EM Gardner

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

was the name used by Emilie Montgomery Gardner (30 September 1882 – 8 April 1959). She was an American-born British photographer and a British suffragist. In later life she took to photographing notable buildings. About 1,800 of her photographs are kept by

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

until 2029 when they will be unprotected and freely available.

Life

Gardner was born in

New Haven New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is the third largest city in Co ...

in Connecticut in 1882. About ten years later her family moved to the

Black Country The Black Country is an area of England's West Midlands. It is mainly urban, covering most of the Dudley and Sandwell metropolitan boroughs, with the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton. The road between Wolverhampto ...

. It was intended to be a temporary move so that her father could establish a factory in Birmingham, but their plans changed and they stayed in England. Her younger sister,

Elinor Wight Gardner Elinor Wight Gardner (24 September 1892, in Birmingham – 1980), a geology lecturer at Bedford College, London and research fellow at Lady Margaret Hall, is best known for her field surveys with Gertrude Caton–Thompson of the Kharga Oasis ...

, as a leading British geologist. She was a member of the

National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies The National Union of Women Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), also known as the ''suffragists'' (not to be confused with the suffragettes) was an organisation founded in 1897 of women's suffrage societies around the United Kingdom. In March 1919 it w ...

(NUWSS) from 1900. Gardner attended

Newnham College Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicen ...

from 1904 and she became the President of the joint NUWSS society that involved students from Newnham and from its sister college, Girton. Newnham was one of the few women's colleges that were part of

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. The students were allowed to take classes and identical exams to male students but they were denied a Cambridge degree irrespective of their success. She completed her time in Newnham in 1907, but she was involved in the 1908 suffrage tour. In 1908 a caravan tour was organised that began in Scotland. The caravan was pulled by a horse and driven by a man. The caravan travelled from place to place and the caravan would be redirected to good places to stay by some outriders who used their own bicycles. The caravan had campbeds and a tent that allowed five or six to sleep. They toured into Keswick, Bridlington and the north of England and they would give talks about women's suffrage. The caravan visited Oxford, Stratford and Warwick. They argued the case for women to get the vote, but they avoided ambitions of getting women to be members of parliament as this was too radical. The women on the caravan included

Ray Strachey Ray Strachey (born Rachel Pearsall Conn Costelloe; 4 June 188716 July 1940) was a British feminist politician, artist and writer. Early life Her father was Irish barrister Benjamin "Frank" Conn Costelloe, and her mother was art historian Mary ...

and Gardner. The tour finished in the East Midlands at Derby where they attracted a crowd of 1,000 people. In 1912 she became a British citizen. After the first world war, some British women were allowed to vote, subject to both age and property ownership, and in 1928 all women over the age of 21 were allowed to vote. In the 1942 Birthday Honours Gardner was awarded an OBE for her work in the civil service. Gardner was keen on buildings and she was particularly keen on water mills. She persuaded the

Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) (also known as Anti-Scrape) is an amenity society founded by William Morris, Philip Webb, and others in 1877 to oppose the Victorian restoration, destructive 'restoration' of ancient bu ...

to take more interest and as a result the Wind and Watermill Section in 1946. Throughout most of the 1950s she was on that section's committee.

Death and legacy

Gardner died in

Chichester Chichester ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in the Chichester District, Chichester district of West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher ...

on 8 April 1959 after a minor operation at the local hospital. About 1,800 of her photographs are held by

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gardner, E M 1882 births 1959 deaths 20th-century British women photographers 20th-century American women photographers 20th-century American photographers Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge American emigrants to England Architectural photographers 20th-century British women educators Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Officers of the Order of the British Empire People from the Black Country People from New Haven, Connecticut British suffragettes Suffragists from Connecticut