This find came from an a.s.a.p email sent by my Head of Service. The Council’s Public Relations Officer needed historical information on elections and voting in the area, specifically early voting and suffragettes. The research has been done and the information handed to PR. The find for me was exploring a women’s life, her work, writings and politics and the possible inequality of women’s heritage and archives stored within the department.
The woman was Eunice Guthrie Murray – b. 1878, d. 1960. She lived her life in Cardross, a small village near Dumbarton. She joined the suffragette movement in 1908 by becoming a member of the Women’s Freedom League (WFL) after becoming disheartened by the hostility to suffragettes in her area. By 1913 she had became president of the Glasgow branch and later Scottish Council of the WFL. She spoke out throughout her time in the suffragette movement and was arrested in London for persisting in an attempt to address a meeting from the steps of Downing Street to the Horse Guards Parade. The suffragettes went to many lengths to have their voices heard, as the well documented accounts confirm, such as Emily Wilding Davison. However Ms Murray disagreed with arson which had been used throughout the country to publicise the campaign.
She stood for the Glasgow Bridgeton seat at the 1918 elections, at the time she is stated as having said she had a ‘good deal of encouragement from both men and women’, however at the count she only received 1000 votes. This did not deter her and in 1919 she became a councillor in the Dunbartonshire area, she was also awarded the M.B.E in 1945. Ms Murray wrote throughout her life from early pamphlets for the suffragette movement to books on social history, in particular women’s history. From her collection of writings two stand out ‘Scottish Women of a Bygone Age’ and ‘A Gallery of Scottish women’.
Ms Murray was quoted in 1947; “Women have a two-fold calling, for not only are we as wives and mothers the guardians of the future, but we are also the custodians of the past,” (Scottish Homespun 1947) I’ll take the custodians of the past, as for the first part, I’m an Aunt not a Mother. As a local history librarian however I do believe I am now a custodian of my authority’s archives and related history. All of the custodians before me have been men, a long line of them. As librarians, each has brought new meaning to the collection and has specialized in specific areas. My main focus this past fortnight has been on the historical development of women in the area. I couldn’t find a great deal within the overall collection, even within the archive. However when you dig deep and spend time just researching and reading you start to find little things that could have been added to cuttings files or catalogued in the archive. We had a very brief outline of Ms Murray in the library; however with a little detective work on the old newspapers, it was relatively easy to find information. The question remains as to why until now is it not documented. Ms Murray was not only a woman but the first Scottish women to stand for a parliamentary seat, a local councillor and local author. My mission now is to focus on the Herstory of the area, something that is well overdue. What of the notable women in the 17th and 18th century, what of the women who worked in the whiskey bond or the wives of the shipbuilders, what social history is out there that we haven’t documented and is right in front of our eyes. It’s a very steep mountain to climb but one I am sure will pose a challenge for a few years. I have to place my feet firmly under the table and establish my knowledge on the area, then piece by piece interweave the women of the area into the herstory.
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