For this month's Collection Spotlight, guest writer, Sue
Bell, shares her experiences of researching her great-grandmother's
letters in the Fryer Library's collection.
Records of women's lives in the 19th century are very sparse in comparison
with those of men or at least 'important' men. Women were usually invisible
with few or no signs that they had lived and even wives of 'important' men were
only recorded when they were attending social occasions or accompanying their
husbands to events.