Trailblazer

Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon

One of Victorian Britain’s most influential but forgotten women.
Artist, co-founder of Girton College, Cambridge, Cousin of Florence Nightingale, and friend of George Eliot, Rossetti and Gertrude Jekyll.

Born in 1827, Bodichon was the illegitimate child of a Norfolk parliamentarian, Liberal MP Benjamin Smith, and a Derbyshire miller’s daughter. However, her childhood was neither clandestine nor deprived, in fact her upbringing was unusually free; her education was encouraged. On reaching 21 years, her wealthy father settled on her a portfolio of investment that meant that she would forever be financially independent.

As a result she was able to study amongst other things, drawing at Bedford College, London; she became a renowned watercolourist, whose paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy. Her friends included Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

It was Bodichon who opened the doors for more famous names to walk through. Her influence owed as much to who she was as to what she did: she became a prominent women’s rights activist; she campaigned for equal opportunity in the workplace, the law, the polling booth, at home; she co-founded the first university college for women; the first women’s suffrage society; was fervently against slavery and was a committed activist for human rights. Her visionary view on mental health was ahead of its time. She challenged the status quo by suggesting that alcoholism might be a symptom of mental distress, rather than the proof of moral degradation.

Yet why has history not treated Bodichon with the respect she deserves. Why has someone so fundamental to our social, cultural and political history been so side-lined?

Join renowned local author and social historian,
Jane Robinson as she talks about her brilliant new book that shines a light on this remarkable woman. A woman who lived on her own terms and to whom we owe a huge debt.

Friday 24th May at 7.30pm

Live at the Museum and Live-stream

Tickets: £7 / £5 members available from our online shop HERE

Jane’s book will be available to purchase on the night.