Papers of Margaret E Pillow

The archive consists of lecture material, including notes, schedules and lists of lecturers (1891-1919), printed material, including newspapers, pamphlets and posters (1891-1924) and general papers, which include leaflets and correspondence (1860-1896).

The records of Margaret Eleanor Scott Pillow have been arranged into three series, lecture material, printed material and general papers, maintaining original order where this was apparent. The lecture series is divided according to Pillow's syllabus programme, while the printed material section is divided by type and then date, and the general papers by date.

This collection is available for research. Readers are advised to contact The Women's Library in advance of their first visit.

Donated by Norfolk Rural Life Museum, 21 Nov 1983

Margaret Eleanor Scott (1859-1929) was born in Norwich in 1859. Between 1872 and 1876 Scott was apprenticed as a pupil teacher of St Paul's City Trust School, Norwich and received a Bishop's Certificate of Norwich diocese for five years of scripture examinations. She gained a first class Queen's Scholarship in 1876, and went on to study at Norwich Training College between 1877 and 1878, gaining a first division certificate. Between 1879 and 1884, and again in 1889, Margaret Scott studied at Cambridge University, focusing mainly on sociology, physiology and history. Scott taught at a number of schools during the 1880s including Cringleford Public School, Norwich between1878 and 1881, St Paul's City Trust School, Norwich between 1881 and 1883, Marylebone Queen's Scholarship Class of the Central Classes for Training Young Teachers and Wordsworth College for Training Teachers, Kilburn, in 1887. Scott was also headmistress of All Souls' Schools, South Hampstead during the 1880s. During the 1890s Scott was Special Lecturer to the National Health Society and lecturer on hygiene, domestic economy, history and literature to the Central Classes for Teachers, Marylebone. She went on to co-write Domestic Economy: Comprising the Laws of Health in their Application to Home Life and Work with Arthur Newsholme in 1893. In 1897 Scott was on the committee of the Norwich Sanitary Aid Commission, she had gained a diploma for proficiency in Sanitary Knowledge granted by the Sanitary Institute (London), and was the only woman in the United Kingdom qualified to act as a Sanitary Inspector under the Public Health Acts during this period. Scott married Edward Pillow, an engineer and later Organising Secretary for Technical Education, Norfolk County Council, in 1891. They had two sons, Edward and Henry Montgomery. Margaret Scott died in 1929.