Herstory Revisited

Finished this in less than 24 hours.  I knew of Trishna as she’s done a lot of work at my former workplace, the Palace of Holyroodhouse, including meeting Prince William and Kate on the same day that I saw them for the first time! Thus, I have long admired her work and when I saw on insta that she had written a book I thought I’d buy it to support the cause, not expecting it to be one of the favourite books I’ve read this year, if not ever! I’ve long been on a campaign for more education about Sikhism – including at my own uni where we have never been taught about it my three Religious Studies degrees, despite the fact that we’ve learnt about other new age religions with only a couple of hundred followers. The little I knew about Sikhism comes from my experiences with Sikh friends, and from my own research in my spare time.  Trishna included a chapter on Sikhism, and in particular women in Sikhism, from which I learnt more than I have in 7 years at the school of divinity. It o...

VERY LOCAL (like, the building I’m doing my PhD in right now) AND VERY RELEVANT (like, could be written about 2022 USA) HERSTORY TIME! Have you heard of Janet Chance (10 February 1886 – 18 December 1953), a Scottish feminist writer, sex education advocate and birth control and abortion law reformer? Janet Chance was born in Edinburgh to Jane Elizabeth Barbour and Alexander Whyte, a Scottish Calvinist minister who also served as principle of New College (aka University of Edinburgh’s School of Divinity, where I’ve been studying for the last 7 years and which is crying out for some herstory!). Her middle brother was killed during the first world war, but her eldest brother survived and went on to earn a knighthood for his political work. Janet lived with her family in a fancy house in the Edinburgh New Town until she married businessman and stockbroker, Clinton Frederick Chance in 1912. The newlyweds moved to London, where they became enthusiastic advocates and benefactors of the Engli...

Finally sharing another of the ladies I learnt about on my recent visit to the Pitts Rivers Museum in Oxford!   Beatrice Mary Blackwood  (3 May 1889 – 29 November 1975) was a British  anthropologist , who ran the  Pitt Rivers Museum  in Oxford from 1938 until her retirement in 1959.   Beatrice Blackwood was born in  London  on 3 May 1889 . She studied German, Latin and Greek in Germany, before completing a degree in English Literature and Language at  Somerville College, Oxford  in 1908–1912. After gaining a distinction after returning to Oxford to study anthropology in 1916, she began her career working in the Human Anatomy Department at  Oxford .    Until 1920, w omen were not allowed to official ly matriculate or graduate from Oxford . When this was finally allowed, M s. Blackwood took both the BA and MA in the same day. In 1923, she also earned a B.Sc. in Embryology.   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

  A local hero today! It’s been a while since I’ve done some Edinburgh history so I hope you enjoy!    Janet ("Jenny") Geddes (c. 1600 – c. 1660) was a Scottish market-trader in Edinburgh who is alleged to have thrown a stool at the head of the minister in St Giles' Cathedral in objection to the first public use of the Scottish Episcopal Church's 1637 edition of the Book of Common Prayer in Scotland. The act is reputed to have sparked the riot that led to the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, which included the English Civil War , thus changing the face of Scotland – and indeed Britain – forever.   Since the early years of the 17th century, the Scottish Church had been established as an Episcopal Church on the same basis as its English cousin the Anglican Church, but was far more puritan, both in doctrine and practice. In 1633 , King Charles had his Scottish coronation service at S t Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh, using the full Anglican rites, accompanied by William...