The Waterloo "twins" - fact or fiction?

A new post about a woman called Letitia Scott and her twins born at Waterloo can be read on my other blog Digging the Dust

Something out of the Ordinary *

Australian women today are blessed with many more career opportunities than those of previous generations and it is not unusual to find them in senior managerial positions or on the boards of all types of companies.

Feminists may argue that it was largely their hard work that guaranteed these opportunities for their daughters, although historians may point out that it was a natural progression from the major political and social upheavals of two world wars as well as changing economic times.

However, if you were to ask any of them if they had heard of Oliver Gilpin and what his effect had been on the confidence and advancement of women, it is most likely you would be met with a blank expression, unaware of the debt we owe to his foresight and enterprise in employing women in positions of authority when such a thing was almost unheard of.

There is little legacy of Gilpin remaining today, apart from a few buildings in Melbourne, a couple of public drinking fountains and his name on a school dormitory and library. Perhaps only in some forgotten corner of a rural town in Victoria, Tasmania or the Riverina of New South Wales will one manage to spot a faded logo painted on a brick wall, or the cracked lettering “O Gilpin” still embedded in a pavement where it once graced the entrance of the town’s main store.

Oliver Gilpin believed that women were more reliable than men, that they had exceptional organising ability, and so all of his stores were run by women. He had no qualms about training them in salesmanship or promoting them to positions of power either and in 1930, at the beginning of the Depression, when many other stores were struggling or going broke, his were thriving with the five directors of his company listed as himself and four women.

A full page advert from The Argus 1931

A more cynical approach would be to say that Gilpin employed women because they were cheaper than men, and that would certainly have been true of the era. However, once trained, they were often paid more than men. In the late 1920’s, Gilpin’s were advertising for “female assistants to fill managerial positions” at the starting wage of £4.10s (plus commissions) - considerably more than many men could have hoped to have earned at the time.

Apart from his all-female board of directors, his company secretary was a woman, all his buyers were women, as well as his store managers. He also had other ideas that were radical for the time such as employee share and gratuity schemes, staff training workshops, company owned transports, a mail order service combined with a retail business, and even an ordered recycling of boxes and packaging.

Oliver Gilpin was born into a dairy farming family near Euroa, Victoria in 1874. At the age of 17, he joined a local drapery firm and then moved to Melbourne to further his career. Four years later, with some financial help from his father, he opened his first store in Korumburra, South Gippsland. Within a year, he had married his first wife, Anne, and set about buying other properties in the region.

Right from the start, Oliver’s intention had been to run a chain of drapery stores in country towns and he was to call himself “The Great Drapery Bargain Distributor”. In an advertisement announcing the opening of his new store he stated his motto (the first of many) as “Small profits and quick returns”. It was a policy that he maintained throughout his career.

Oliver soon expanded beyond drapery into general stores selling everything imaginable from broom-handles to blankets, petticoats to letter boxes. When the company celebrated its thirty-fifth anniversary in 1931, there were 91 chain stores in existence across the country from Dubbo to Mt Gambier - and all managed by women.

The assistants had a strict dress code of wearing black and at a time when respectable ladies’ underwear was usually white, oyster or pink, they had to wear black - mainly so that when climbing ladders the glimpse of something white was avoided!

Like most people who ‘think outside the square’, Gilpin also had his eccentricities. While he was before his time when it came to trusting in the abilities of women and new marketing methods, he was also strangely old-fashioned in not rushing to embrace the latest technology such as cash registers or telephones. The shop assistants had to carry the cash in their special apron pockets - a risky occupation at any time - but he was also against credit. This latter fact may have helped to keep the O. Gilpin chain of stores afloat during the Depression years.

On the negative side, Gilpin had little time for government regulations or other authorities and there is no doubt if he had survived into the modern retailing era, he would have had violent clashes with trade unions over wages and conditions even though he had always paid his employees more than other store owners did.

He was also exceedingly fond of motivational quotes and had them placed in strategic positions around his factory and stores: “I lead, follow who can”; “Keep your mind on your job, otherwise you will find you have no job to keep” and “Initiative is doing the right thing without being told”.

Gilpin was certainly a man of contradictions. He may have been committed to equal rights for women on a professional level, but he seemed to have been a less so on personal level, having been married three times and divorced twice, reputedly putting his second wife out on the street with little warning in order to take up with the third, as well as rumoured to have mistresses on the side.

