iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Pleased to find some women’s history on brief stop in Chard - the birthplace of Margaret Bondfield!

Blue plaque to Margaret Bondfield as first woman cabinet minister

The blue plaque high above a stone doorway with a white door

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Congratulations to the Heritage Collections team in UK Parliament on ‘A Historic Farewell’ exhibition on lying in state of Elizabeth II. Fantastic new artworks, beautifully displayed in the Hall it took place in. Book visits to 2 Oct, or see online heritagecollections.parliament.uk/exhibits/lyi...

Exhibition structure of white panels and artworks hung on it inside Westminster Hall, with tall stone walls and hammer beam roof

Purple embroidery with gold thread depicting queue, and image of angel statue

141

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Had an interesting and productive day researching in the Betty Boothroyd archives, housed in @oulibrary.bsky.social named after her. Also pleased to see the prototype statue of Jennie Lee at Milton Keynes rail station!

Metal plaque saying Boothroyd opened the library as Chancellor of the OU in 2006

Portrait of Boothroyd showing her in a colour jacket sitting on an orange sofa

Bronze coloured statue of Lee walking and holding a briefcase. Station building in background

0140

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

I wondered if the Law Society was affected by the General Strike, and found minutes of their Councll meeting on 7 May 1926, 100 years ago today! They refer to the 'National Emergency', students serving in a public capacity (volunteering), suspension of classes, and early closure of the Hall. 🗃️

Black and white printed text on a page, an extract from the Law Society council minutes

171

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Ok this incredible wallpaper is designed by artist Melissa White who explains it all in her website. And the canal is the Oxford Canal www.melissawhite.co.uk/brownsover-h...

Painted wallpaper showing a man sitting in a tree - Frank Whittle who invented the jet engine

Painted wallpaper showing the gothic Brownsover Hall, gargoyles in parkland and other beasts

120

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Remains of a Rugby gin & tonic at a posh hotel with quite extraordinary wallpaper #ConfinedCocktails

Balloon shaped glass with slice of lime at bottom, on black marbled table and weird wallpaper in background

Close up of part of wallpaper showing a red telephone box, a griffin and a swan

290

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Chesterfield today: church with amazing medieval twisted spire, and on building nearby, a plaque for Emma Miller, trade unionist and suffragist in Australia #WomensHistory 🗃️ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Mi...

Stone church with a grey spire that twists like a witch’s hat, pink blossom and green trees in foreground

Grey metal round plaque marking birthplace of Emma Miller in 1839

1217

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Brilliant talk this morning by @chloechallender.bsky.social on her excellent research on divorce by Act of Parliament, its voyeurism and theatricality, and experience of women inc as petitioners, respondents, witnesses.

Chloe’s title slide for her talk ‘I have been examined a great Many times’: Parliamentary divorce 1801-57

384

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Exciting news! I've signed a contract to write my first solo book - on women, politics and the battle for equal franchise between 1918 and 1928. It will be published for the centenary of the Equal Franchise Act in 2028 by @yalebooks.bsky.social Suffraduck is on my desk waiting for me to start! 🗃️

Working from home set up with rubber suffragette duck on desk, New Dawn colourful print on wall behind and a suffrage teatowel hanging over a monitor

1312815

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

And a stop at the fab Paul Mellon Centre where I was researching yesterday, for their next exhib www.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/whats-on/for... - I went to Honey & Co too (and sat outside!)

Cup of tea and half eaten honey bun on table, quiet London street in background with tall brown buildings (Store St)

160

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

I saw the blue plaque for Sophia Goulden, Emmeline Pankhurst’s mother, while on holiday in the Isle of Man last week! Also a maquette for a proposed statue, on display in the Tynwald. The Isle of Man gave women with property the vote in 1881 so Sophia would have been able to vote after that. 🗃️

Blue plaque mounted on an information board outside a white terrace house, me standing alongside

Small bronze statue on a wooden table, showing a Victorian era woman (Sophia Goulden) in large skirt holding out a piece of paper, while a small girl (Emmeline Pankhurst) clings to her

0212

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Ha! I have never let this Guardian Football Weekly episode be deleted from my feed

110

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

I’m at the end of a lovely week in Madrid. Tons of art and culture! Last night sangria for #ConfinedCocktails

Glass of red wine with ice, Fruit and straw. A bar in background

0111

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

Women’s history in Madrid: Victoria Eugenia, Queen of Spain and granddaughter of Queen Victoria, an active president of the Spanish Red Cross in WW1 #HistNursing 🗃️ from exhibition at Royal Collections Gallery www.galeriadelascoleccionesreales.es/en/exhibitio...

