By Morag Cross

Are there women in Sulman’s aerial perspective of Glasgow?

Yes, they inhabit, own and work in the buildings he shows. The amazing image can been used to show the surroundings where female entrepreneurs and employers, shopkeepers and factory workers, lived, loved and laboured. There is no shortage of stories about women’s lives, as this second blog by Morag Cross also shows.

A RUNAWAY HORSE

Queen Arcade was an indoors ‘safe space’ for women to meet and browse, reassured by the benign surveillance of fellow shoppers. One morning in 1866, this security was breached by a runaway horse, which collided with an unsuspecting female, and careered through both the Queen and Wellington Arcades.    

Traders in close proximity can also attract less desirable human visitors – in 1866, illiterate Ann Mills received ‘seven years’ penal servitude’ for stealing corsets and 5 yards of coarse cloth from Jane Collins’s shop. Mills had 8 previous convictions including 4 years for theft, an obvious measure of her desperation when the harsh punishments didn’t put her off. The National Records of Scotland’s online catalogue reveals Mills was a musician’s wife from Belfast, living in the congested slums of Bridgegate. The street was known for its large Irish community, and numerous used-clothing dealers, where Mills could have sold her goods for ready cash. Corset-maker Mrs Collins and her extended family featured in the previous blog. Mary Jane Dobbins, a cousin-by-marriage, was targeted in 1871 by Mary Wilson, another repeat offender. Wilson took ’32 yards of jean cloth and a crinoline’, and served 8 months in prison.  She was obviously unable to conceal so much bulky material about her person, and like Mills, probably lived a chaotic, miserable existence. 

A MARVEL OF MISDIRECTION

Crinoline frames were made in arcade workshops; seamstress Mrs Mary Ann Stirling advertised in 1861 as ‘inventress of the hand notted [sic] crinoline … keeps the shape better … also much cheaper’. Twice widowed, she concealed her true age and first marriage from her third husband – three marriages might seem embarrassingly excessive. Her death certificate, from 1900, is a marvel of misdirection – she had obviously knocked three years off her age, falsified her mother’s and second spouse’s names, and omitted ‘Mr Stirling’ altogether. She can never have expected to be found out! 

DEATH BY CRINOLINE

Unwieldy crinolines frames were absurdly impractical and also dangerous –gruesome ‘death by crinoline’ was often reported, where the extended skirts were ignited by naked flames. Fanny Appleton, wife of the poet H W Longfellow, was one such victim. ‘Crinoline protector’ guards were even sold with cooking ranges. A wonderfully vivid account of the Glasgow public touring the warship ‘Centurion’ in 1861, relates: ‘Ladies were crushing their crinolines into gigantic sandwiches amid coils of rope, barrels and pails’. One woman descending a ladder was unable to see her feet, until a ‘gallant sailor … crushed every reef out of the floating crinoline’. 

 Queen Arcade’s female traders largely depended on meeting the demands of home dressmakers who pursued the latest elaborate styles. Those on modest budgets would normally update collars, flounces or decoration on existing clothing, as new outfits were a major investment. Dress-accessories and haberdashery provided an entire branch of retail for women workers, which vanished as braid and long hems were replaced by mass-produced clothing after World War 1. There were at least four of these miniature emporiums in the arcade over time, under specialist names like ‘furnishings’, ‘smallwares’, and ‘fancy warehouses’.  

A BEWILDERING VARIETY OF EVERY COMMODITY

Esther Smith (born Caithness, 1805) saved enough working as a servant to open an arcade toyshop in the mid-1850s. She expanded her stock to ‘furnishings’ while hosting her teenage nephew, an apprentice plasterer. One of the Martin staymaker family lodged with her in 1871 (showing the inter-dependency of the arcade women’s household incomes), and ten years later, presumably retired, she was living with her niece, another ‘smallware dealer’ from Caithness. Something soon went tragically wrong – her 1883 death certificate calls her a ‘pauper’. 

 Mrs Stirling, discussed above, sold ‘dress furnishings’, and contemporary adverts show this might include endless varieties of hairnets, stamped and velvet ribbons (all widths), steel buckles, trimmings, silk and worsted yarns, milliner’s feathers, jet and nickel buttons, eyelets, fringes, jacket ornaments, veil nets, and ‘plated portrait brooches’. The bewildering varieties of every commodity demonstrate the minute subdivision of labour, and global import market – German sundries being especially noted.  

