Needlework for Intellectual Women

Saturday, 19 January 2019

Needlework for Intellectual Women

Newnham Iris Cafe

Last week, I was privileged to accompany my old friend Annabel O Docherty as she delivered her replica suffragist banner to Newnham College. A welcoming committee of Henrietta, Lucilla, Laura and Harriet were there to receive it.

The original banner, once carried by our fore-mothers in suffragist marches a hundred years ago is now fragile and hangs in a hushed and climate-controlled case in the foyer of Newnham. Since it can no longer come out to play, Newnham commissioned a replica.

However, it was women from BOTH the original Cambridge Women’s Colleges who stitched and carried the banner. Like me, Annabel is an alumna of Girton College where the original banner is much missed and she had already used her considerable skills as a theatrical-costume-maker to create a stunning replica for them too (click through for story).

The approach that Annabel used in producing the replica banners demonstrates the benefits that women now gain from a Cambridge education, thanks to the pioneering efforts of those early students who fought not only for the vote, but also for degrees for women.

Annabel had the research skills to re-discover lost stencilling methods, to identify, source and dye exactly the right fabrics and to piece together the technique for replicating the huge, ornate tassels which helped the suffragists to hold the banner steady on a windy day.

And in case you are wondering, her stitches were perhaps even more precise than those of a hundred years ago.