Nancy: The Life and Times of Nancy Astor
The Box, Plymouth
When: 13 July 2013 to 12 October 2013
Where: Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery
Time: 10am - 5pm
Cost: Free
Suitable for: Family friendly
Viscountess Nancy Astor (1879 to 1964) was the first female MP to take a seat in the House of Commons in 1919 and Lady Mayoress of Plymouth during the Blitz.
Originally hailing from Virginia, USA she was a woman of contrasts: liked and disliked by fellow political figures of the time; fiercely independent and outspoken yet reliant on her friendships with people such as Bernard Shaw and T.E. Lawrence and on career guidance from her second husband, Viscount Waldorf Astor; wealthy yet generous; renowned for the lavish garden and dinner parties she hosted at her Cliveden estate in Buckinghamshire yet a prohibitionist and a campaigner for social causes.
This exhibition will look at her life through four key themes: Wife and Mother, Politician and Personality, Friend and Foe and Honorary Plymothian. Items from the city's permanent collections including the outfit she wore for her introduction to Parliament, photographs, silver and a diamond necklace and earrings that she left for Plymouth's future Lady Mayoress' to wear at civic occasions, will be on display. Paintings and other works of art on loan from the National Portrait Gallery, the Government Art Collection, the Imperial War Museum and the American Museum in Bath will also be included.
Exhibitions & Projects
-
King's Nympton: A North Devon Village
The Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon
29 March 2025 to 03 May 2025
-
Windrush in the Far South West
The Box, Plymouth
18 January 2025 to 05 May 2025
-
John Lyons: Carnivalesque
The Box, Plymouth
08 February 2025 to 05 May 2025
-
Vernon C Boyle: Uncovering an Archive
The Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon
22 March 2025 to 10 May 2025
-
FOOD: beyond the plate
Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery
22 March 2025 to 29 June 2025
-
The Valley: Art on the border a cultural history of Marsland
The Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon
24 May 2025 to 05 July 2025
-
Emma Stibbon RA: Melting Ice | Rising Tides
The Burton at Bideford art gallery and museum
10 May 2025 to 05 July 2025
-
North Devon Arts: Spring into Summer Exhibition
The Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon
31 May 2025 to 12 July 2025
-
Six Weeks To Go
Kingsbridge Cookworthy Museum
31 March 2025 to 31 October 2025
-
Kingsbridge 1939 1945 : The Image and the Place
Kingsbridge Cookworthy Museum
31 March 2025 to 31 October 2025
-
Jyll Bradley: Running and Returning
The Box, Plymouth
05 April 2025 to 02 November 2025
-
Coastal Threads: Textile Art
Fairlynch Museum Budleigh Salterton
01 May 2025 to 02 November 2025
