The influence and legacy of women day

29 June, Ron Cooke Hub, University of York

A focus on the lives of women as novelists, artists, wives and heroines since the 18th century.

All events are free, but require tickets

3Graces 3sixty exhibition talks

Exhibition throughout the day, talks at 11.45am and 1.45pm

Victorian women artists’ works are often omitted from accounts of 19th-century art, leaving an incomplete and damaged picture of artistic developments. This virtual exhibition, and related talks, offers a rare opportunity to engage with Victorian women artists’ paintings, sculptures, textiles and costume designs together, and in relation to, works by their male counterparts.

Seeking perfection: The quest for an ideal woman

11am

Thomas Day was a poet, a philanthropist and a radical activist – he campaigned against slavery and supported independence for America – with one major peculiarity. While still in his teens he fixed his sights on marrying his notion of a perfect woman and when he could not find her in Georgian society he set out to create her. Find out more about his ambition and its outcome in this talk by Wendy Moore.

North and South: the legacy of Elizabeth Gaskell

12pm

Hear an exploration of the life and works of Elizabeth Gaskell by the President of the Gaskell Society, Shirley Foster, and dramatist Heidi Thomas, who adapted Cranford for the BBC.

Passions and parsonages

2pm

For many, the archetypal Georgian rectory beside an ancient church evokes a scene from Jane Austen. For others it conjures up something much darker and elemental, such as the parsonage on the Yorkshire Moors where the Brontë sisters led such confined yet creative lives. Editor of Emma, Bharat Tandon; Charmian Knight of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, and Deborah Alun-Jones author of The Wry Romance of the Literary Rectory will discuss how these environments nurtered creativity.

British Library literature online

3.30pm

In 2014 the British Library is launching a major new web portal entitled English Online which will provide a rich digital research environment for English literature using primary source material to shed light on the social, political and cultural contexts behind key literary works. Focusing on the 19th century, this digital exhibition will showcase a number of artefacts that will appear on the site, including manuscripts, diaries, etiquette manuals, and juvenilia. The exhibition will be accompanied by a talk given by the British Library.

Fabulous Fictional Females

4.30pm

Bharat Tandon, Heidi Thomas, John Bowen and Wendy Moore debate the legacy of women in 19th century literature.