Description: [VICTORIA PRESS, EMILY FAITHFULL, WOMEN'S STUDIES, FEMINISM, ILLUSTRATED BOOKS]FLEET, Esther Faithfull (Illuminator)"TE DEUM LAUDAMUS" ('GOD, WE PRAISE YOU')London. Victoria Press. First edition. ND (no later than 1868). Small quarto. 9 pp + 29 chromolithographic plates on heavy stock.+ 9 pp of 'plate descriptions' at the rear. Original beveled blue cloth boards with gilt decoration. Some soiling and wear as shown. Contents generally clean. Plates bright and fresh. Overall, very good or better. The first edition of what is perhaps one of the better examples of printing by the Victoria Press and of a press run by a woman in 19th c England. Emily Faithfull opened the press in 1860 in an effort to improve the enfranchisement of women and also to promote the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women. (SPEW). _______________________The Victoria Press was a printing press started by Emily Faithfull, along with other feminist activists, in London, on March 26, 1860. The press, named after Queen Victoria, was created as a way to allow more women into the printing field. In 1867 management of the press was given by Faithfull to William Wilfred Head, a partner in the press. Head continued to print pieces advocating for the employment of women until 1882, even after buying Faithfull out in 1869. Faithfull was a member of the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women and co-founder of the Women's Printing Society. She was also awarded the honor of being printer and publisher in ordinary to Queen Victoria, indicating that Faithfull was the official printer and publisher of Queen Victoria. Faithfull was convinced that work as a compositor could be a well-suited trade for women seeking occupation since by the nineteenth century this was generally a well-paid industry. After learning type-setting, Faithfull founded the press, and then went on to train and hire other women as compositors for her shop. Despite generating hostility from the male-dominated London Typographical Society (then known as the London Society of Compositors), and The Union denying women access to compositor's work (using the justification that women lacked the mechanical ability and the intelligence to be compositors) Faithfull persevered, and her press continued for years. Please email any questions -
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End Time: 2024-11-05T17:00:08.000Z
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All returns accepted: ReturnsNotAccepted
Binding: Hardcover
Special Attributes: 1st Edition
Topic: Reference
Subject: Art & Photography
