"Lorina Bulwer’s mind worked fast, but her method was slow"

When 55-year-old Lorina Bulwer was placed in the Great Yarmouth Workhouse in 1893, she embroidered protests into long pieces of patchwork fabric, ranting in unpunctuated capitals:

THE CHATTER IS I MISS LORINA BULWER CAMBS WOMAN DROVE TO THRIGBY HALL NORFOLK E. BULWER MARRIED AN HEMAPHRODITE EUNICH I MISS LORINA BULWER WAS EXAMINED BY DR PINCHING OF WALTHAMSTOW ESSEX AND FOUND TO BE A PROPERLY SHAPED WOMAN

Went to a workhouse museum today. Saw some of the works of Lorina Bulwer on display. She was a mentally ill woman who was held at the workhouse against her will, and she spent her time embroidering huge tapestries with what are essentially 19th century callout posts on them.

Strange to find out that one of the people she was angry at might've been one of my ancestors.

Writing with threads is not a new art, just look at all the historic samplers young girls were taught to create through centuries. But it has become pure art too. How do you know if it is art? You just look and see it. 

1. Lorina Bulwer (1838 - 1912), a British needleworker.  She was placed in a workhouse at Great Yarmouth at the age of 55 where she created long (up to 4.5 m) pieces of needlework with letters of protest and outrage. Her “blog” is now in several museums. 

2.  Agnes Richter, held in an asylum for the insane in the 1890’s, embroidered text on her jacket, which was part of the uniform given to patients at the time. from the Prinzhorn Collection.

3. Tracey Emin, (born 1963) is an English artist known for her autobiographical and confessional artwork. Emin’s art includes drawing, painting, sculpture, film, photography, neon text and sewn appliqué. Once the "enfant terrible" of the Young British Artists in the 1980s, Tracey Emin is now a Royal Academician. 

4. "A Coat for my Daughter" by Eve Gonzalez, Royal Academy of Arts' annual Summer Exhibition in London, 2014.

My first pathway project involved me hand embroidering the chemical symbols of certain medications and using the sewing machine to attach these onto a hospital gown. I hadn’t previously done much sewing so this project taught me a lot of the basics and provided the foundation for the techniques I’m using in my FMP. A lot of my research for my pathway, including Lorina Bulwer and Agnes Richter’s work was also very relevant to this project and influenced a lot of the choices I made with textiles, in particular the building of layers and not sticking to the ‘rules’ of sewing. I have also continued with a medical theme although now I’m focusing on the more abstract concept of mental health. I am really interested in the medical field so I like to try and use science in my work which I did in my first project quite explicitly but also in my FMP with my use of statistics and first hand accounts of mental illness.

Lorina Bulwer, needle-worker incarcerated in the 'lunatic ward' of a UK Workhouse in 1894, created large scale samplers as a way to voice her experience, highlighting her protests at her treatment and grim conditions

Lorina Bulwer, needle-worker incarcerated in the 'lunatic ward' of Great Yarmouth  Workhouse, UK, in 1894, created large scale samplers as a way to voice her  experience, highlighting her protests at her treatment and grim conditions

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorina_Bulwer

“Hand-sewn by a woman from Great Yarmouth called Lorina Bulwer over 100 years ago. Lorina clearly wanted her words to be read and for her story to be told. This is probably due to the difficult situation that she found herself in, and her belief that she had been terribly wronged. Lorina was resident in the Great Yarmouth workhouse lunatic ward when she made these samplers in the form of embroidered letters.”

Tweeted

Lorina Bulwer, needle-worker incarcerated in the 'lunatic ward' of Great Yarmouth Workhouse, UK, in 1894, created large scale samplers as a way to voice her experience, highlighting her protests at her treatment and grim conditions #womensart pic.twitter.com/yLUpbPsxyn

— #WOMENSART (@womensart1) August 18, 2018

Lorina Bulwer

via Textile samplers by Lorina Bulwer (born 1838), an inmate of the lunatic ward of the Great Yarmouth Workhouse - Made In Slant

Embroidery created by Lorina Bulwer while she was an inmate in the lunatic wing of Great Yarmouth Workhouse between 1901 and 1905. 

Miss Lorina Bulwer have been to sandringham norfolk and admired the gates at the entrace of the lime tree walk i see the huntsman dressed in scarlet coat white breeches white top boots high black silk hat...