Glamorous portrait of Victoria Eugenia by de Laszlo

Black and white photograph of Victoria Eugenia in nurse uniform

Colour oil painting of Victoria Eugenia in nurse uniform with emblem of Red Cross

Colour picture of Red Cross nurse helping wounded soldier with Spanish flag, a telegram illustration

2196

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

Women’s history in Toledo: 16thC revolutionary Maria Pacheco 🗃️ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar%C3%...

Bronze statue of young woman in long dress and sleeves

1162

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

Absolutely! As well as the others mentioned in this splendid thread, here’s Elisabeth Poyser, early archivist in Parliament ‘because it was thought women had special qualifications for such work.’ Featured in #NecessaryWomen

Newspaper clipping with photo of Poyser and headline ‘Women’s Post in the Lords - work on records’

Copies of book, ‘Necessary Women: the untold story of Parliament’s working women’ on a patterned tablecloth

010

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

Drop a great pair of eyes from a movie or TV show 👀

Hugh Laurie as House MD with amazing blue eyes

020

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

Just seen it’s #InternationalUnsolicitedDuckPicDay - not too late I hope for the original prototype Suffraduck

Rubber duck in a purple jacket and boater hat, with eyelashes and a brown wavy hair, holding Votes for Women board and wearing rosette

050

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Last month I was thrilled to speak at an event at no 11 Downing Street on celebrating women cabinet ministers! @nansloane.bsky.social spoke on Margaret Bondfield, and me on Florence Horsbrugh using my @chuarchives.bsky.social research. Many thanks @histparl.bsky.social

Ayesha Hazarika, Karen Bradley, Mari Takayanagi, Jennie Davey and Gillian Shepherd sitting at a table with red tablecloth, with red wallpaper and white mantlepiece behind. Everyone is smiling

Panel sitting at table at a grand room in no 11 Downing Street with red wallpaper and tablecloth. L-R: Ayesha Hazarika, Karen Bradley, Mari Takayanagi, Jennie Davey, Gillian Shepherd, Clare Short and Nan Sloane.

Grand room at 11 Downing Street full of people sitting facing a panel of women at a table, and Rachel Reeves standing to the side speaking.

0212

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

Thoroughly enjoyed the splendid and innovative Kandinsky exhibition @philharmonie.bsky.social too- stupendous painting, wonderful musical interpretation and I loved that his palette might as well have been one of his artworks. Thanks @melindahaunton.bsky.social for flagging

Philharmonie exterior: a silver metallic building with big ramp and swirling sides

Kandinsky’s palette, a colourful mish-mash of blobs of paint

141

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

Unexpected highlight of Paris trip: Yuja Wang in an amazing immersive experience, Playing with Fire @philharmonie.bsky.social - a virtual Yuja plays a concert as you walk around with a headset underwater, into space, alien worlds; just brilliant

The set: a grand piano in centre of a large room with black and white geometric patterns on walls and floor, a black pole as tree with roots, and fiery branches

130

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

I have had a great few days at the Visual Representations of Parliaments conference at the German Historical Institute in Paris - I spoke on 1920s flapper’ cartoons alongside @lisaberrywaite.bsky.social @sclapperton.bsky.social on party political posters at 1929 election - perfect synergy! 🗃️

Conference building exterior, red brick with many white framed windows and paved courtyard in front

Conference room, wood panelled, me behind lectern, panel members at table and big screen behind

0142

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

This is a recently discovered 'suffragette chain'! Want to know more? Come and hear me speak on 'The Speakers and the Suffragettes', online and in person at the @histparl.bsky.social seminar at the @ihrlibrary.bsky.social on Tues 28 Oct at 5PM! Free - book here www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

A black chain partly wrapped in white-ish thread with padlock on a white tablecloth

0126

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

Glass of wine at my last night at the Gladstone Library

Bean casserole with rice and flatbread on plate, and glass of white wine behind

0100

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

I was really delighted to speak about #NecessaryWomen to an attentive and enthusiastic audience at @gladlib.bsky.social yesterday! Today it was full tilt research looking at as many files as I could during my last day of archives consultation. Phew!

