Elsie Plant Hatting Hero | Hat Works Animation
Elsie Plant Hatting Hero is an animation created for the Hatworks Museum - the UK's only Hat Museum based in Stockport, the animation explores the history of socialist, suffragette & birth control activist Elsie Plant from Stockport.
The animation is showcased on the factory floor of the museum next to the display of Elsie’s office filled with her notes, books, hat boxes & more. The animation and narrative wallpaper to house the animation, have been created from a combination of illustrations inspired by the Hat Museum archives + collaged elements too. Collaging and drawing on top of the archival images helped bring Elsie’s story to life & the intertwined rich history of hatting, birth control & women’s rights. Alongside the animation and wallpaper output, I have run several workshops and talks for International Women’s Day, Women in Archives and Sheffield & Manchester University using the project as a starting point for discovering and sharing hidden stories from the Hat Museum through quick illustrative prompts and material experimentation. Runner-up in V&A Illustration Awards Non-Fiction Category.
Women in Archives Event | Hosted on the Stockport’s Hat Works Factory Floor, Women + Archives consisted of a series of presentations that foreground women’s stories in the archives of Greater Manchester and heard from women working in archives to bring new perspectives to historical records. Speakers working across the city region shared their work and examined the lasting legacy of women in archives.
This event is hosted and facilitated by Hat Works Museum and Stockport Local Heritage Library with funding from Greater Manchester Combined Authority. Developed in partnership with @mcrschart.
Speakers @helenlantro, @womeninprintuk, @maisysummer, @lucymorris_illustration, @bethanyturnerpemberton, Alison Slater.
Elsie was a suffragette, socialist and birth control activist from stockport. Elsie joined the Independent Labour Party and that’s how she met Walter Plant who she married and his family owned the local hat blocking business. Elsie knew the hat block business inside out and she managed the ledgers and played an equal part in driving it forward. Whilst doing this campaigned for women rights - and set up Stockport’s first Family planning association. Elsie spent a life-time campaigning to improve the lives of Stockport people and we wanted to celebrate this.
I incorporated the archives physically to the animation. Using as tools as type, images as backgrounds, combining illustration and collage so it was informative and inline with the narrative yet fun and engaging.
Hat Works is the UK’s Only Hat Museum
I did a workshop with Sheffield Hallam Illustration course to disseminate/and engage people further with this research project. For this workshop I asked the students to re-imagine a hat based on the hat block, and we ended up with really interesting hedgehog hats, character designs, hat boxes and branding. It’s great the knock on effect one small starting point can have.