Women's history sources

Women’s lives, from the medieval period to the present day, are well represented in the collections at The London Archives. They demonstrate the social and economic status of women, their role in public and civic life, the nature of family and domestic life and issues relating to identity and representation.

Biographical sources

Core biographical and genealogical records include registers of baptisms, marriages and burials in hundreds of London’s parishes, wills, rates and tax assessments, electoral registers and school records amongst other sources.

Women and the City of London

The rich records of the City of London Corporation (COL) are particularly good for tracing the material lives of women in the City of London, such as the records of the Court of Orphans (CLA/002), and women’s voices can be heard in petitions to the City (COL/CA/05), seeking financial support or redress. Women can be found in the records of the City of London livery companies; companies such as the Watermen and Lightermen, the Merchant Taylors and the Haberdashers included significant numbers of women. Women were an essential part of City trade and industry even if their presence is sometimes obscured by their husbands.

Women at work

Women in business can be traced in insurance records, for example in the policy registers of the Sun Insurance Office (CLC/B/192) in trade cards (SC/GL/TCC) and directories and in the records of individual businesses – staff magazines for example are very good at recording the presence of women and attitudes towards them. We hold an extensive collection of business records with strengths in financial services and banking, building, brewing and publishing.

Women and local government

Researchers can trace women’s involvement as members and officers in the School Board for London (1870-1904), the London County Council (1889-1965) and Greater London Council (1965-1986). Many women worked in the architects’ departments of both councils and both organisations included pioneering women in their education and welfare services. Women’s work during WW2 is well recorded.

The GLC, particularly in the 1970s-1980s, funded numerous feminist and activist organisations for women of colour and marginalised women (LGBTQ+ women, refugees, disabled women etc), and surviving grant applications give a sense of the types of organisations operating at the time.

Women’s health and medicine

With records of over 80 hospitals and 4 teaching hospitals, we have an enormous collection of material relating to women’s health and welfare, for women as patients and as practitioners. Records include maternity hospital records, such as the British Lying-In Hospital (H14) and hospitals staffed by women such as the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital (H13) and holdings of many of London’s mental hospitals, where the psychiatric care of women can be explored.

Women and charity

The records of the Foundling Hospital (A/FH) provide an insight into the personal lives of women who give up their children to the institution, but also the lives of wet nurses and of apprenticed girls. The lives of disabled women appear in the archives of John Groom’s charity (LMA/4305) and details of numerous charities supporting women and girls appear in the archives of the Family Welfare Association (A/FWA).

Women and religion

Records of the Diocese of London (DL) and of individual parishes record the roles women took in parish life as midwives and searchers in the Church of England. The Diocese’s ecclesiastical courts (DL/C) include marital causes from the early modern period, including depositions which contain detailed descriptions of domestic life, sex and marital conflict. Our extensive collection of Jewish records includes the archives of the Board of Deputies of British Jews (ACC/3121) which covers every facet of Jewish life in Britain. We also hold records of Lily Montagu and the Liberal Jewish Synagogue (ACC/3529).

Women and crime

The records of London’s quarter sessions and magistrates’ courts are held at TLA, offering a powerful insight into women’s lives as the perpetrators and victims of crime. Sylvia Pankhurst and other suffragettes can be found in the records of Holloway Prison (CLA/003).

Papers of families and individuals

Archive collections of individuals, including radical Black publisher Jessica Huntley (LMA/4462-3), educational psychologist Mollie Hunte (LMA/4774), entrepreneur Lorna Holder (LMA/4660), and MP Millie Miller (LMA/4427), amongst many others.

The representation of women

We hold a large collection of prints of London, including satires, fashion plates and portraits as well as an extensive photograph collection documenting domestic interiors, schools, hospitals and local authority services. Many of these can be seen on The London Picture Archive. We hold a growing collections of oral histories, such as the Chinese community histories Whispers of Time (LMA/4513) and the UG2LDN Ugandan Heritage Project (LMA/4599) and have a collection of film archives, which includes films made by the GLC/ILEA which speak directly to issues affecting women.