Radical Portraiture

Join Georgia Haseldine to discover how dynamic women from Hackney have shaped the world we live in today. Female radicals in the eighteenth and nineteenth century campaigned for our democratic rights, such as the right to vote for men and women over 18, and demanded social rights, such as a woman’s right to receive the same education as a man and to work the same jobs.

Through the exploration of body language and fashion in portraiture, Haseldine will uncover the women behind these stories. Women in Hackney pushed the boundaries of what women were thought capable of: Mary Wollstonecraft, the 'mother of feminism', demanded equality and her ideas are still pertinent today; her friend and ally Anna Laetitia Barbauld used poetry and educational texts to advance her radical ideas for religious toleration and the end of the slave trade; and other inspirational figures, such as the successful cross-dressing female soldier Hannah Snell, proved that women were as strong and fierce as men. These female radicals fought for the political, social and religious rights of men and women in the eighteenth century.

The backdrop to the talk will be Hackney Museum’s temporary exhibition Making Her Mark: 100 Years of Women’s activism in Hackney, which will explore the changes women have brought about in their community since 1918 through political campaigns, industrial action, peaceful protest, direct action and the arts.

Georgia Haseldine is an art historian and artist who lives in Hackney. She is working on her PhD at the National Portrait Gallery which explores the portraiture of the radical reform movement and she teaches English Literature and History at Queen Mary, University of London. She also collaborates with refugees and asylum seekers, most recently on an art project which toured Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Museums Sheffield, BALTIC centre for contemporary art and Southbank Centre.