Women on Oxfordshire Blue Plaques

We are delighted to be welcoming Professor Bob Evans, FBA Regius Professor of History Emeritus who has been chair of the Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board since 2013.  He has been associated with just over half of the unveilings which have taken place since the scheme began in 2001. In that whole period more than 130 plaques have been installed. They commemorate notable people, institutions and events in the history of the county. The talk will explain the background to this kind of memorialization, which began in Victorian London, and the way our local county-wide scheme operates. Then we shall explore some of the rich and colourful careers and activities which lie behind the award of our plaques, with a special emphasis on women honorands. These range from a marmalade maker (!) to a seismologist and a Nobel-prizewinning chemist, a photographer, an athlete, a folklorist and a 'pre-Raphaelite muse'. There are…