IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0120 GC/228
Held at: Wellcome Library
Title: Miller, Florence Fenwick (1854-1935): autobiography 'An Uncommon Girlhood'
Date(s): c1920s-1930s
Level of description: Collection (fonds)
Extent: 2 boxes
Name of creator(s): Miller | Florence Fenwick | 1854-1935 | feminist
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Florence Fenwick Miller was a leading late Victorian feminist. She was one of the first women to qualify in medicine in the United Kingdom, having been part of Sophia Jex-Blake's first doomed attempt to obtain medical education for women at the University of Edinburgh, then studying at the short-lived Medical College for Women in London, and finally achieving registration when this was ultimately conceded to women in 1878. She practised only briefly, subsequently becoming a popular writer and speaker on popular physiology as well as feminist and political subjects, and a prolific journalist and editor. In 1876 she was elected to represent Hackney on the London School Board, and served three consecutive terms, 1877-1885. In 1877 she married Frederick Alfred Ford, but retained her own name, being addressed as Mrs Fenwick Miller.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Memoir of the first twenty-five years of Fenwick Miller's life 'An uncommon girlhood', (typed by her daughter, militant suffragette Irene Miller c 1920s-1930s), including her struggle for medical education, her involvement in this and other campaigns and with radical circles of the day, her election to the London School Board, her marriage, her contacts with the other pioneers in this field and their male allies, and her experiences in medical practice. She was also involved with the London Dialectical Society and freethought and Malthusian circles during the years described.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
Single item
Conditions governing access:
The papers are available subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Photocopies/photographs/microfilm are supplied for private research only at the Archivist's discretion. Please note that material may be unsuitable for copying on conservation grounds, and that photographs cannot be photocopied in any circumstances. Readers are restricted to 100 photocopies in twelve months. Researchers who wish to publish material must seek copyright permission from the copyright owner.
Physical characteristics:
This item is only available for consultation on microfilm. If you need to see the original please consult the archivist.
Finding aids:
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
This memoir was given to the Contemporary Medical Archives centre in June 1997 by Florence Fenwick Miller's great-granddaughter, Isobel Brougham, through the good offices of Professor Rosemary Van Arsdel.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Related material:
Wellcome Library ref: SA/MWF
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Some odd pages are missing, and although there seems to have been another copy at one time, held in the family bank, this has not so far been traced as still in existence.
Archivist's note: Entry compiled by Sarah Drewery.
Date(s) of descriptions: Jun 2008