About this Event
You already know about the Australians who flocked to London. Germaine Greer, Patrick White, Barry Humphries. You might have gone their yourself. This ‘secular pilgrimage’ to the Mother Country is entrenched in our national culture. But what about those who swam against the tide and sought their fortune in America instead? To mark International Women’s Day, historian Dr Yves Rees spotlights some of the remarkable Australian women who pursued work and adventure in the United States in the first decades of the twentieth century. We’ll meet pioneering woman judge May Lahey; Rose Cumming, interior decorator to the stars; Persia Campbell, an economist who had the ear of President Kennedy; and bestselling novelist Dorothy Cottrell, plus more besides. These were modern women frustrated with their limited opportunities at home and determined to run headlong into a progressive future. In doing so, they reoriented Australia towards the United States years before politicians began to lumber down the same path.
Speaker Bio: Dr Yves Rees (they/them) is an historian and writer based on unceded Wurundjeri land. They are a Senior Lecturer at La Trobe University, the co-host of Archive Fever podcast and the author of All About Yves: Notes from a Transition (Allen & Unwin, 2021).
Ticket information: Select from two options - book your seat at the Victorian Archives Centre, or choose the online option and you'll be emailed a link to watch the live-stream through Zoom.
Image 1:Rose Cumming (L) and Mrs. Edith Griffith (R) photographed by the Bain News Service, circa 1915 – 1920, from the Library of Congress Collection.
Image 2: Article on May Lahey in the Australian Woman’s Mirror, 1934
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Victorian Archives Centre, 99 Shiel Street, North Melbourne, Australia
AUD 5.00