Lessons from eco pioneer Etta Lemon
Etta Lemon is the formidable woman who built the RSPB. Known by one and all as Mrs Lemon, her surname suited her. She was bitter in her...
boasetessa
- May 25, 2021
- 4 min
The fashionable cult of the ‘osprey’
In March 1888, a record-breaking plumage sale was held at the London Commercial Salesrooms. Among the many thousand birds-of paradise,...
Tessa Boase
- Jan 2, 2021
- 4 min
The skeleton in the RSPB closet
When I started researching Margaretta Lemon, the woman who built the all-female RSPB, I assumed that she would be in favour of women's...
Tessa Boase
- Dec 9, 2020
- 4 min
Why we need more statues of women
Statues of women are troubling. Just look at the reaction to the 2020 Mary Wollstonecraft statue by Maggi Hambling. ‘Catastrophically...
Tessa Boase
- Aug 13, 2020
- 4 min
Looking for Emily Williamson, RSPB founder
Victorian campaigner Emily Williamson was so incensed by the millinery trade’s use of plumage that she invited her friends to tea — and...
Tessa Boase
- Dec 29, 2018
- 5 min
The strange ritual of the Servants’ Christmas Ball
Was the Servants’ Ball really so marvellous? It is invoked as an example of the cosy, protective relationship within the English country...
Tessa Boase
- Oct 20, 2018
- 4 min
Heather Firbank’s feathered hats
I stumbled across Heather Firbank, Edwardian fashion victim, when I made an appointment to view a dozen feathered hats at the Victoria...
Tessa Boase
- Oct 19, 2018
- 6 min
The Seduction of Heather Firbank, Edwardian It Girl
A dozen feathered hats, hidden within the fashion archives of the Victorian and Albert Museum, London, were my first introduction to...