Chapel, a bright modern room with white walls and wooden chairs, images of bookshelves at front and a presentation screen, with audience gathering for talk

Library laminated sign ‘These cushions are for the books! Please do not sit on them. Please ask at the enquiry deal if you would like a people-cushion for your chair’

0172

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

Last week I climbed Snowdon to find the Gladstone Rock halfway up the Watkin Path, where Gladstone spoke to 2000 people in 1892, aged 83 - today I thought to look up @gladlib.bsky.social what Gladstone said in his diary - 🗃️

Me standing beside a big rock with a granite plaque on it

The view down the mountain from the Gladstone rock - green hillside, grass and cloud

1201

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

My desk this week researching in @gladlib.bsky.social archives - some nice stuff today on Women’s Liberal Federation split over suffrage in 1892, when Catherine Gladstone was President. Still time to book on my #NecessaryWomen talk on Thursday! www.gladstoneslibrary.org/event/talk-n...

A desk with laptop, file, paper and pencil, lamp, book on book cushion, pile of books. Bookshelves in background

Over an image of Mari Takayanagi and her book is text that reads: 'Book your tickets for: Necessary Women: The Untold History of Parliament’s Working Women
with Mari Takayanagi, Thursday 9th October 4-5pm, Tickets: £10,

0151

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Exhausted after my first day researching in the @gladlib.bsky.social archives! Learning lots about the Gladstone family women. Also being very well-fed…

Laminated sign ‘Desk reserved for viewing Archives and Special Collections’

Big slice of carrot cake with a half strawberry perched atop

0211

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

@dohertyta.bsky.social spotted in St Asaph’s cathedral yesterday; WW1 Welsh nurses memorial and WW2 memorial inc a Nurse Margaret Owen #HistNursing 🗃️

Brass coloured wall plaque engraved with names and details of 5 Welsh nurses killed during First World War

White marble wall plaque engraved with names of 9 men and 1 women killed during Second World War

1234

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

Also Catherine Gladstone memorialised in marble alongside her husband, though difficult to see her next to the wall

Large white marble memorial depicting William and Catherine Gladstone lying down at rest together

010

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

Looking around St Deiniol's Church next door to @gladlib.bsky.social I was pleased to find stained glass windows to Gladstone’s daughters Helen, vice-principal of Newnham Cambridge, and Mary, his political secretary #WomensHistory 🗃️

Pair of stained glass windows depicting saints, Helen Gladstone mentioned at bottom

Pair of stained glass windows depicting angels with musical instruments, Mary Gladstone mentioned at bottom

1214

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

Have already had the afternoon tea so that’s a start!

Three tiers of plates of sandwiches, cakes and scones, with pot of tea on side and me sitting behind

140

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 04/10/2025

I have arrived at @gladlib.bsky.social ! Very much looking forward to spending the next week here thanks to the Daisy Ronco Scholarship. If you’re in the area on Thursday come and hear my #NecessaryWomen talk!

Me standing in front of a majestic stone building with green lawn

1206

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

I loved doing the Voodoo NÖ challenge last time!

Lying down on a grassy lawn by an old stone house on Isle of Skye in 2022 in honour of Voods

050

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Dropped in to see display on Medieval Jewish Cemetery at St Giles Cripplegate - had no idea it was right under the Barbican! Thanks to organisers inc @medievaljews.bsky.social On until 16 Sep www.thejewishsquaremile.org/exhibition

Display board in the exhibition showing a small part of the church ceiling and pillars.

Display board from the exhibition titled ‘The Role of Women’ with a picture of a female statue with many arms doing different things.

