The Only Woman
Immy Humes
The Only Woman by Immy Humes is an interesting resource that sits on the edge of my subject guide. Within this book are examples of women throughout history who were “the only woman” or the first woman to be in a group of some kind. Each entry includes a picture of the woman in her group. This resource felt like an important edition to me because throughout history women were excluded and the photographic documentation of these women breaking in are an important part of the history of photography as well as the history of women in society. Photography throughout history was incredibly important for many reasons and one was documentation. Having these images documenting the women that were the first and or only women in a group is extremely valuable. She covers women who were medical students, artists, politicians, writers, scientists, jurors, publishers and so much more. This was published in 2022 so it is too early to have another edition but it is possible they have another in the works to update other women that they may have forgotten or just learned about. The table of contents in the front is very bare: introduction, the only woman, timeline, end notes, index. The woman also appears to be in no order. They are not in year order or alphabetical by first or last name. So if you were looking for a particular woman then you would need to utilize the index. Thankfully the index is included otherwise there would be no hope to quickly find who you were looking for. The timeline includes a smaller image and they circle where the woman is in the photo because in some of the images it is hard to find where she is in the sea of men. This resource is almost an encyclopedia of the first women despite it not being in alphabetical order. Each entry includes the woman’s name (if known), their occupation, the location, year and her within the group. Then there is a page of information breaking down the picture to explain what she “broke” into. This resource would be great for someone who wanted to do research on the importance of photography documenting women’s history.