A ‘DECIDEDLY DINGY PASSAGE’ 

The mall (opened c1842), was a shabby, ‘decidedly dingy passage’ by the 1870s. Paint merchant Andrew Yuille bought the entire complex and invested in the necessary renovations in 1875. The floor was ‘rodent-proofed’ with asphalt, and mosaics of the city’s arms. ‘Unusually liberal use of silverised plate glass and gilding’ included huge etched mirrors over the entrances. The new roof was 12 feet higher, allowing for white and gold pillared shopfronts (with more mirrors), beneath ornamental gargoyle heads. The architects were Knox & Halley, with paint schemes by local artist T Byron Lyle and decorator James Lyle. The latter’s widow, Agnes, opened her own paint store at the wonderfully-named 265½ Buchanan St in the 1880s. 

A VANITY-CENTRED MARKETING PLOY

At the celebratory dance for the tenants, the speaker praised ‘all those beautiful mirrors which so faithfully reflected ladies’ charms as they passed.’ When word of this looking-glass hall spread, ladies would flock to examine (or admire) themselves, and ‘shopkeepers could secure them as customers and … extract the needful profit’. The decoration was a vanity-centred marketing ploy, although most women were presumably canny enough to resist! The glaziers, J & G Rae, later supplied glass for the famous C R Mackintosh-designed Willow Tearooms. 

 Some women were granted the vote in school board and municipal elections in 1872, and 1881 respectively. It’s a mystery why these major feminist landmarks are never celebrated, and only 1918 is recognised for female suffrage. In 1881, under the new property qualification, three female ratepayers in Queen Arcade appear on the ‘List of Female persons entitled … to vote for town councillors’. They were corset-makers Isabella and Mary Jane Dobbin, and Janet Sommerville, who ran dairies in and around the arcade for 32 years. She was another of those unsung spinster aunts, who brought up her nephew and worked until her seventies. In turn, Janet was cared for by his family, received the newly-introduced state pension in 1908, and died at the great age of 90 in 1922.  

IT ENDED IN A RIOT..

The 1885 rateable valuation roll shows that ‘Elizabeth Broydo & Co’ owned a portrait studio. This was still a rare job for a woman, although one of history’s most celebrated female photographers – Clementina Elphinstone Fleeming (1822-65), later Lady Hawarden, came from nearby Cumbernauld. Joseph Broydo, an emigre Russian picture-framer, had married Elizabeth Morgan from County Down. He had four studios in Glasgow and Belfast, and even spoke at Irish home-rule meetings. When Broydo faced bankruptcy, the premises were put in Elizabeth’s name. Joseph’s fate is unknown, but Elizabeth re-emerges back in Newry in 1896. During a volatile sibling dispute, she accused her own brother of assault and withholding her wages, but settled out of court.  

We began with a bolting horse, and end with a riot. Two sisters, the Misses Ronald, had occupied the double shop at Nos 1-3 as mantle-makers (short, loose coats). The new tenant in 1899 was one James Keir Hardie, former and future MP, co-founder of the Labour Party, but at that time, editor of the ‘Labour Leader’ newspaper.  

 The Glasgow Herald described a rally against the Boer War (attended by Hardie) in March 1900 as ‘a travelling troupe of Stop-the-War propagandists’, who ‘slandered the nation’. Counter-demonstrators smashed Hardie’s plate-glass office windows in Queen Arcade, such was the depth of feeling on both sides. Hardie claimed £16 damages for repairs, which the city council refused to pay. The so-called (and self-contradictory) ‘peace riot’ ends this brief saunter past the women’s lives among one of Glasgow’s early shopping malls. Their imposing architecture has been justly celebrated, but the feminine social worlds contained therein also deserve a hearing. Meanwhile, Sulman has microscopic pedestrians traversing his streets, some of them wearing crinolines, which make them identifiable as women, although cartography was surely never envisaged as a reason to wear them! 

Morag Cross is an independent researcher and archaeologist, specialising in histories of buildings and land ownership. Her archival research explores the unexpected links between previously unknown figures, especially women, and their social networks. She has worked on over 80 projects including business histories for the Mackintosh Architecture website, Glasgow Council’s official WW1 website, M74 industrial archaeology research, and Edinburgh’s India Buildings, Victoria St.

WANT TO KNOW MORE? 

