Hilda Mary Seligman (''née'' McDowell; 18 January 1882 – 20 December 1964) was a British sculptor, author and campaigner. Hilda McDowell was born in

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the River Ribble, Ribble Valley, east of Preston ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

in 1882. She married the metallurgist and chemical engineer Richard Seligman (1878–1972) in London in 1906. They had four sons:

Adrian Adrian is a form of the Latin given name Adrianus or Hadrianus. Its ultimate origin is most likely via the former river Adria from the Venetic and Illyrian word ''adur'', meaning "sea" or "water". The Adria was until the 8th century BC the ma ...

(1909–2003), Peter, Oliver (who was killed in WWII), and

Madron Madron ( (village) or (parish)) is a civil parishes in England, civil parish and village in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Madron is named after Saint Madern's Church. Its annual Trafalgar Service commemorating the death of Horatio ...

(1918–2002); and a daughter: Audrey Babette Seligman (1907–1990). During the inter-war period, Seligman entertained

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

and the

Emperor Haile Selassie Haile Selassie I (born Tafari Makonnen or '' Lij'' Tafari; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as the Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia (') under Empress Zewditu between 1916 and 1930. Wide ...

at her home in

Wimbledon, London Wimbledon () is a suburb of southwest London, England, southwest of Charing Cross; it is the main commercial centre of the London Borough of Merton. Wimbledon had a population of 68,189 in 2011 which includes the electoral wards of Abbey, Wimb ...

. She spent some time in India and founded the 'Skippo' Fund in London in 1945. The fund was set up with royalties from her book ''Skippo of Nonesuch'' (1943) about a goat named 'Skippo', and donations and gifts from

Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Baroness Pethick-Lawrence (; 21 October 1867 – 11 March 1954) was a British women's rights activist, suffragist and pacifist. Early life Pethick-Lawrence was born in 1867 in Clifton, Bristol as Emmeline Pethick. He ...

and

Isobel Cripps Dame Isobel Cripps, Order of the British Empire, GBE (''née'' Swithinbank; 25 January 1891 – 11 April 1979), also known as Isobel, the Honourable Lady Cripps, was a British overseas aid organiser and the wife of the Honourable Stafford Cripps ...

. The Fund paid for a mobile health van that was custom built in the UK, and later other health vans to serve isolated villages in India and Pakistan. The Fund's 'Asoka-Akbar Mobile Health Vans' were given to the

All India Women's Conference The All India Women's Conference (AIWC) is a non-governmental organisation ( NGO) based in Delhi. It was founded in 1927 by Margaret Cousins in order to improve educational efforts for women and children and has expanded its scope to also tack ...

to administer. Seligman also wrote two other small books: ''When Peacocks Called'' (1940), ''Asoka, Emperor of India'' (1947).

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Thakur (; anglicised as Rabindranath Tagore ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renai ...

wrote the foreword to ''When Peacocks Called''. In 1999, Seligman's papers (Ref: 7HSE) were presented as a gift to the

Women's Library The Women's Library is England's main library and museum resource on women and the women's movement, concentrating on Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries. It has an institutional history as a coherent collection dating back to the mid-1920s, ...

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

, where they are still held.

Sculptures

Seligman created a bust of Haile Selassie from life in 1936 during his exile from Ethiopia, when he stayed at Selgman's family home, Lincoln House. The bust originally stood in the grounds of the house, and remained there until the building was demolished in 1957. The bust was later installed in Cannizaro Park, where it stood until 30 June 2020, when it was toppled and smashed to pieces by protestors. Her bronze sculpture, ' J. P. Blake, Esq.' was displayed at the

Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts The Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts (RGI) is an independent organisation in Glasgow, founded in 1861, which promotes contemporary art and artists in Scotland. The institute organizes the largest and most prestigious annual art exhibiti ...

Eighty-Second Annual Exhibition, 1943, and at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

. Seligman made and donated a bust of

Chandragupta Maurya Chandragupta Maurya (Sanskrit: elp:IPA/Sanskrit, t̪͡ɕɐn̪d̪ɾɐgupt̪ɐ mɐʊɾjɐ (reigned 320 BCE – c. 298 BCE) was the founder and the first emperor of the Maurya Empire, based in Magadha (present-day Bihar) in the Indian ...

, founder of the

Maurya Empire The Maurya Empire was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in South Asia with its power base in Magadha. Founded by Chandragupta Maurya around c. 320 BCE, it existed in loose-knit fashion until 185 BCE. The primary source ...

who reigned from 321 B.C. to 296 B.C., for installation in The Indian Parliament complex. It today stands in the courtyard opposite Gate No. 5 of

Parliament House Parliament House may refer to: Meeting places of parliament Australia * Parliament House, Canberra, Parliament of Australia * Parliament House, Adelaide, Parliament of South Australia * Parliament House, Brisbane, Parliament of Queensland * P ...

, on a red sandstone pedestal, bearing the inscription "Shepherd boy

, dreaming of the India he was to create".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seligman, Hilda 1882 births 1964 deaths Writers from Blackburn Artists from Blackburn 20th-century British sculptors 20th-century English women writers 20th-century English writers English philanthropists English women philanthropists English women sculptors English activists English women activists 20th-century English women artists 20th-century British philanthropists 20th-century British women philanthropists 20th-century British women sculptors