Women’s rights campaigner and interior designer.

28 March 1841 – 22 November 1882

Education

Apprenticeship with David Cottier at Cottier & Co, art furniture makers, mural decorators, and glass and tile painters then, more successfully, from 1873 with the architect John McKean Brydon.

Some key achievements

Joined the executive committee of the Central Committee of the National Society for Women’s Suffrage (NSWS) breaking away from the less radical London National Society for Women’s Suffrage (LNSWS). 

Toured the country speaking publicly for women’s suffrage gaining fame as a ‘star speaker’ for the cause. 

Campaigned for better education for women including their access to examinations to qualify, their need to be and few opportunities to become financially independent and on laws relating to women. Actively campaigned against the Contagious Diseases Acts. 

R & A Garrett, her interior design company (run with her cousin Agnes Garrett) was the first design company to be run by women. The company offered apprenticeships to women.

1878 One of the only two women members of the first committee of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. 

Barriers 

Her mother died when she was a child leaving Rhoda and two siblings. Her father’s second wife, who was little older than Rhoda, died in 1873 having had four children. Rhoda was forced to fend for herself despite there being few openings for a middle-class woman to earn the means to support herself especially when uneducated and untrained. Initially, she took work as a governess, practically the only career open to a woman. Her business practice eventually supported herself and her younger half-brothers and sisters.

Prejudice against women’s attempt to break into a profession previously monopolised by men. A competitor, Lewis F. Day, disparaged R & G Garrett’s contribution at the World Fair in Paris in 1878, sneering at “how little is enough to satisfy the ambition of lady-decorators.”

A woman’s right to work was not something she could take for granted but had to constantly defend. In a speech before the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science (NAPSS), she declared, of women, that ‘here, at least, in the decoration and beautifying of the house, no one will dispute their right to work’. 

Connection to Bloomsbury

1875-1905 R & A Garrett was run from premises in 2 Gower Street, Bloomsbury (moving from Baker Street where they had set the business up in 1874).

1875 With Agnes lived in the premises from which they ran their business.

1879 R & A Garrett opened a showroom at 4 Morwell Street, Bedford Square.

Female networks

Agnes Garrett and Millicent Garrett Fawcett (cousins), Christiana Herringham, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, Ethel Smyth, Fanny Wilkinson,Lilias Ashworth, and members of local, regional and national suffrage groups.

Selected writing/publications include:

1876 Suggestions for House Decoration 

Pamphlets that accompanied her speeches.

References

Crawford, Elizabeth; Enterprising Women: The Garretts and their Circle, Francis Boutle, 2002.

Crawford, Elizabeth; Spirited Women of Gower Street: The Garretts and their Circle. UCL Bloomsbury Project. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bloomsbury-project/articles/events/conference2011/crawford.pdf, accessed 23 April 2023.

Rawsthorn, Alice; Agnes and Rhoda Garrett, https://www.maharam.com/stories/rawsthorn_agnes-and-rhoda-garrett, accessed 23 April 2023.

Wikipedia contributors (23 April 2023), Rhoda Garrett. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 12:47, 23 April 2023, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhoda_Garrett.