• Read the first blog about Queen Arcade here
• Check out our Gallus Glasgow map and explore more stories of the Victorian city. Once there, why not add a few stories of your own?
• Prints of the map are available to buy in our online shop

By Caroline Bressey

AN UNPRECEDENTED SUCCESS

On Thursday 26 February 1880 an advert was placed to catch the attention of readers of Glasgow’s Evening Citizen.  Carried among the ads for ‘amusements’ that could be enjoyed that week was one for Uncle Tom’s Cabin, then showing at the Prince of Wales Theatre.  The show was being met with ‘thunders of applause’ every night, and consisted of a ‘magnificent dramatic company’ which included American comedians, ‘original jubilee singers’ (a choir of African American singers) and ‘freed slaves’.   It was claimed to be an unprecedented success in the history of drama in Glasgow.  The theatre promised that overflow tickets issued on a Saturday evening when some hundreds were unable to get in would be available any evening during the show’s run.  The following week, perhaps to ensure that potential audience members were aware of the authenticity of the cast, another ad carried the additional tag that the cast included ‘real negroes’.  

‘TOO WELL KNOWN TO DEMAND COMMENT’

Readers of the Citizen would likely have known well the story of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, though it had been published almost 30 years earlier.  When an 1872 production opened in Glasgow, the story was deemed ‘too well known to demand comment.’ Published by Harriet Beecher Stowe in Boston in 1852, the book became one of the most important and best-selling novels of the nineteenth century.  When it was printed in London in 1852, it was given a slightly different title: Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or Negro Life in the Slave States of America, making clear its central concern with the lives of enslaved African Americans. 

The book was a sensation in Britain and was read and performed in many different settings.  In February 1857 the Glasgow Courier carried an announcement that for 3s a ticket, audiences would be able to hear Mrs Webb, ‘a coloured American Lady’, reading from Uncle Tom’s Cabin at the McLellan Rooms that Friday evening.  Given the immense popularity and success of the novel, it is not surprising theatre producers sought to capitalise on interest in the story, and versions of Uncle Tom’s Cabin remained popular on theatre programmes in Britain for the remainder of the century.  

The first stage productions opened in the United States in August 1852, but Britain was not far behind with adaptations at the Standard and Olympic Theatres in London and the Theatre Royal in Edinburgh all opening in September.  It’s likely the first stage version in Glasgow was produced not long afterwards.  Certainly by February 1853 the Theatre Royal, then on Dunlop Street, was boasting in an advert placed in the Glasgow Free Press, that a crowded house watched their version of the show every night.  Its popularity was such that Uncle Tom’s Cabin was programmed to be performed every night until further notice. 

SPECTACULAR THEATRICAL VERSIONS

The 1870s saw one of the most spectacular theatrical versions created by the American producers Jarrett and Palmer. In 1878 they announced a new kind of staging of the novel which would involve a vast cast including over 50 Black actors.  Though the entire version of this American staging did not perform in Glasgow, a chorus of Jubilee singers joined a production which played to crowded and enthusiastic audiences at the Prince of Wales theatre.  A February 1879 review in the North British Daily Mail (Scotland’s first daily newspaper) commended all aspects of the work particularly the ‘singing and dancing of the bona fide Jubilee Singers’ who the reviewer felt, invested the play ‘with a realism totally beyond ordinary expectations.’

The reviewer’s highlighting of the Jubilee singers’ authenticity illustrates the complex relationship Black performers and hopeful actors surely had with the staging of the novel.  The play offered important roles in the careers of actresses who found strong and serious roles adapted from white characters in the novel.  With Black women also key characters in the novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin could provide stage roles for Black women, but often white actresses and actors took all the main parts.  In some productions Black actresses could find parts playing more minor roles, and in time Uncle Tom himself would be played by Black actors.  

OTHER ROLES FOR BLACK PERFORMERS

Enduring productions throughout the 1880s and 1890s generated ongoing advertisements for ‘Coloured people’ and ‘Jubilee singers’ to join shows across the country, but though Uncle Tom’s Cabin provided roles for Black performers they were undoubtedly being asked to perform very particular ideas of Blackness in these plays.  Yet, these weren’t the only parts available for Black people seeking to make a living upon the stage.  The African American performer Amy Height did take on parts in Uncle Tom’s Cabin in England, but she also performed at the Gaiety Theatre on Sauchiehall Street in December 1892, when she was billed as a ‘Coloured American Songstress’.  Known as a comedian and soprano, she also performed as a ‘negro ballad singer’ at the Scotia Variety Theatre on Stockwell Street.  

