widen. Containing areas in the historic counties of Middlesex and Essex, East London developed as London's docklands and the primary industrial centre. The expansion of railways in the 19th century encouraged the eastward expansion of the East End of London and a proliferation of new suburbs. The industrial lands of East London are today an area of regeneration, which are well advanced in places such as Canary Wharf and ongoing elsewhere.
Ann "Annie" Kenney was an English working-class suffragette and socialist feminist who became a leading figure in the Women's Social and Political Union. She co-founded its first branch in London with Minnie Baldock. Kenney attracted the attention of the press and public in 1905 when she and Christabel Pankhurst were imprisoned for several days for assault and obstruction related to the questioning of Sir Edward Grey at a Liberal rally in Manchester on the issue of votes for women. The incident is credited with inaugurating a new phase in the struggle for women's suffrage in the UK with the adoption of militant tactics. Annie had friendships with Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Baroness Pethick-Lawrence, Mary Blathwayt, Clara Codd, Adela Pankhurst, and Christabel Pankhurst.
Valence House Museum is the only surviving of the five manor houses of Dagenham. The timber-framed museum building, partially surrounded by a moat, is situated in Valence Park off Becontree Avenue, in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, London, England. The building has been used as a manor house, a family home, a town hall, the headquarters of the library service and now houses a museum.
Glasgow Women's Library is a public library, registered company and charity based in the Bridgeton area of Glasgow, Scotland. It is the only accredited museum dedicated to women's history and provides information relevant to women's culture and achievements. It tries to operate on feminist principles. The library was awarded Recognised Collection of National Significance to Scotland status in 2015, as the collection contains valuable resources pertaining to women and their lives. In 2018, it was shortlisted for Museum of the Year. The museum supplies and encourages training and education, as well as skill-sharing via volunteers and/or staff.
The Jack the Ripper Museum is a museum and tourist attraction that opened in August 2015 in Cable Street, London. It recreates the East end of London setting in which the unsolved Jack the Ripper murders took place in 1888, and exhibits some original artefacts from the period as well as waxwork recreations of crime scenes and sets. The museum was founded by Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe, a former head of diversity for Google.
Florence Eliza Haig (1856–1952) was a Scottish artist and suffragette who was decorated for imprisonments and hunger strikes.
Maud Joachim was a member of the Women's Social and Political Union, one of the groups of suffragettes that fought for women to get the right to vote in the United Kingdom. She was jailed several times for her protests. Joachim was one of the first suffragettes to go on hunger strike when imprisoned, a protest at not being recognised as political prisoners.
Jane Sbarborough also known as Sbarabara, was born in Canada East but is recognized as a British suffragette. She, along with Annie Kenney and Adelaide Knight, was part of the "Canning Town Three", as dubbed by the press. Sbarborough was an early member of the first East End London branch of the Women's Social and Political Union.
Eleanor Grace Watney Roe was Head of Suffragette operations for the Women's Social and Political Union. She was released from prison after the outbreak of World War I due to an amnesty for suffragettes negotiated with the government by the WSPU.
The Holloway brooch was presented by the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) to women who had been imprisoned at Holloway Prison for militant suffragette activity. It is also referred to as the "Portcullis badge", the "Holloway Prison brooch" and the "Victoria Cross of the Union".
Dora Beedham was a British nurse from the social activist Spong Family and suffragette who joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1908 and was imprisoned and force-fed.
The Hunger Strike Medal was a silver medal awarded between August 1909 and 1914 to suffragette prisoners by the leadership of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). During their imprisonment, they went on hunger strike while serving their sentences in the prisons of the United Kingdom for acts of militancy in their campaign for women's suffrage. Many women were force-fed and their individual medals were created to reflect this.
Theodora Ellen Bonwick was a British headteacher, trade unionist, educationist and suffragette.