FORGOTTEN STORIES: HOW WOMEN HAVE SHAPED THE STATIONERS' COMPANY THROUGHOUT ITS HISTORY
“A Youth may be set a-float in the World as soon as he has got a Trade in his Head… but a Girl is such a tender, ticklish Plant to rear, tha[t] there is no permitting her out of Leading-strings till she is bound to a Husband.” - Robert Campbell, The London Tradesman, 1747
For our 2025 Archive Evening, we investigated how women have contributed to, influenced and shaped our Company throughout its history. 1556 saw our first woman to bind an apprentice, 1688 our first woman freeman and in 1933, our first liveryman and later Court Assistant. As we celebrated the new portrait of our first woman Master in 2015, our theme revolved around the unsung stories from the past showing how women have made and continue to make their mark.
This online exhibition draws on the physical exhibition curated by Beth DeBold as part of the practical component in a Collaborative Doctoral Award scheme run by the University of Newcastle in partnership with the Stationers' Company. It reflects Beth's in-depth study of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English book trade. All captions are written by Beth.
Archive Evening
Monday 7 April 2025
Our panel of speakers explored the different ways in which women were involved in the Company. For the most part they were widows or daughters taking over a deceased husband’s or father’s business, though they made notable and significant contributions in their own name. They had the right to trade and bind apprentices at Stationers’ Hall and were eligible for Freedom but not Livery. In modern times women were admitted to the Company from 1977.
Beth DeBold is a doctoral researcher in History based at Newcastle University. Her collaborative project with the Stationers' focuses on networks of apprenticeship in the 17th and 18th century book trade, with particular interest in how women factored into these equations. She comes to her PhD project after a decade working in libraries and archives, including the Duke University Divinity School Library and the Folger Shakespeare Library.
Liveryman Rodney Mountford focused on the history of the Stationers’ barge and hospitality that extended to ladies in limited circumstances!
Liveryman John Peacock brought to life the images of women represented in the Hall, their stories and roles throughout our history – there are more than at first sight.
Court Assistant Professor Linda Drew, bringing us right up to date, told the story of the portrait brief of Past Master Helen Esmonde, the selection of the artist, other portrait artists used as 'benchmarks' and portraits of other women Masters.
The evening was chaired by Court Assistant Carol Tullo. Every attendee was able to print or take away a letterpress printed keepsake on the theme of the evening designed by Liveryman Simon Trewin and graphic designer Tania Hurt-Newton, who founded the Bell House Print Room and Bindery in 2023 in the 18th century house in Dulwich, home of Past Master Thomas Wright (1748) later Sheriff and Lord Mayor of London.