In September 1899, the Royal Princess Theatre in Glasgow placed an advertisement for: ‘a Coloured Lady for Comedy Part in Pantomime’.  Anyone interested was to send their terms, a photo and further particulars to Mr Waldon – presumably Rich Waldon, manager of the theatre from the 1880s.  Of course, the placing of an advertisement does not prove that a Black woman appeared in a pantomime at the Princess Theatre that year.   The advertisement does tell us that Black performers were out there, looking for and hoping for work, travelling around the country, having their photographs taken for potential employers and sometimes treading the boards of Glasgow’s theatres.  While they did so they would have become part of the city’s community of jobbing performers, entertaining audiences, and off stage sharing rooms and stories with fellow actors before moving on, or perhaps settling down.  If they did stay, which parts of Victorian Glasgow they made home is still to be recovered.

Caroline Bressey is an historical and cultural geographer at University College London.  Her research focuses upon the Black presence in Victorian Britain and how our histories are represented in heritage sites.  Her book, Empire, Race and the politics of Anti-Caste examined a radical anti-racist reading community established by Catherine Impey in 1888.  

• Explore our Gallus Glasgow map, featuring several theatres.
• Prints of the map are available to buy in our online shop
• The Arthur Lloyd website has comprehensive information on Glasgow’s theatres.

By Harvey Kaplan

GARNETHILL SYNAGOGUE

Nestling in the back streets of Garnethill in Glasgow is a hidden architectural gem. Garnethill Synagogue in Hill Street is Scotland’s oldest, opening its doors in 1879. The first purpose-built synagogue in Scotland, it is listed as Category A and is judged to be one of the top ten historic synagogues in the British Isles – and the only one north of Liverpool. The interior is an extravagant mix of carved wood, plaster cornicing, marble, cast iron, tiled floors and colourful stained glass windows.

The founders of the synagogue included successful businessmen, who contributed to Glasgow’s dramatic 19^th century expansion. For example, Michael Simons was a  fruit broker who went on to become a Bailie of Glasgow Corporation. He was a great patron of the arts, involved in the Glasgow Exhibitions of 1890 and 1901, and founder of the company which opened the Theatre Royal and the King’s Theatre.

THE CONGREGATION

Others in this group were the brothers Samuel and Isidor Morris from Danzig, who  were agents for esparto grass, used in paper production. David Heilbron, from Breda in the Netherlands, came to Glasgow around 1870 and was a leading member of the congregation, also involved in the Hebrew Philanthropic Society. The Post Office Directory shows that in 1879 he was a ‘wine merchant and importer of cigars, manufacturer of cordials and Dutch and orange bitters’ in Elmbank Lane.  Julius Frankenburgh, from Poland, manufacturer of fancy leather bags and leggings, succeeded Samuel Morris as president of the congregation, while his wife Phoebe was at one time President of the Hebrew Ladies’ Benevolent Fund.  

One of the most enterprising ladies of the congregation was Rachel Levine, one of thirteen children of Reverend Isaac Levine, Reader of the congregation from 1875 to 1921, and his wife Deba. Rachel was one of the first Jewish girls to study at Glasgow University, attending classes at Queen Margaret College between 1896-1902.  She then went to work at Norwood- the Jewish orphanage and school in London- where she became proficient in the teaching of the deaf and dumb.

Returning to Glasgow, in 1908, she was examined and recognised by the Scotch Education Department as a certified teacher of the deaf. She taught at a number of special needs schools in Glasgow until she retired in 1940.  In 1944 she was brought back into teaching for the remainder of the Second World War.

Rachel was actively involved in Jewish benevolent work. A lifelong member of Garnethill Synagogue, she served on the Synagogue School Committee and assisted with the Women’s Guild and Women’s Friendship Club. 

IMMIGRATION

Still housing a small but active congregation, Garnethill synagogue has been the home since 1987 of the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre (SJAC), whose mission is to collect and preserve the records of the Jewish experience in Scotland over the past two centuries. The Centre is a treasure-house of documents, photographs, oral history interviews, immigrant and refugee artefacts, historic ceremonial objects, textiles, sculptures and paintings. One of the main themes discussed in the building is immigration. The Jewish community in Scotland today is descended from immigrants. The first Jews came to Scotland in the late 1600s and in the 1700s, as university teachers, medical students, or as merchants and craftsmen – all in very small numbers. The first organised community was established in Edinburgh about 1817, when a synagogue was established and soon after, a small cemetery was opened. The first synagogue in Glasgow opened in a flat in the High Street about 1821. The first Jewish cemetery in Glasgow opened in 1832 as a Jewish enclosure in the newly opened Necropolis. In the first half of the 19^th century, Jewish arrivals in Glasgow were mainly from England, the Netherlands or the German lands.

