One of the greatest character making factors in the making of a man is a woman. Whether it be in the tenderest and sweetest relation in the world as mother, as wife, or sister, she has ever exercised a refining and uplifting influence on man, and made him grand and noble because of it.
L.M.Cross. "Sparks" Fortnightly, 7 August 1920, p.13.
 

Introduction

Women and images of women do not appear in many of the 'heroic' themes of Western Australian history.  They must have been there at land settlement, on the farm, in the fish canning factory and in the forest but few images have survived to witness their presence.  The images we do have are of women posed with their children, posed in their wedding gown or surrounded by other social constraints and customs of the 19th century.

As time passes images become full of colour and movement reflecting action and interaction. The changing mores of the twentieth century are reflected in the images. We present here, images of women in Western Australia with the dual intention of illustrating both the lives of women but also the wide range and deficiencies of the Battye Library Pictorial Collection.