082

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Pleased I managed to get to @antiquaries.bsky.social #MagnaCarta2525 exhibition this week and see the Meeting Room transformed into a lush green space, evoking the Charter of the Forest! On until 19 Sep

A room filled with artificial greenery, trees and green lighting, with exhibition cases and interpretation along the way

A long handwritten parchment document unrolled in an exhibition cases- the 1225 Magna Carta and Charter of the Forest

271

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

I was delighted to be on this panel, sharing some of my #NecessaryWomen research on Parliament’s earliest women librarians and archivist, plus new research on Ada Forward, first woman in the House of Lords bindery!

Copy of ‘Necessary Women - the Untold Story of Parliament’s working women’ on a bookshelf

0253

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

I am staying with a friend who has two dogs, endless distractions

A shaggy shepherd type dog standing in a room with wooden floor, staring at a bacon sandwich (mine) on plate in foreground

130

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

Loved ‘Heiress’ John Singer Sargent exhibition at Kenwood House today. Amazed to learn 102 American women married into the British peerage 1870-1914! Inc Nancy Astor of course, and Mary Chamberlain, wife of Joe. On until 5 Oct www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/whats-...

Large society portrait of a young Nancy Astor with big hair in a white dress

Large society portrait of Mary Chamberlain, dark hair wearing blue and white dress

080

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

So sad to find that Son is literally in the shop window this morning. He will always be a legend #coys

Son wearing a grey tracksuit with a black rucksack, pictured in an advertisement for luggage on a wall (taken in Rockefeller Centre New York in January)

V poor quality pic showing Son advertising Tumi luggage, a photo in a shop window (taken in Royal Exchange, London, a few years ago)

020

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

Joyce Butler exhibition a wonderful opportunity to see archive documents of a little-known postwar woman MP. Soon to be catalogued and made more widely accessible

Display case of documents about peace campaigns

Letter on headed paper of the Six Point Group

Letter congratulating Joyce Butler on equal pay campaign

Standing Committee debate on Anti-Discrimination Bill 1975 with caption showing it belonged to Maureen Colquhoun

040

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

Great to visit the Joyce Butler exhibition curated by @teadevotee.bsky.social at Bruce Castle Museum today! On until June 2026 so plenty of time to plan your visit

Sign hung on a railing advertising ‘Joyce Butler: The National Women’s MP’ exhibition

Bruce Castle Museum and Archive, an imposing brick building with a grand central clock tower

The exhibition- a room with lots of graphic panels and tabletop display cases with documents inside. And a large colourful banner

Close up of banner, marking 100 years of the Co-operative Party, with purple border and a group of people including Joyce Butler

131

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

Listen through to the very end of this fab podcast from @histparl.bsky.social oral history project - there are audience vox pops, and mine is the very last voice! It was great to hear clips and get the MPs reflections live in the room 🗃️

Modern room with a speaker (Lord Norton) at a lectern, panel members sitting behind a table and large screens saying ‘Tales from the green benches - live podcast’

193

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

Proud to be celebrating completing my first piece of freelance work - dusting off my palaeography skills to transcribe some 18th/19thC wills! Find me here www.maritakayanagi.com 🗃️

Small empty bottle and full glass of rosado cava

3350

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

I was very pleased to be back at Parliament for this @alcs.co.uk event this evening - had interesting conversation about writing and AI with @glovelace.bsky.social and others

View of river and London Eye from terrace with copy of Necessary Women and glass of wine in foreground

Marquee full of people with a speaker (Lord Clement Jones) standing on podium behind lectern

073

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

Pleased to visit Parliament today with @micheleinboston.bsky.social and find #NecessaryWomen in the shop! (displayed on top shelf) #shelfie

Standing in front of shelves full of books. A copy of Necessary Women is displayed on the top shelf next to a picture of Pugin. Eagle eyes might spot three purple spines on the left which are more copies of Necessary Women

0120

Mari Takayanagi @satisfactory20.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

Enjoyed trip to Handel Hendrix House today inc curator tour and harpsichord recital, and pleased to find Mary Delany visited #WomensHistory 🗃️

Portrait of Handel in an elaborate gold frame

A beautiful harpsichord with two keyboards and lots of gilt decoration

Display board about Mary Delany and her visit in 1735

050