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Why are some figures hidden from history? Eliza Orme, despite becoming the first woman in Britain to earn a university degree in Law in 1888, leading both a political organization and a labour investigation in 1892, and participating actively in the women's suffrage movement into the early twentieth century, is one such figure.

Framed as a 'research memoir', Eliza Orme's Ambitions fills out earlier scant accounts of this intriguing life, while speculating about why it has been overlooked. Established historian Leslie Howsam shapes the story around her own persistent curiosity in the context of a transformed research landscape, where important letters and explosive newspaper accounts have only recently come to light. These materials show how Orme's career ambitions brought her into conflict with the male-dominated legal community of her time, while her political ambitions were cut short by disputes with other women activists whose notions of political strategy she repudiated. In public, Orme was a formidable debater for the causes she supported and against opponents whose strategies—even for women's suffrage—she repudiated. In private, she was generous, warm, and witty, close to friends, family, and her female partner. Howsam's account of uncovering Orme's professional and personal trajectory will appeal to academic and non-academic readers interested in the progress and setbacks women experienced in the late-Victorian and Edwardian decades.

Eliza Orme was the first woman in Britain to earn a degree i n law, in 1888 — 34 years before women were called to the bar. Denied admission to the profession, she practiced law unofficially as a conveyancer and patent agent. She fought for women's suffrage and employment, served on Royal Commissions, was a prominent member of the Liberal party, and opposed protective labour legislation for women workers. Orme, an equal-rights feminist whose legal training and political views conditioned her belief that quiet competence would be recognized and valued, gradually became estranged from the contemporary women's movement. ; En 1888, Eliza Orme a été la première femme au Royaume-Uni à obtenir un diplôme en droit, et cela 34 ansavant que les femmes ne soient inscritesau barreau. On lui a refusé l'admission à la profession, maisellea pratiqué le droit sans autorisation officielle en dressant des actes translatifsde propriété et en agissant comme agente de brevets. Elle a lutté pour le suffrage féminin et l'embauche des femmes, a fait partie de commissions royales, a été une membre importante du parti libéral, et s'est opposée à la législation du travail pour la protection des travailleuses. Une féministe d'égalité des droits, Orme a été conditionnée par sa formation en droit et ses opinions politiques à croire que la compétence discrète serait reconnue et appréciée. Par conséquent, elle s'est détachée graduellement du mouvement féministe contemporain.

Introduction / Leslie Howsam and James Raven -- Reaction to the 1622 Virginia Massacre : An Early History of Transatlantic Print / Catherine Armstrong -- Fiction and Civility Across the Seventeenth-Century English Atlantic : Teaching the History of Faustus Jennifer Mylander -- Transatlantic News : American Interpretations of the Scandalous and Heroic / Phyllis Whitman Hunter -- Print and Manuscript in French Canada under the Ancien Régime / François Melançon -- Bookmen, Naturalists, and British Atlantic Communication, c. 1730-60 / Nicholas Wrightson -- The Dutch Book Trade in Colonial New York City : The Transatlantic Connection / Joyce D. Goodfriend -- Classical Transports : Latin and Greek Texts in North and Central America before 1800 / James Raven -- 'A Small Cargoe for Tryal' : Connections between the Belfast and Philadelphia Book Trades in the Later Eighteenth Century / Michael O'Connor -- From the French or Not : Transatlantic Contributions to the Making of the Brazilian Novel / Sandra Guardini T. Vasconcelos -- 'Learning from Abroad?' : Communities of Knowledge and the Monitorial System in Independent Spanish America / Eugenia Roldán Vera -- Business and Reading Across the Atlantic : W. & R. Chambers and the United States Market, 1840-60 / Aileen Fyfe -- 'The Power of Steam' : Antislavery and Reform in Britain and America, 1844-60 / Robert J. Scholnick -- Conclusion / Leslie Howsam and James Raven