Murderous Millinery, Golden Joinery and The Emily Williamson Sculpture Campaign with Billie Bond

This is a special summer episode of the podcast to coincide with an important date for the Emily Williamson Statue Campaign: the release of the short-listed maquettes on July 1st. This campaign is to create a much needed memorial statue of the magnificent, Emily Williamson, the founder of the society for the protection of birds. Emily Williamson watched her favourite species, the Great Crested Grebe, being hunted to extinction for the plumage trade. Appalled, she begged the British Ornithologists’ Union to take a stand against ‘murderous millinery’. They ignored her letters.  In anger, she founded her own, all-women Society For The Protection of Birds.  The year was 1889, and the fashion for feathers was reaching a terrible crescendo. The society later became the Royal Society Protection of Birds (the conservation charity we now know and love in the UK!) Do take a look at https://www.emilywilliamsonstatue.com/  campaign Join, Lucy Branch, sculpture conservator and author,  and BE INSPIRED BY SCULPTURE.   If you are looking for a new book, and enjoy thrillers about the dark side of the art world - one of Lucy Branch's novels is currently available free to download from Sculpture Vulture. This podcast was brought to you by Antique Bronze