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Rose Scott (1847–1925), feminist and social reformer, devoted much of her life to campaigns that resulted in increased independence for Australian women. Scott grew up near Singleton in New South Wales and with her sisters was educated at home by her mother, Sarah Anne. Scott became her mother’s primary carer in 1879; and the following year, on the death of her older sister, adopted her two-year-old nephew, Harry. In Sydney from 1880, Scott became increasingly involved in intellectual and political activities, helping to establish the Women’s Literary Society in 1889; becoming one of the founding members of the Womanhood Suffrage League (1891) and the New South Wales National Council of Women (1896); and co-founding The Women’s Club in 1901. A key player in the Australian campaign for universal suffrage, Scott was engaged in a variety of other social issues, lobbying for women’s citizenship, employment and higher education rights; and for reforms aimed at restraining the sexual exploitation of women and girls. Her report on conditions in Darlinghurst Gaol led to the opening of a separate women’s prison in 1908. She campaigned for legislation by which the age of consent was raised to sixteen (in 1910) and laws regarding child maintenance and the access of widows to their husbands’ estates were enacted. Scott was also known for the literary salons conducted at her Woollahra home, where guests could expect to encounter Miles Franklin, Banjo Paterson, Vida Goldstein and others. Believing that ‘life is too short to be wasted in the service of one man’, Scott never married. She died in Sydney in 1925.

May Moore (1881–1931) studied at Auckland’s Elam School of Fine Arts before moving to Wellington around 1908. There, in partnership with her younger sister, Mina (1882–1957), she became known for a distinctive brand of portraiture employing shadowy, dramatic lighting. She moved to Sydney in 1910 and early in 1911 Mina relocated to Australia to assist in the business. The sisters opened a studio on Melbourne’s Collins Street in 1913. Managed by Mina it became the portrait studio of choice for numerous visiting performers. Though motherhood led to Mina’s retirement in 1918, May continued to practice following her marriage in 1915, eventually developing what one obituary described as ‘a business and a reputation that were the envy of many competing concerns’. Deteriorating health forced her retirement in 1928. She died in Sydney in 1931.

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