A sports historian from De Montfort University (DMU), Leicester, has won a US fellowship to study the careers of female riders.
Dr Jean Williams, will spend three weeks in February at the National Sporting Library looking at books, artworks and riding costumes. The work carried out in the library, which is located in Middleburg, Virginia, will form part of her research into women equestrians from the nineteenth century to the present day.
The John H. Daniels Fellowship was awarded to Dr Williams in January for her innovative work on varied careers of women equestrian experts.
Dr Williams said: “I’ll be studying women’s equestrian expertise as judges of animal stock and breeding.
“Having good horse-sense was a very portable skill. I’ll be looking at the careers of Anglo-Irish writers in the US, like Maria ‘Midy’ Morgan who became one of the first women sports journalists in 1869.”
For more information visit www.dmu.ac.uk.
