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Etta Lemon : the woman who saved the birds

Boase, Tessa2021
Books, Manuscripts
In the Museum of London lies a purple feather, once worn by the suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst. The plumed hat was an essential part of her ultra-feminine image. For over half a century, from the High Victorian era to the Jazz Age, it was de rigueur to deck your head with plumage, wings - even entire birds. An insatiable global trade in feathers brought birdlife to the brink of extinction: snowy egrets, crested grebes, jewel-like hummingbirds. At its Edwardian peak, the plumage trade was worth a staggering £2m a year to Britain - £204m in today's money. The struggle to save the birds was a woman's campaign. Its aim was simple: to stamp out the fashion for feathers in hats. Leading the fight was Etta Lemon, and she was known as 'Mother of the Birds'. This book explores two very different heroines: Mrs Pankhurst and Mrs Lemon - one lionised, the other forgotten - and their rival, overlapping campaigns.
Author:
Boase, Tessa, author
Imprint:
London : Aurum Press, 2021.
Collation:
320 pages ; 20 cm
Notes:
Originally published: as Mrs Pankhurst's purple feather. 2018.Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:
9780711263383 (pbk)
Dewey class:
941.082309252941.082941.0823
LC class:
DA568.A1
Local class:
941.082
Language:
English
BRN:
2893939
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