He was also reputed to be bigoted towards Catholics - not an unusual attitude in his generation and possibly as a result of his Northern Irish heritage. In his early stores, it was even said that he had a sign in his window that read: “Redheads and Catholics need not apply!” (An ironic twist is that, after Gilpin’s death, his mansion was bought by the Missionary Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart and turned into a Catholic nunnery.)

In his later years, Gilpin seemed to have lost his way. He started to spend more money on overseas travel, cars, and idle entertainments, and on building a lavish mansion perhaps rather appropriately called “Idlewylde” in the Melbourne suburb of Balwyn that included a ballroom, indoor swimming pool, conservatory, aviaries full of exotic imported birds, a lake with fish, even a windmill intended for self-sufficient water and power generation. However, the house remained unfinished when Oliver died in 1942 and he never actually lived there.

The business began to suffer when World War 2 broke out and the company was stuck with large quantities of stock bought from Japan - Gilpin’s having been one of the first Australian firms to have traded with Japan in large quantities.

Oliver had not provided for a proper successor. Without his strong hand guiding them, bickering broke out between the children and the directors. The time was ripe for a takeover, and this occurred in 1944 when the Melbourne company Foy & Gibson bought them out. They, in turn, were bought out by G.J. Coles & Co. Ltd. seven years later at a price of over one million pounds and it was then that the O. Gilpin chain of 91 stores finally disappeared off the map

Oliver Gilpin had strict rules of behaviour for his staff and some of his moralistic ideas seem quaint and highly restrictive by modern standards, especially considering his less than blemish-free private shenanigans. He could appear gruff and inflexible, but he also understood the importance of fairness and consideration in reward for duty and loyalty, and remained greatly respected by his staff. He was generous in giving references and farewell gifts, and his word was his bond.

The goodwill and camaraderie continued for many years after the sale of the stores and large staff reunions took place in towns around Australia, and some “Gilpin girls” still survive today although even the youngest will be edging ninety. 

According to his grand-daughter and biographer, Muriel Perry, in accounts of her discussions with them, they all agreed that they benefited enormously from their association with Oliver Gilpin and his stores. At a time when many women were often still seen as second-class citizens, they were appreciated for their intelligence, for using their initiative, and ultimately they gained enormous self-confidence and reliance in their own abilities and, not least, they were trained in business and management skills that could be transmitted later into other areas of their lives. As wives and mothers, many of them became community leaders or otherwise involved in enterprises in their own right.

It is certain that they will have passed these attributes on to their own daughters, grand-daughters and great-grand-daughters and that has to be the most positive legacy of Oliver Gilpin.

* Headline announcing opening of O. Gilpin store in Shepparton, 1908

Acknowledgements - most of this information taken from:

“Just a Pocket For the Money - The Story of Oliver Gilpin and His stores”, Muriel Perry, 1995, Mansfield Newspapers, Molesworth, Victoria. 

Not currently in print, the book is still available through various libraries.  It is a fascinating historical record that contains photos of the family, the stores, advertisements and transport, and also has numerous images of the many women who worked for Gilpin.

A replica of Gilpin’s first store was the occasion of a celebration at Korumburra in 1993 at Coal Creek Historical Village. 

Normanby House, formerly Nyora

His first home in the Melbourne area was “Nyora” in the suburb of Thornbury, now a wedding reception centre, and the Thornbury Bowls Club next door was founded by Gilpin in 1908 and still operates today. 

Kia Ora (demolished)

His next house was “Kia Ora” in the suburb of East Malvern.

The Connault, formerly Idlewylde

“Idlewylde” his last unfinished mansion is now a luxury retirement home. The Art Deco interiors have been beautifully restored and maintained as can be seen from the virtual tour and galleries of images on the website.

Mama Asia

Women’s history is being made every day. 
Here is another astonishing story from modern Afghanistan about Latifa Nabizada, a woman battling enormous odds to achieve her goals. It is the first in a new series by ABC journalist Sally Sara about inspirational women in Asia. 
Sara is also the author of Gogo Mama, a book about remarkable women from Africa.

