Although Annie Oakley (an entertainer/marksman), Nellie Bly (journalist), Annie Turnbo Malone (entrepreneur), and Lucy Burns (suffragist) all lived during the Victorian era, they later seemed to live with me for a year or more, while I distilled their stories down to a few sentences. 

With a Compass, Without a Map is a five page double-sided accordion-fold book with collaged images of each woman with quotes on the reverse side.  The background pieces were painted and scanned with hand crocheted lace (to represent traditional women’s work) and also with other cloth.  I then created portrait outlines with free-motion machine stitching.  The quotes of each woman were stitched using the same technique, on embroidered cotton lawn.

The center page has a stitched mariner’s compass to symbolize that these women, with their unusual life choices, were going through life following their instincts but deviating from society’s expected role.  The back side of this page summarizes their stories.  All pages are connected with piano hinges.

Now that these four women are permanently linked (and residing on the shelves of the University of Puget Sound library), it would be fun to imagine what they would say to each other if they could.  I am guessing they would have much empathy for the many challenges and huge successes of the others. 

If you are curious about their lives there are sources available in print and online.  You can contact me for more information on them, or let me know if you find something interesting.

Quotes from With a Compass, Without a Map

Annie Oakely – “When a man hits a target they call him a marksman.  When I hit a target, they call it a trick.  Never did like that much.”

Annie Oakely – “Housework is directly opposed to the possibility of human actualization.”

Nellie Bly – “Never having failed, I could not picture what failure meant.”

Nellie Bly – “I shuddered to think how completely the insane were in the power of their keepers.” (After committing herself to an asylum for ten days as an undercover journalist)

Nellie Bly – “Energy rightly applied and directed can accomplish anything.”

Annie Turnbo Malone – “If [I] only had the means, I would respond to any cause that needed [me].  It is a great thing to give.”

Lucy Burns – “It is unthinkable that a national government which represents women should ignore the issue of all women to political freedom…20,000,000 American women are not self governed.”