Guide to the Papers of Bessie Rischbieth, 1900-1967

Summary

Collection number:

MS 2004

Creator:

Rischbieth, Bessie Mabel, 1874-1967

Extent:

(37 archive boxes + 3 large folio boxes + 2 medium folio boxes + 2 medium phase boxes + 2 outsized phase boxes + 1 map folio)

Language:

English and English

Preferred citation:

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Bessie Rischbieth, National Library of Australia, MS 2004, [series/item number]'.

Availability:

Available

Access conditions:

Available for research. Not for loan.

Background

Content Summary:

Bessie Rischbieth was involved in women's rights movements from the beginning of the century, at local, national and international levels, and her papers record her involvement in many organizations, especially the Australian Federation of Women Voters, and with many different subjects up to her death in 1967. Of special interest is the collection of material on the women's suffrage movement in Great Britain between 1906 and 1928. The collection contains correspondence, reports and minutes of meetings, some photographs, newspaper cuttings and pamphlets. The different series relate to organisations and subjects, and the correspondence is to be found at the beginning of most series.

Biographical Note:

Bessie Rischbieth was born in Adelaide in 1875. In 1899 she married Henry Rischbieth and moved to Perth where she lived until her death. She became involved in local welfare work, and in 1909 helped form the Woman's Service Guilds of Western Australia. This society affiliated with other State bodies in 1921 to form the Australian Federation of Women Voters with which Mrs Rischbieth had a very close association all her life, being president and editor of its newspaper The Dawn.

In 1923 she attended her first international women's conference in Rome and subsequently was present at many such gatherings. Her husband died in 1925 and she fortunately had the means to frequently travel overseas.

Bessie Rischbieth's dominant interest was always to secure legal and economic equality for women, and to this end she succeeded in having a Women's Legal Status Act passed by the Western Australia Parliament in 1919, enabling women to stand for Parliament. She was called on to give evidence at a number of Royal Commissions, and was active as an Honorary Magistrate in children's court work and as a Justice of the Peace.

In 1935 she was appointed by the Australian Government as delegate to the League of Nations, and in 1935 received an O.B.E for her services to women and children. She continued to be actively involved in political and social issues until her death in 1967.

When bequeathing her papers to the National Library, Mrs Rischbieth wrote: 'It is my wish that they form the nucleus of a permanent history of the British Women's struggle for enfranchisement and citizen rights'. The Library has fortunately been able to carry out this objective, as in recent years it has acquired a number of collections which complement the Rischbieth Papers.

Immediate Source of Acquisition:

Bessie Rischbieth bequeathed to the National Library her collection of papers and books in so far as they related to the 'national, empire and/or international development of the modern women's movements', while papers of personal and local interest were bequeathed to the State Library of Western Australia. The papers were received in November 1967, and were augmented by the records of the Australian Federation of Women Voters in 1970.

Related

Related Documentation:

1. Supplementary finding aid (Type: pdf, Size: 282.16 KB)

   Appendix I – Correspondence Index

Other Finding Aids:

All correspondence in the collection has been name-indexed; please refer to the attached Correspondence Index (Appendix I) under the Related Documentation tab.

Indexed terms

Subjects:

Women's rights

Conditions Governing Access:

Please refer to the collection's catalogue record for the access conditions (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn2655892).

Conditions Governing Use:

Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.

Preferred citation:

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Bessie Rischbieth, National Library of Australia, MS 2004, [series/item number]'.

Location of this collection:

National Library of Australia

Parkes Place

Canberra ACT 2600, Australia

Contact:

Contact us