The Lady with a camera

There is a very interesting auction coming at Bonhams. Rare previously unknown photographs taken by Lady Clementina Hawarden in the late 1850s t 1860s. Very early for photography in general let alone for a woman to be involved. Artists, researchers, production designers and writers with an interest in the Victorian era all have much to be thankful for in Lady Clementina's legacy of images of her children that show homes and fashions of the day. The images going to auction can be seen at Daily Telegraph.
Lady Clementina died quite young from pneumonia and it has been suggested that her constant contact with the chemicals needed for photography may have weakened her immune system. Being mother to ten children as well probably didn't help.
The largest collection of her photographs are at the Victoria & Albert Museum and include general outdoor scenes as well as stylized family studies. The stables at Dundrum House appear to have been a favourite setting.

Stable yard

Interior Stables

Below is a portrait of Henry Brougham Loch and one of Clementina's daughters, Isabella. He went on to a varied life as an eminent colonial administrator, serving as Governor of Victoria and High Commissioner for South Africa. The entry for this photograph in the V&A collection reads:

"Hawarden used the balcony on the south side of her house in Princes Gardens in London as an open-air studio, floating in space. She posed her daughter Isabella Grace beside her mother’s cousin, Henry Brougham Loch. This double portrait must date from the summer of 1861, because the houses on the south side of the square are still being built. Virginia Dodier has written that Loch was a celebrity in 1861, because he ‘survived imprisonment by the Chinese during the Second Opium War’."

Not sure what this next study is about - prayer? - but typical of many in the recognisable style of Lady Clementina Hawarden. 

(All images from the Victoria & Albert Museum website)

The most dangerous job on earth

This blog is usually about women from the past who have done amazing things and deserve to be more widely recognised but an excellent feature article written by Matt Warren in the latest edition of UK magazine “The Lady”, reinforces the fact that women’s history is being written around the world every day and these extraordinary Afghani policewomen are adding to the current chapter.  Click here to read the article.  

But being women does not make them immune to living under the extreme pressures of their jobs, plus the coercion, corruption and conflicts of loyalty that have been reflected in the growing “green on blue” assassinations by rogue officers, with one of the most recent being perpetrated by one of these policewomen. This UK Daily Telegraph article suggests that the woman was an Iranian who suffered a psychological breakdown and was not related to her membership of an opposition group.  In a country like Afghanistan no-one can ever be sure of the truth, but the dedication and bravery of the majority of these women should not be underestimated.

Photo: AFP

The Only Woman in the Room

Sometimes you come across a news story that is important to women’s history and you ask yourself, “Why didn’t I know this before?”

Such is the case with this report from the New York Times about Beate Gordon, the “unsung heroine of Japanese women’s rights” who has only just died.

It makes me wonder how many other women there are - some of them still living - who have been involved in ground-breaking advancement in the rights of women in all corners of the world and who have either been forgotten, deliberately ignored or sidelined.

I am sorry, Beate, that I knew nothing of your admirable life and achievements until now, although I am glad others are keeping your legacy going.

Beate wrote her biography in 1999. It seems to be out of print but hopefully it will now be reissued.

Poster from the 2004 Japanese film

More here:

http://thegiftfrombeate.wordpress.com/

http://asiasociety.org/blog/asia/remembering-iconic-beate-sirota-gordon-1923-2012#1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beate_Sirota_Gordon

Bloomin' Kewriosities

In December, 1868, a very ordinary woman took her first steps into history when she rescued a seedling from what was kitchen scraps or compost and nurtured it into a tree. She was Maria Ann Smith, an immigrant to Australia and mother of nine. The seedling went on to become a new variety of apple called the ‘Granny Smith’ and ultimately world-famous as it was especially suited to baking. Granny Smith herself can be read about here and here.

Sadly, she never knew about the great commercial success of her discovery, although her granddaughter who lived to be 101 carried on the tradition of apples and on her final birthday in 2011, one of Australia’s top chefs baked (naturally!) an apple pie in celebration.

This led me to wonder about other women who have left legacies in the way of commercial horticulture, especially having new varieties of fruits named after them, but they are not that easy to find.

Catherine Horwood has written a book on the history of women in gardening, how difficult and controversial just having them involved in horticulture could be, as can be seen by this observation in the Guardian:

" ... But after training, the problem was still where to find work – and what to wear. The first female gardeners taken on at Kew in 1896 (dubbed the “Kewriosities” by the London press) were attired in bloomers. When passing omnibuses were crowded with rubbernecking sightseers and songs were published with such refrains as “Who wants to see blooms now you've bloomers at Kew?”, the girls were quickly told to wear knickerbockers (not trousers) instead. ..."

