Marguerite Wood and Margaret Simpson, two pioneering Scottish women

Abstract

In the 1920s and 1930s Marguerite Wood and Margaret Simpson collaborated with James Richardson, Inspector of Ancient Monuments for Scotland, in writing guide-books to several medieval monuments in state care. The involvement of women in such activities was unusual for the time. The family histories and careers of these two pioneering Scottish women are investigated in order to explain their participation, and their activities are placed in the wider context of the emerging professionalism of women in history and archaeology in Scotland at this time.