I

Illustrator

 

During the last quarter of the 19th century there was a huge increase in the number of national and local newspapers and magazines, many of them aimed at women readers. Photography could not yet provide all the illustrations required and drawings filled the gap, giving artists employment as illustrators – other ­openings could be found in, for example, book illustration, advertising or greetings cards, and artists may have worked in all and more of these fields.

  

Mrs Staples was a prolific illustrator of stories and articles in Victorian and Edwardian magazines, under the name M. Ellen Edwards, or simply M.E.E..

 

On newspapers and in some journals they filled the role of a present-day press photographer, accompanying the reporter to an interview or investigation. Some female illustrators disguised their sex by using only initials when signing drawings, but others can be found listed in acknowledgement pages, e.g. Dorothy Hardy in the Strand Magazine in 1896. Unfortunately it will prove to be difficult to trace many of the women who worked on a freelance basis. Some help may be provided by the Dictionary of 19th Century British Book Illustrators and Caricaturists, Simon Houfe (Antiques Collectors Club, 2nd edn, 1999) and Dictionary of 20th Century British Book Illustrators, Alan Horne (Antiques Collectors Club, 1994). There is also an online list of 19th and 20th century Scottish illustrators at www.nls.uk/collections/rarebooks/collections/illustrators.html. See also artist.

Interior designer/decorator

 

In the last quarter of the 19th century books began to be written appealing directly to women wanting to decorate or design their own homes, as well as articles in popular magazines aimed at women living on their own, perhaps in one or two rooms. The element of gaining control over their environment was important, chiming with the increasing independence of working women. The first professional interior designers in England are believed to have been Agnes Garrett (sister of Dr Elizabeth Garrett) and her cousin Rhoda Garrett. They wrote a book, Suggestions for House Decoration, in 1876 and were employed by the new women’s colleges at both Oxford and Cambridge universities and on private commissions. They even designed a bedroom layout for the Paris Exhibition of 1878. For their story see Architecture in the Family Way: Doctors, Houses and Women 1870–1900, Annmarie Adams (McGill-Queen’s Press, 2001).

Ironer

 

see laundress.

Ironworker (mines, iron foundries)

 

By the last quarter of the 19th century female labour in ironworks and foundries was to be found mainly in South Wales, probably because alternative employment was scarce in the remote valleys. The women unloaded the ore coming out of the mines, broke large pieces down, and filled boxes for the furnaces – heavy work in a dusty environment. In the ironworks and foundries women swept the floors and made up piles or stacks of puddled iron ready for reheating in the mill furnace. ‘Tip girls’ tipped molten slag and rubbish, cleaned out the carriages and returned them to the furnaces – they wore a scarf or handkerchief across their mouths to keep out the dust and a thick apron to protect their bodies from the heat.

Apart from Wales, reference to women in iron foundries is rare at this time – in south Staffordshire some were employed in wheeling cinders from the furnaces, and in some foundries women were ­occasionally employed as core makers. These are pieces of well-baked sand used for filling up the holes or hollows in castings, while there are occasional finds of women recorded as ‘iron foundry workers’ in Cornwall and the West. See also mine worker.

The ironworking processes can be seen at the Black Country Museum, Tipton Road, Dudley DY1 4SQ (www.bclm.co.uk).