This poster introducing a new exhibit at the Armstrong Browning Library, Giving Nineteenth Century Women Writers a Voice and a Face, contains words from a poem written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning between 1842-44, discovered in a small pocket notebook, and only recently published in 2006. This excerpt from a fragment of the poem, “My sisters! Daughters of this fatherland” expresses the challenges Barrett Browning faced as she sought to assert her voice in a predominately male tradition of public poetry in the 1840s.

The photograph was taken in 1864 by Julia Margaret Cameron, one of the first women photographers. She was a remarkable woman, growing up in Ceylon, moving to England after her marriage, and living on the Isle of Wight, next door to Tennyson. She began taking photos at the age of forty-eight. Her photographs have a soft, ethereal feeling to them and an amazingly contemporary appeal. Cameron, who also wrote an autobiography, translated German, and published poems and fiction, is one of the women featured in the exhibit.

The exhibit in the Hankamer Treasure Room at the Armstrong Browning Library features texts and images of twenty-three nineteenth century women. These women were mothers, daughters, wives, lovers, friends, poets, novelists, tract writers, storytellers, hymn writers, advocates for social reform, philanthropists, and more. So many fascinating things were discovered about these amazing women during my research that we wanted to share their voices and faces with a wider audience through this blog.

Many of the items in the exhibit are taken from the Armstrong Browning Library’s large Nineteenth Century Women Poets Collection. This collection can be viewed at digitalcollections.baylor.edu.

It is our sincere hope that, through the texts and images exhibited in this display and shared through this blog, we at the Armstrong Browning Library might be able to honor Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s wish by giving nineteenth century women writers a voice and a face.

Enjoy the slideshow below for a preview of the women featured in this exhibit.