Women artists and book illustration in Edinburgh 1886-1945

Abstract

This thesis documents a range of visua1 and textual records of women artists and illustrators in Edinburgh (1886-1945). It considers how women trained and applied skills to illustrate unique and multiple images for Edinburgh's printing and publishing houses. Research by Dr Elizabeth Cumming into the Arts and Crafts Movement 111 Edinburgh, studies by Professor Janice Helland of Professional Women Artists 111 Scotland and work by Professor Sian Reynolds into the cultural industries in Edinburgh, provide fundamental models of enquiry into women's occupations in this period.The following chapters discuss the ways in which women presented images of themselves. They generated images in book form, in design, illustration and the interpretation of texts. Nineteenth century debates about the necessity of roles for women in art, education, religion and politics challenged gendered norms of the political culture. In order to stress the agency o f women illustrators, a s scribes who wrote themselves into their culture, the thesis also marks the currency of changing attitudes about womanhood. Interaction between women as cultural facilitators, campaigners for women's rights and artists as illustrators emerges in a critical phase of Scottish history.