Here is an extract from Woodward’s Record of Horticulture by A.S. Fuller, published in 1866 which considers whether it is a suitable occupation for women. For all its amusing, quaint and patronising content, it was also a valid attempt to improve the lot of women, to get them out into the open air and away from unhealthy, poorly paid and soul-destroying indoor occupations like sewing. Aside from curious notions such as agriculture being “repugnant” to most women and“Fashion” being often responsible for degradation, there is also the positive suggestion that more women in horticulture would be a good thing for the profession, that it would make men improve their behaviour as well.

WOMEN IN HORTICULTURE.

Is Horticulture a suitable occupation for women? Is there anything degrading in the cultivation of fruits and flowers? We are told in sacred history that the first gardener had a woman given him for a helpmate and partner; then why should we not only admit, but encourage women to assist in producing those blessings that our Creator in his beneficence has given to mankind? We have some excuse for not urging women to engage in general agriculture, for besides needing strength in that position, she would come in contact with many things repugnant to the finer feelings of her nature. But in Horticulture she would seldom meet with anything distasteful. True, we would not ask or expect her to do the coarse drudgery of the business, leaving that for such men as seem to have been created to be hewers of wood and drawers of water. But what could be more agreeable to refined tastes than to cultivate and handle our ordinary fruits, especially the smaller kinds? Is it less noble than sitting idle, or waiting upon customers in some close, half stifling shop in a city, or plying the needle for sixteen hours a day, for scarcely enough to keep soul and body as partners for a few years, with no time for relaxation from toil or to enjoy the exhilarating pleasure of breathing the free air of the country?

Fashion, the tyrant, and the near relative of Want, has excluded woman from many channels of usefulness, and often compelled her to walk the downward road to degradation. Shall these influences continue to exist when her labor and society are needed in many positions of life where at present she is seldom admitted? Would not the very presence of women in horticultural society be a benefit to the profession? for out of respect for the ladies some of us would be more gentlemanly in our deportment, and more civil in all of our dealings with each other. We think that it would have this desirable effect, at least it is well worthy of a trial.

This is no insignificant subject, nor one that should be passed over with indifference. We do not wish to harp upon the already much abused subject of women's rights or wrongs, but we respectfully submit these remarks in behalf of the general welfare and progress of Horticulture. If our mothers and sisters are so fortunate as to have been born in or raised to a position of comparative freedom from manual labor, we should not forget those who are not so well situated, but endeavor to find or make employments that while they furnish the means of subsistence will be the less arduous because of their congeniality.

Our government has liberally endowed the prospective agricultural colleges of our country for the education of men; would it not have been well to give a portion to the endowment of horticultural departments for the education of both sexes? Must the mothers of great men, yes, of nations, be circumscribed in their usefulness, and be compelled to walk in channels unsuitable to their proper development because of fashion or false education of both their own and the ruling sex? Thousands of women, old and young, are now crowded into our cities who would gladly seek employment in the fruitful fields of the country if they could be assured that the finger of scorn would not be pointed at them.

We all honor a Mrs. Loudon who did not think it beneath her dignity to prosecute the work her much lamented husband had begun. There are a few such noble examples in Horticulture, and we have to regret that the record contains so small a number. At the time Mr. Loudon published his “Encyclopedia of Gardening”, there had been about four hundred authors of works on gardening in England;out of this number only five were women. We do not doubt they had given assistance in many instances in which they have received no credit.

We are glad to record the fact, that within the past year one lady has announced herself a member of the horticultural profession. We refer to Miss J. L. Waring, of Amenia, Dutchess County, N. Y.

Miss Waring has built four large propagating houses, which cost nearly $10,000, besides purchasing ample grounds for carrying on an extensive business. The propagation of grapes has been the main business the past season, and we believe her success has been excellent. From a very slight personal acquaintance with this lady, we do not hesitate, in behalf of horticulturists in general, to welcome her among us, believing that she will be an honor to the profession and of benefit to the country at large.

As to the two women mentioned in this article, Miss Waring is difficult to find, but Mrs. Loudon became famous for her gardening books and is also interesting as being the author (as Jane Webb) of early science fiction, in particular her book The Mummy, written in 1827.

More about the early UK horticultural college for women here.
Plus this document on other notable early women in horticulture.
Library of Congress reading list.