Women Who Built Scotland - Talk

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Women Who Built Scotland – Talk

Thursday 17 September, 2026 – 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.

Speakers will include Dr Karen Mailley and Phyllida Shaw

Explore some of the women who help to shape, design and build Scotland.

Karen will be giving a short talk on Maude Webster, wife of the stained glass artist Alf Webster. Through new research she has delved into Maude’s background and the pivotal role in which she played in managing the stained glass studio after her husband’s death.

Dr Karen Mailley specialises in heritage outreach and engagement with a community focus using archives, material culture and feminist and intersectional methodologies as the core foundation of her work. Karen’s main research focus is related to gender and the built environment in Scotland since 1880. She is a Scottish Representative for GEM and an Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Phyllida Shaw grew up around small-scale sculptures made by Alice Meredith Williams for domestic settings but almost all of her large-scale work is in Scotland, where she lived from 1906-1929 – stained glass and sculpture, in bronze, wood and stone, most famously for the war memorial at Paisley Cross and the Scottish National War Memorial at Edinburgh Castle. Phyllida is a freelance researcher and writer with cultural organisations. The interest in Alice ignited by her first book, An Artist’s War. The art and letters of Morris & Alice Meredith Williams (2017) resulted in Undaunted Spirit. The art and craft of Gertrude Alice Meredith Williams (2019) and a whole new audience for another overlooked artist.

416 Great Western Road, Glasgow G4 9HZ