As part of international women’s day we want to celebrate and highlight the lives of women who are represented in the Sankey Photographic Collection, directly or indirectly. 

We’ve written about a photographic portrait, a place they called home, or an area in which they lived. The women we have chosen to write about, or an image of a place they may have had a connection with, has allowed us to develop a new understanding of the women workers, the philanthropists and the mothers who worked in and around a thriving industrial town. In some cases you will see that much of their story is gleaned from what is in the historical records – i.e. the census records or newspapers of the time – as opposed to what the woman or woman said in their own words. This reflects the fact that many working class women’s histories have been hugely unrepresented in our historical record.