Karen, It sounds a fascinating project. A few suggestions that might be
of some help:
1. Do you know the Fawcett Library, in London Guildhall University
(formerly the City of London Polytechnic)? Fawcett is a specialist
library of feminist sources, and has an excellent collection on 19C
British feminism. The chief librarian, David Doughan, is also marvellous
- very helpful, and knows more bout the area than anyone else. Well
worth getting in touch AHEAD of your arrival. (It's an underfunded
operation - you need to check which days and hours it's open, and they
will ask you to become a Friend of the Fawcett - about 10 pounds, I
think). They are very generous with photocopying access, too.
2. Related to this - access to medical training was an important part of
the feminist debate in England (and Scotland) as in the US> I have a
feeling I've come across some reference to your subject somewhere in my
reading of the contemporary feminist literary journals - most probably in
the English Woman's Journal (published from about 1856-1863) - this is a
very important journal, not on microfilm as far as I know, and I read it
in the Fawcett (which is the only place they will let you photocopy from it).
3. Amongst the Langham Place group, who published the EWJ, was Barbara
Leigh Smith Bodichon, who went to America on her honeymoon, and wrote
both a journal of her trip, and published several articles about it in
EWJ. She was particularly interested in the race issue (and spent a fair
amount of time in New Orleans) so may be worth investigating - the
journal of her trip to America has been edited and published.
4. Another key figure is Elizabeth Blackwell, who trained as a doctor in
America and came to England, where she was something of a celebrity for
the feminists in this period. She wrote an Autobiography, and there are
some secondary sources on her, too.
5. There's a book, the details of which escape me right now, although
it's on my shelf soemwhere, entitled 'The Charge of the Parasols', which
is a history of the fight for women to get access to medical education in
Britain.
Good luck with the topic. Best wishes
Marion Diamond, History Department
University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, 4072
Ph: 61 7 365 6334; Fax:61 7 365 6266; med@lingua.cltr.uq.oz.au