Announcing the Final Examination of Ms. Abigail Moreshead for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Texts and Technology
Using a feminist media historical lens, this dissertation examines three women artist-illustrators who participated in the early twentieth century wood engraving revival in the United Kingdom: Gwen Raverat (1885-1957), Clare Leighton (1898-1989), and Joan Hassall (1906-1988). Little scholarship exists on the wood engraving revival from a feminist media or book history perspective. To fill this gap, I examine the biographies of these women and the books and magazines they illustrated in their historical context, with attention to how their gender impacted their experience. This dissertation finds that women’s participation in the wood engraving revival is significant because it afforded opportunities for women to become professional artists through a medium that had previously been controlled by men. They influenced print culture domestically and globally by illustrating political and literary magazines to broaden their visual appeal and by illustrating a variety of fiction that reflected how commercial publishing was being impacted by the “Book Beautiful” movement. This research further reveals how social networks and institutions played a complex role in the careers of women artist-illustrators in this period, and, as a result, in the development of the book in the twentieth century.
Committee in charge: Louise Kane, Stephen Hopkins, Anastasia Salter, Kristin Bluemel
Please email Louise.kane@ucf.edu at least 24 hours ahead of time for meeting ID and passcode.
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