#ann macbeth

The Bride

c. 1906

Wild silk, plain weave; appliquéd with silk, satin weave; embroidered with silk- and gold-leaf-paper-strip wrapped silk in detached chain, satin and stem stitches; laid work, couching and French knots; and glass beads

by Ann Macbeth (Scottish, 1875-1948)

WSPU Holloway Banner by Ann Macbeth and more

For centuries, embroidery was one of the few creative activities considered to be suitably decorous for women, wealthy ones especially. Yet during the early 1900s, Ann Macbeth, a teacher at Glasgow School of Art in Scotland, led a group of like-minded female embroiderers in transforming their genteel craft into a tool of political activism. As well as using their skills to create banners for women’s suffrage marches, Macbeth and her friends ran embroidery classes for women in economically deprived areas of Glasgow, enabling them to make useful objects for their homes and to earn extra money. She propagated her empowering vision of her craft through books and public lectures, while providing teachers across Britain with the practical resources they needed to teach embroidery to their students.

From Ann Macbeth’s Activist Embroidery

Vase (1920) painted by Ann Macbeth (1875-1948).

Glasgow Museums.

Wikimedia.

Ann Macbeth, "Once Upon a Time" (1902)

Ann Macbeth