The story of the sisters who protected Charles Waterton's natural history collection

Such recognition for the Edmonstone sisters followed the FWW Petticoat Patrimony project, exploring the legacy of Eliza, Anne-Mary and Helen Edmonstone. The women’s father Charles Edmonstone was a plantation owner in Demerara, a historical region in the Guianas, and is described by FWW researchers as a “prolific and successful slave trader”. Waterton also had a connection with Guiana in South America, spending several years as a manager of sugar plantations and enslaved people there. In a blog post for Black History Month back in 2020, Wakefield Museums set out what was known about Waterton’s involvement with the practice of slavery, explaining how at the age of 22 he was sent to administer plantations owned by his family, on behalf of relatives.

Edmonstone and Waterton became friends and Waterton later went on to marry Edmonstone’s daughter Anne-Mary. She died just 21 days after giving birth to their son. "Anne-Mary’s sisters, Eliza and Helen, moved in with Waterton to raise the boy, manage Walton Hall and bring with them, their father’s money,” the FWW researchers say. “Eliza and Helen were hidden scientists, conservationists, educators and advocates of nature.”

Sarah Cobham, the chief executive of Dream Time Creative, which leads the Forgotten Women project, shared the stories of the Edmonstone sisters in a series of articles in citizen journalism publication Yorkshire Bylines, in the run up to International Women’s Day earlier this month. In exploring archives in Wakefield, she came across letters written on behalf of Eliza and Helen after Waterton’s death. They explain how Waterton left his natural history collection to his sisters-in-law and how the women will ensure they are passed on, along with any of Waterton’s letters on the theme of science and natural history, to his grandson.

Sarah says: “Without Eliza and Helen, the entire contents of the natural history collection – which Wakefield Museum housed for decades, and upon which the city has built an identity both environmentally and culturally – is a direct result of the women’s actions.” Of the blue plaque unveiling, she adds: “I don't think I've ever felt so proud despite the project being the most challenging, uncomfortable and unsettling Forgotten Women of Wakefield one to date.”