Glasgow Women's Library recognised as a collection of national significance

The achievements of the foot soldiers of the early feminists – and their detractors - forms just part of the extensive archive of Bridgeton-based Glasgow Women’s Library, now recognised as a collection of national significance and the only accredited museum dedicated to women’s history in the UK.

When First Minister Nicola Sturgeon officially opened the renovated premises in the former Bridgeton Public Library in Landressy Street last month she described the facility as a national treasure. Home to unique archives and artefacts it celebrates women’s writing, history and achievements in Scotland and beyond.

Now this new recognition boosts the work of Glasgow Women’s Library, set up nearly 25 years ago to widen horizons with programmes of inspiring events and talks as well as exhibitions, film screenings and heritage walks, and now with 100 volunteers and 21 staff.

“This acknowledges the collection is of such quality, depth and importance that people from all over the country are interested in it,” says Sue John, the library’s enterprise development manager.

“We are the only accredited museum dedicated to women’s history in the whole of the UK, which is a phenomenal thing when you think about it.

“With the film Suffragette there has been quite a lot of consciousness raising, with people on social media asking, why is there not a museum of women’s history?

“We were shouting: ‘There is, and it’s here in Glasgow’s east end.’”

The location of the collection is just as important as the archive itself, according to Sue. From an original base in Garnethill, the library grew and moved in two years ago to the premises in Bridgeton. It has been welcomed with open arms by the local community.

As well as suffragette memorabilia, the collection includes items that tell the story of women’s lives, from the domestic side of family life to work and trade unionism.

“So we have things like knitting patterns and recipe books; things we would say belong in the domestic sphere,” says Sue.

“And there are lovely hidden gems. A researcher came to look at the collection recently and told us about a knitting pattern in it that was devised by a woman who was a Polish spy and it was coded.

“The earliest items we have date back from about the 1840s. We have the copy book of a young girl who lived in Kilsyth called Eliza Rennie.

“It was quite the fashion for young ladies to practice their copperplate writing and she copied out hymns. It was donated to us by someone local to that area along with some genealogy of Eliza.

“We also have a bound copy of the Lady newspaper from 1855. We get a whole year’s worth of news and that is fascinating as it covers everything from current affairs and politics to lady-specific things.”

Some parts of the collection tell the story of how women came together to change society and strive for equality, from the suffragettes to the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s, all the way to to present-day campaigns.

Donations have been made from all over the country, including entire collections of books and materials from other museums, totalling more than 2000 items at the last count with in excess of 100,000 items in the archive that adds rich, contextual information to those artefacts.

“I think we have pretty much something of everything but it’s always good to get more particularly where the provenance of an item is known,” explains Sue.

“We have a Victorian umbrella stand, for example, and we know the provenance of that as the person who donated it had a personal link.

“It was rescued from a skip when Duke Street prison was demolished. The umbrella stand was in the prison governor’s office and an officer there was a suffragette sympathiser – the umbrella stand is painted in three different colours, the nearest they could get to the colours of the suffragette movement: purple, green and white.”

Researchers and academics come to the library from all over the world, alongside local schoolchildren, men and women.

Even for those not particularly interested in history, some of the displays often stop people in their tracks, according to Sue.

“We have a collection of images that show how women were told to shut up at the turn of the century and the time of the suffragettes,” she says.

“The theme is: shut up nagging women. We have a series of cards that show women with various pieces of apparatus around their mouths and they are quite violent: their tongues being nailed to tabletops, put through mangles, cut with scissors.

“The context is the anti-suffrage movement just wanted to shut women up and stop them going on about the vote.

“One of the interesting things about these postcards is that they have these quite violent images on the front but on the back they have really strange messages.

“You have to remember the post came three times a day then so at that time people used it like texting. On the back of these terribly violent images someone would say: ‘I can’t come for tea today, I’ll come tomorrow’ and just not acknowledge what is on the other side.”

Covering two floors of the building, the library still has plans to expand in future. With supporters from Nicola Sturgeon to journalist Kate Adie and writer Sarah Waters, it is unlikely to stray far from the public eye.