tempus fugit

By ceridwen

Mystery woman

Photo from a couple of days ago (sorry) but too good to skip. At least I thought so.
Walking through a back alley in Haverfordwest I noticed this on the wall of  The Castle Hotel Poundland  - a mural? I wondered. (The town has lots of random graffiti and amateur wall art by bored youngsters.) But looking closer it seemed to be a simple paper poster stuck on to the wall. It doesn't look new but I've never seen it before - could it have been concealed under a bill board? 

Anyway it depicts a young woman, her appearance channeling Janis Joplin, confidently poised and booted and straight out of the 1960s women's liberation movement. She's poring over a stout volume entitled  THE WOMAN'S BOOK, WHAT EVERY WOMAN OUGHT TO KNOW (extra).

I find that this book, published in 1911, is still available (as a historical curiousity) and  far from advocating breaking free from the chains of domesticity it provided advice on managing  your household, servants, children and husband.
A nice run-down of the contents is provided by the Irish Family History Centre here

Why the poster is on the wall is a mystery. It doesn't appear to advertise anything, there was no wording on it. A reverse image search on the internet comes up with nothing.
I love it though, and want to preserve it here before it's destroyed by the weather, fingers or paint.

100 years on from 1911 and 50 from Janis Joplin's death women still struggle against prejudice and disadvantage on many fronts and in many parts of the globe - for instance
https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/in-focus/2022/08/in-focus-women-in-afghanistan-one-year-after-the-taliban-takeover

Janis Joplin

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