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3 September 2018 - 3 February 2019
Octagon Gallery
As part of UCL's Vote 100 programme, the Octagon gallery presents an exhibition exploring the lasting contributions to research, teaching and wider society of female students and staff at UCL a century ago.
Disrupters and Innovators, curated by Dr Nina Pearlman, is dedicated to a group of remarkable women whose lives and careers were shaped by what they learnt, taught and researched at UCL. Their perseverance, originality and ingenuity continue to inspire. Echoes of the challenges they faced remain today.
Download the exhibition guide.
This is part of UCL Art Museum's research and curatorial platform Curating Equality and UCL's Grand Challenge Justice and Equality.
Margaret Murray and team unwrapping the mummies of the ‘Two Brothers’ at Manchester University Museum in 1908. © Courtesy of Manchester Museum
Digital reproduction of a photo from Margaret Murray’s album that captures life at a dig in Abydos in 1902-03. Petrie Museum, PMA/WFP1 115/5/2
UCL's Octagon Gallery display, including objects from UCL Art Museum, the Slade School of Fine Art and UCL Library.
Kathleen Lonsdale with crystal models, photographer unknown, c.1946. Courtesy of Professor Ian Wood, UCL Earth Sciences
Palaeobotanist and women's rights campaigner Marie Stopes was an authority on coal. DMS Watson Coal Ball Slide Collection – Drawer 11 of sectioned coal balls collected 1903-1912. UCL Grant Museum
Postcard of members of the NUWT London Unit demonstrating against the Fisher Grant, 1918, photographer unknown. UCL Institute of Education Archives, UWT/G/2/9
Leader of the British suffragette movement Emmeline Pankhurst © Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo
The Octagon is a public space at the heart of UCL, directly under its iconic dome. On this page you'll find a selection of images from the forthcoming display that relate to the lives and work of these women in archaeology, art, education, politics, science and society.
Discover more about the exhibition
This UCL Culture exhibition is curated by Dr Nina Pearlman, Head of UCL Art Collections.
Produced in association with:
Maria Blyzinsky, Museum Consultant, The Exhibitions Team
Victoria Kingston, Interpretation Consultant, The Exhibitions Team
Angela Scott, Senior Graphic Designer, UCL Digital Media
Dave Bellamy, Display Technician, Chiltern Exhibitions
UCL Culture would like to thank the following people for their support with the exhibition:
Society: David Blackmore (UCL Slade School of Fine Art), Dr Georgina Brewis (UCL Institute of Education), Dr Claire Robins (UCL Institute of Education)
Archaeology: Dr Emma Libonati (UCL Petrie Museum)
Art: Helen Downes (UCL Art Museum), Grace Hailstone (UCL Slade School of Fine Art)
Science: Deborah Furness (UCL Library Services), Lesley Hall (Wellcome Library), Dr Jenny Wilson (UCL Science & Technology Studies), Professor Ian Wood (UCL Earth Sciences)
Thanks are extended also to:
UCL Art Museum, Grant Museum of Zoology, Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, UCL Geology Collection, UCL Pathology Collection, UCL Institute of Education Archives, UCL Library Services, UCL Records, UCL Special Collections UCL Special Collections, and UCL Slade School of Fine Art for their generous loans.
