The holdings of Public Record Office Victoria reflect the inevitable interaction between people's lives and government processes. This is true for women as well as men, as reflected by the stories in this book. This revised edition of Ten Victorian Women allows a glimpse into the lives of ten women, some of whom are well known in our history.
Each chapter focuses on one or more aspects of a woman's life, but does not purport to be a full biographical work. Rather, each woman is discussed as she appears in a selection of records held in Public Record Office Victoria, and identified at the end of each chapter. This work does not attempt to be either exhaustive or definitive.
Three women who were not in the 1983 publication appear in the new edition. They were found simply by browsing through records and following any trails. The records have been quoted as they stand - punctuation and spelling have not been altered. The individual styles of punctuation and paragraphing can convey much of the emphasis intended by the original author.
It is the purpose of Ten Victorian Women to illustrate the way in which public records can be used in historical research. The records of the Chief Secretary's Department, Penal and Gaols Branch, Insane Asylums, courts and the Board for the Protection of Aborigines are examples of the records that have been used for this book.
It is intended that Ten Victorian Women encourage researchers to use public records to their greatest potential.