One hundred years ago today, on 11th October 1917, the first woman to be elected President of The Plymouth Athenaeum delivered her President’s Address.
In April 1917 Emma Scott was elected President of a society then known as the Plymouth Institution and Devon & Cornwall Natural History Society.
Emma, a headmistress who lived in Lockyer Street, was elected to the Society in 1900 and had served as a Vice President for a number of years.
One of 11 women who have served as President of the Society, her address was titled ‘WOMAN’S WORK’.
She opened with the following remarks: “As I am the first woman President of this Institution, it seems to me appropriate to take as the subject of my address the work which women are doing in the world…
“…and their progress in the learned professions opened to them by the higher educational facilities which were first offered about the middle of the nineteenth century.”
In her address, she drew attention to the improvement of education for women following the accession of Queen Victoria to the British throne and the scientific work of the French-Polish physicist, Marie Curie.
She also highlighted nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale and the 1908 election of Dr Elizabeth Garrett Anderson as Mayor of Aldeborough, the first woman to hold such a position.
Emma’s election to the Presidency of the Society came in the midst of the First World War, two months before the passing of The Representation of the People Act 1918 finally granted votes to women over 30.
The Plymouth Institution was renamed ‘The Plymouth Athenaeum’ when it moved into the current building in June 1961, which is sited on the same location as its pre-Blitz home.