Welshhist0rian

Elizabeth ‘Lee’ Miller, Lady Penrose was an American photographer from New York, she was originally a fashion model during the 1920s but moved to Paris where she changed her career to becoming a fashion and fine art photographer. Elizabeth was married to Aziz Eloui Bey, a wealthy Egyptian man whom she met whilst photographing Eloui’s first wife Nimet. After her marriage to Aziz, Lee moved to Cairo. Miller and Aziz divorced in 1947, and her second husband, Sir Roland Penrose was an English artist, historian and poet and during WWII used his artistic skills to teach camouflage. By U.S. Army Official Photograph - http://astro.temple.edu/~gurwin/hist.0690syb2005.html, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77888314 Lee was a war correspondent during the Second World War for Vogue and covered events including the London Blitz, the liberation of Paris and concentration camps Buchenwald and Dachau. Miller was part of the surrealist movement, which had developed post-W...

* Remembering the lives of those who died during the Newport Rising, but also remembering Kenneth Budd who created the original Newport Rising Mosaic located in what was John Frost Square * Today we remember the 184th anniversary of the Newport Rising, some of the photos shown here are from when I visited the Newport Rising exhibition at the Newport Museum and Art Gallery recently.      On the 4th of November 1839, the Newport Rising was a large-scale armed rising in Wales to free prisoners held at the Westgate Hotel (Newport). The Chartists involved were led by John Frost, Zephaniah Williams and William Jones, and the men who followed came from surrounding valleys areas. Frost was a former mayor of Newport, Williams was a publican from Blaina, and Jones was a watchmaker from Pontypool and their target, was the Westgate.                                      ...

  The Chartists were a group of working-class men who wanted democratic change. The National Archive definition states that ‘Chartism was a working-class movement which emerged in 1836 in London’. It saw expansion during 1838 and 1848 with activity in Wales also and their aim was to gain political rights for those of similar backgrounds, they had meetings and published pamphlets. (read more here ) (Image taken from Spartacus Educational  though it is titled ' The Chartist Petition (1843)'  I believe the date is wrong as a petition was presented in 1842 and I have found no reference to one in 1843) So to start off this post, there are a few definitions to make things clearer. Charter - a written statement of the rights of a specified group of people. Rotten/Pocket Borough - a parliamentary borough or constituency before the Great Reform Act of 1832, which had a small electorate and could be used by a patron to gain unrepresentative influence within the unreformed ...

  On Saturday I went on a night out with my friends and whilst in the taxi, our driver made a comment saying that there are not ‘many’ successful women. This got me thinking. Now I can easily list several successful women, but why should I have to? Regardless of privilege, power, or even wealth, all women are successful. Why should we have to ‘achieve’ things to regard ourselves as successful? Success should be looked at from a different perspective, success can come in all shapes and sizes. For example, writing this blog post for me is a success. What may have been a simple statement by a taxi driver got me thinking. Women have always had to ‘prove’ themselves, and for what? Approval by men? Approval of society? You don’t need to become successful to feel like you have a place, I know it’s easier said than done – today’s society is a toxic one. Cambridge dictionary defined success as: achieving the results wanted or hoped for. Some examples given are: -   ...

Augusta Hall, ‘Lady Llanover’, 1802-1896 To start off Women’s History Month which falls on St David’s Day, I thought Lady Llanover who was a pioneer for Welsh folk culture and keeping Welsh traditions alive was quite apt. Augusta Waddington was born on the 21st of March 1802 to Benjamin Waddington and Georgina Port, Llanover, Monmouthshire.  Augusta married Benjamin Hall of Abercarn and Hensol - he was an MP before becoming a peer in 1859. He oversaw the building of the great clock of Westminster, the bell and tower was called 'Big Ben' in recognition of his work.  Lady Llanover was an advocate for Welsh folk culture, her home became a meeting place for Welsh poets, authors and musicians. She favoured the traditional ways of life, which included Welsh speakers as servants, Welsh services at Llanover church, and made sure the Welsh language was taught at the two schools in Llanover.  Augusta became one of the main promoters of the triple harp as the national instrument o...

  I recently watched Enola Holmes films featuring Millie Bobby Brown as Enola Holmes, Henry Cavill as Sherlock Holmes, Sam Claflin as Mycroft Holmes and Helena Bonham Carter as Eudoria Holmes. I really enjoyed the modern, but respectful approach to the story, I believe that this film had a lot of good messages, especially for a younger audience, it would have been nice to have films like these when I was younger as they are so empowering. The female characters, Enola, her mother, and Edith (who taught both Enola and her mother fighting combat techniques) were more prominent in the second film, but their presence was positive. Without going too much into it just in case of spoilers, the fight for women’s rights was a common theme, with a ‘well-known’ women’s group being a part of the film, it was interesting to see                                     ...