author
Frances Martin
A Victorian education reformer as well as a writer, she devoted much of her life to opening up serious study for working women in London. Her books and educational work reflect that practical, reform-minded spirit.
1 Audiobook
Elizabeth Gilbert and Her Work for the Blind
by Frances Martin
About the author
Born Mary Anne Frances Martin in 1829, she was a British educationist and author whose name is most closely linked with expanding educational opportunities for women. She is remembered for founding and running what became the Frances Martin College for Working Women in London, an institution created to give working women access to further study and intellectual life.
Alongside her educational work, she also wrote books, including fiction and biography. That mix of teaching, organizing, and writing gives her work a distinctive character: literary, but closely connected to the social questions of her time.
Martin died in 1922, but her legacy continued through the college that carried her name for decades afterward. She stands out as one of those writers whose life on the page was deeply tied to practical efforts to widen opportunity in the real world.