All images copyright Scottish Jewish Archives Centre. Please do not reproduce without permission.

Harvey Kaplan, Glasgow University History graduate, is the Director and co-founder of the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre (SJAC) and a Trustee of the new Scottish Jewish Heritage Centre. He has co-curated displays, mentored researchers and presented nationally and internationally at meetings and conferences on Scottish Jewish history and family history. He has also written widely for books, journals and magazines and researched for television programmes such as Who Do You Think You Are?

• July 2021 saw the launch of the new Scottish Jewish Heritage Centre in Garnethill Synagogue, created in a partnership between SJAC and Garnethill Synagogue Preservation Trust (GSPT). The aim is to expand access to this splendid Victorian building and to showcase the displays and resources of SJAC. The Heritage Centre is the result of capital investment by a range of funders (the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Association of Jewish Refugees, the German Federal Government, the Wolfson Family Foundation, Architectural Heritage Fund, William Grant Foundation and CST). This has resulted in building repair, renovation and decoration, new equipment, furniture and fittings and in creating new resources and displays.
• Find out more about the work of the Archives Centre and of the Heritage Centre.  There are regular guided tours and a school visit service. They look forward to welcoming you! 
• Explore our Gallus Glasgow map
• Prints of the map are available to buy in our online shop

By Ingrid Shearer, Ged O’Brien and Dr Fiona Skillen

ROWING ON THE CLYDE

Once upon a time, the waters of the Clyde were alive with boats. A close inspection of Sulman’s 1864 aerial view of the river at Glasgow Green shows a wide array of craft bustling up and down and crisscrossing the river. Amongst the small sailing boats, ferries, skiffs, barges and steam dredgers, you can pick out the narrow, slender hulls of racing’ shells’. These competitive rowing boats were direct descendants of naval boats, the gigs and jollyboats (a misnomer according to anyone who rowed them), once used to ferry personnel to and from ships. Carbon fibre and plastic have replaced wood as the dominant construction materials today, but the basic form of the racing shell has changed little from the mid-1800s. 

THE WEST BOATHOUSE

Today, if you wander along the river from Glasgow Green eastward along the Clyde, you can still see boats out on the water. There are currently six competitive rowing clubs based upstream of the tidal weir. The two oldest surviving clubs, Clyde Amateur Rowing Club (founded 1865) and Clydesdale Amateur Rowing Club (founded 1856), have shared the West Boathouse since its construction in 1905. It is currently undergoing extensive restoration and upgrading works by Glasgow Building Preservation Trust and will reopen later this year. 

THE FIRST ROWING REGATTA 

The first known advertised rowing regatta on the upper reaches of the Clyde dates to August 1830. A handbill held in Glasgow University Library’s Special Collections details a two-day event with five clubs competing. The sport was slow to develop in the early years and inhibited by the unsuitability of the river. The Clyde was busy with other craft, tidal, and increasingly polluted with waste from industries upstream. In 1852, a new lock and weir were constructed at a site just east of the current tidal weir, replacing the old weir downstream at Stockwell Street. This new structure artificially raised and maintained the water levels upstream and created a 6 km stretch of level, non-tidal water – perfect for rowing. The sport took off, and Glasgow Green and the Gorbals became the city’s home of competitive rowing clubs.

TAKING A PUNT

Betting on races was a big draw for spectators – the Glasgow Herald regularly reported crowds in excess of 30,000 lining the riverbanks to watch the action. Rowing was the spectator sport in the city up until the 1870s, when it was eclipsed in popularity by football. As well as ‘amateur’ clubs there were also ‘professional’ clubs. Amateur and professional status was a distinction that featured in many sports at the time. It was designed to enforce class structures and excluded ‘working men’ (i.e. tradesmen and manual labourers) from joining amateur clubs and leagues. The printers were especially prevalent amongst the trades and held their own regattas. The Printers Regatta of 1881 had crews representing most of the major printing houses in the city, including MacLehose, McCorquodale’s, Glasgow University Press, Blackie & Sons, Collins and Wm Hodge & Co. Eventually, these individual clubs merged to form the Glasgow Printing Trade Club, a forerunner of Glasgow Rowing Club.

