Skip to main content

Bishopsgate Institute

  • What's on
  • Learn
  • Archives
  • Hire
  • Visit
  • Give
  • LogoutLogin
  • My Account
  • Basket
  • Search
  • Open Menu.

Bishopsgate Institute

SearchClose
  • LogoutLogin
  • My Account
  • Basket
  • What's on
  • Learn
  • Archives
  • Hire
  • Visit
  • Give
  • Take me to...

    Explore our online events
  • Watch our lunchtime concerts
  • Discover our archives
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
Join mailing list

More Site Pages

  • About
  • News
  • Work with us
  • Press

Legal Pages

  • Terms & conditions
  • Privacy
  • Accessibility
  • Cookies
  • Site Map
  • Contact

Contact Details

230 Bishopsgate
London
EC2M 4QH
020 7392 9200enquiries@bishopsgate.org.uk

Small Print

Copyright © 2021 Bishopsgate Foundation. Registered Charity No: 1090923. Website by Supercool
Return to main

Blaug, Astra

  1. Archives
  2. Feminist and Women's History

About this Archive

(1927-2015) artist, activist and feminist

Administrative/Biographical history

Astra Blaug was an artist, photographer, poet, writer, feminist, activist and campaigner. Born in Manhattan in 1927, she had a BA and MA degree in Childhood Education and taught kindergarten for about 12 years in New York. She moved to London in 1962, where she remained for the rest of her life. She had two sons.

Her work has appeared in many anthologies, among them One Foot on the Mountain: British feminist poetry, 1969-79 (Onlywomen Press, 1979), Hard Feelings: fiction and poetry from 'Spare rib' (ed., ill. by Alison Fell; Women's Press, 1980) and Bread and Roses: an anthology of nineteenth- and twentieth-century poetry by women writers (compiled and introduced by Diana Scott; Virago, 1982).

There are also published collections of her work (as simply 'astra'), including Fighting Words (Onlywomen Press, 1978), Battle Cries (self-published, 1981), Back You Come, Mother Dear (Virago, 1986), and Older and Bolder (Microbrigade, 1990).

Astra Blaug died 5th May 2015.

Scope and content

Papers, correspondence, artwork, photography and writing of Astra Blaug (1927-2015), American-born British feminist and poet, and founder of the Older Feminist Network. Includes draft articles and graphics for the Older Feminist Network newsletter, typescript poems, original artwork, and material regarding various political issues including gay rights, women's health and women's housing issues, gender politics, and the Older Women's Network.

The collection also includes over 100 small albums of photographs taken by Blaug, primarily of natural subjects (plants, flowers, birds, the changing seasons) but also of sculpture and artwork (her own and that of other artists) and demonstrations she witnessed for causes such as the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp, anti-nuclear armaments and climate change.

Quantity

42 boxes.

  • Share
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • email

Feminist and Women's History Go to this category page.

London Fields Housing Co-operative Archive

1976 – 1999

Kenwood Ladies' Pond Association Archive

1903 -

Catwalk4Power Archive

2017-2020

Dawson Family Archive

Women Activists of East London

Roman Catholic Feminists

Women's March on London

Feminist Library Collections

An image from the Amanda Sebestyen Archive, on a march for women's liberation.

Amanda Sebestyen Archive

1969-1992

Find More Feminist and Women's History

Format Photographers Agency

Focus E15 Campaign

Women in Entertainment

Feminist Library Archive

Coote, Anna

Feminist Library Pamphlet Collection

Blaug, Astra

Campaign Against Pornography

Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing

Leonard, Diana Mary

DIASPORA

European Network of Women

Feminist Library Ephemera

Kennedy, Mary

NAWO

National Women's Network

Feminist Library Poster Collection

WAVAW

Woman in Development Europe

Myers, Nell

(fl.1970-)

#FROMTHE ARCHIVES

Married in 1950, Chris and Betty Birch have been involved in political, trade union, and LGBTQ+ activism for over 60 years. Sharing similar interests, they were both Communist Party Members and involved with organisations such as the Aid to Spanish Youth Committee. After the death of his friend, Mark Ashton, Chris became involved in forming the Mark Ashton Memorial Trust, which was created to raise money for individuals living with HIV. The archive includes the truncheon taken from the police by Mark Ashton, correspondence, personal scrapbooks, press cuttings, and various other papers relating to the couples activism.
Find out more about the Chris and Betty Birch Archive

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
Join mailing list

More Site Pages

  • About
  • News
  • Work with us
  • Press

Legal Pages

  • Terms & conditions
  • Privacy
  • Accessibility
  • Cookies
  • Site Map
  • Contact

Contact Details

230 Bishopsgate
London
EC2M 4QH
020 7392 9200enquiries@bishopsgate.org.uk

Small Print

Copyright © 2021 Bishopsgate Foundation. Registered Charity No: 1090923. Website by Supercool