By the mid-1800s, interest in all sports was growing exponentially, and Glasgow Green was the epicentre of games and recreation in the city. Many clubs shared members across several sports and would switch from rowing in the summer months to football, athletics or boxing over the winter to keep themselves fit, try out new sports and develop new skills. Glasgow Green was particularly fertile ground for sporting crossover.

There is still some dispute about whether Clyde or Clydesdale ARC were most instrumental in forming Rangers FC in 1873, though the truth likely lies in a mix of the two.  An early team photograph of Rangers FC in 1877 shows players in their original team strip, which featured a light blue, six-pointed star on the jersey – the traditional colours and badge of Clyde ARC, still in use today. This suggests a potential connection between the clubs in the early days. There are also tantalising hints that Clydesdale ARC had some hand in the clubs formation. Club minute books from this period document complaints that some members were spending too little time on the water and too much time of the Green playing football!

WOMEN’S ROWING

Ladies rowing races, usually held as part of regattas, were not uncommon in the late 1800s and are reported in newspaper coverage of the time. They were seen as an ‘amusing spectacle’ and a novelty for the onlookers. Rowing was an exclusively male sport at this time, and, with a few exceptions, women were mostly relegated to a supporting role – organising the social aspects of club life and launching new boats.

For a brief period in the early 1890s, ‘Mrs Geddes’ ran a ‘Ladies Rowing Club’ from the steps of the Glasgow Humane Society. This is presumably a reference to Mary Geddes, the wife of George Geddes, officer at Glasgow Humane Society. Mary’s new club appears to have met with some resistance from the younger members of the rowing, but Ben Bow, aquatics correspondent of The Scottish Referee, was having none of it:

SHORT LIVED

Sadly, it seems Mary’s club was short-lived. On 17 June 1895, Ben Bow (Junior), reporting on the Glasgow and Daily Press Printers Regatta, noted: ‘A pleasing feature was the number of young ladies in rowing boats. From all appearance rowing has ‘caught on’ with the ‘weaker sex’. What a pity Mrs Geddes gave up her young ladies rowing club!’

Clydesdale Amateur Rowing Club had a ladies section for a few years in the late 1930s, but this fell into abeyance after WWII. It was not until the early 1980s that clubs along the river began to admit women as full members. Over the intervening 40 years, the women rowers of the river have gone from strength to strength. Clyde-based club alumni include Olympians and World Champions such as Gillian Lindsay, Karen Bennett, Ali Watt, Imogen Walsh and Polly Swann. As Ben Bow would say…‘ Ladies, your health; go on and prosper’.

References 

C Dodd, The Story of World Rowing, (Hutchinson, 1992).

W F Gow, Swirl of the Pipes: History of Water and Sewerage in Strathclyde, (Strathclyde Regional Council, 1996). 

G O’Brien, Played in Glasgow, (Malavan Media, 2010).

Ingrid Shearer is Heritage Engagement Officer for Glasgow Building Preservation Trust, a charity that rescues, repairs and repurposes historic buildings for the benefit of their communities. A former archaeologist, she has worked in the heritage sector for over 25 years. Her practice is embedded in the principle that heritage matters and has the potential to change people’s lives in a positive way.

Ged O’Brien is the founder of the Scottish Football Museum at Hampden Park. He is the discoverer of Andrew Watson: the world’s most influential player of colour. He is the author of ‘Played in Glasgow’ and is currently writing ‘The Scottish Game: How Scotland invented Modern World Football’.

Dr Fiona Skillen is a senior lecturer in History in the Department of Social Sciences, in the School for Business and Society at Glasgow Caledonian University. Her research interests concern modern history, in particular aspects of sport, gender and popular culture. She is particularly interested in women’s sport during the late 19th and 20th centuries and has published extensively in this area including her monograph Sport, Women and Modernity in Interwar Britain (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2013). She is a former Chair of British Society of Sport History, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and an editor of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

WANT TO KNOW MORE? 

• Find out more about sport on the Green in the other two blogs in the series: Part One and Part Two
• Join us for our online talk, ‘Glasgow: The Home of Modern World Football’ by Ged O’Brien on Wednesday 16th March
• Check out our Gallus Glasgow map and explore more stories of the Victorian city. Once there, why not add a few stories of your own?
• Prints of the map are available to buy in our online shop