{"id":145,"featured":1,"modified":"2026-07-10 22:17:21","latitude":30.6342943460102645758524886332452297210693359375,"longitude":-97.66462087657674828733433969318866729736328125,"title":"Revisiting Alma Thomas’s “Great Ladies” Collection","subtitle":"This 1976 gift of eight figurines meant to empower and educate young women may currently be out of sight but should not be out of mind","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/2db077f9f264ffe6d8bffa402b6ebb07.jpg","address":"","all_locations":[],"zoom":16,"creator":["Jakob Becker ‘27"],"description":"On September 21, 1976, Alma Thomas, the namesake of the Alma Thomas Fine Arts Center, donated a collection of eight Royal Doulton “Great Lady” figurines to Southwestern University.
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\r\nThe “Great Ladies” were created especially for the coronation of England’s Queen Elizabeth II, in 1952. Mrs. Thomas was present for the coronation, where she purchased these objects that celebrated Elizabeth’s rise to power by honoring powerful women from England’s past.
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\r\nThe collection comes from the Royal Doulton manufacturer in London. Founded in 1815, Royal Doulton specialize in ceramics, stoneware, and China. According to their website, they collaborate with artists and designers to create pieces that celebrate and empower women.
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\r\nThis particular collection of eight “period figures” was designed by Peggy Davies just after World War II to honor women who played a significant role in the events that shaped England. Thanks to Alma Thomas, Southwestern University is the “permanent residence for these Great Ladies.”
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\r\nThese figurines represented the ideal of exemplary womanhood as it was understood in the 1950s, when Thomas purchased them. Most of these women were seen as leaders working behind the scenes of their male counterparts. They also faced adversity in many forms, whether it be denial of a right to power or even mortal combat.
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\r\nAs such, these Great Lady figurines represent a form of first-wave feminism, which focused on advocacy for women's rights and challenging power structures, while generally still conforming to traditional femininity.
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\r\nAccording to the pamphlet produced to celebrate the gift by Alma Thomas, Philippa of Hainault and Maria Fitzherbert were chosen for their kindhearted approach and supportive nature to their husbands. These women were also very popular among city folk and would serve regents while their husbands were away. They would garner massive support for their husbands and contribute substantially to their reign. By representing England through elegance and kindness, these ladies were able to symbolize strong forms of feminism that worked within patriarchal systems, giving them the ability to be liked by all while still maintaining a position of control.
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\r\nTwo other "Great Ladies," Florence Nightingale and Eleanor of Provence, challenged traditional gender roles that placed men in positions of power and leadership. They each maintained a strong period of power in which they improved the lives of others. Eleanor was in total control of her husband during his reign and would accommodate family members in need. Florence Nightingale established a nursing practice that transformed healthcare across England. Both these ladies challenged the roles women played in English society and broke the chains holding back women's careers and political influence.
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\r\nEach of these women challenged how women were thought of as purely domestic. It is for this reason these great ladies not only signify the powerful women they are depicting, but how exemplary women were viewed during the time of Elizabeth II’s coronation.
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\r\nThis is also how Alma Thomas saw them as well, as more than just “great ladies,” but as a reflection of exemplary femininity she hoped would inspire the Southwestern students who encountered them. This collection therefore carries with it the memories of not only these ladies but of Alma Thomas herself.
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\r\nIn this context, it is important to remember that the Fine Arts have always been intertwined with gender relations in the history of Southwestern as an institution. Fine Arts used to be housed in the Ladies Annex, and later the Women’s Building, which was later renamed Laura Kuykendall Hall.
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\r\nAfter World War II, some additional art studio spaces were located in adapted military barracks right next to LK Hall, and theater productions were often staged in the auditorium of the Administration Building, but before the Fine Arts Building was built in 1955, Fine Arts classes were mainly taught to female students and were located in female-centric spaces.
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\r\nThe Fine Arts Building itself arose thanks to the generosity and vision of a very successful woman, Alma Thomas, whose initial financial gifts to the University made the building possible and who was the only female member of the Board of Trustees for years. That is why the “Great Ladies” seem to represent not only Alma Thomas herself, but the history of Fine Arts at Southwestern.
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\r\nThe acceptance ceremony for the “Great Ladies” was held in the Fine Arts Building, which itself owes a lot to the generosity of Alma Thomas and to this day is a place that remembers her in multiple ways.
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\r\nThe ceremony took place in the gallery, with comfortable seating for Mrs. Thomas, who by then was in a wheelchair, and her guests. Afterward guests were also invited to a luncheon, hosted in the University Commons. Her presence alone was said to have “lighted the place up!”
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\r\nWhen Mrs. Thomas was describing the figurines in her speech, she placed herself as someone that stood among them as a fellow "great lady." In phrasing that could just as easily be applied to her, Thomas said that a great lady is “a wonderful, compassionate woman who stepped outside her magic circle to help people not so fortunate, creating an atmosphere of love and kindness.”
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\r\nAfter her speech, the acceptance ceremony began. Durwood Fleming accepted the artifacts with a heartfelt speech of gratitude to Mrs. Thomas. Claude Kennard (Southwestern’s Art Historian at the time) then explained the priceless value and history of the figurines.
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\r\nFinally, the Dean of Fine Arts at the time, Dr. Theodore Lucas, gave his thanks and described their condition and how they would be held in the Alma Thomas Gallery with all of her other “examples of Mrs. Thomas’ generosity.” The display was located adjacent to the Alma Thomas Theatre, in a display case designed by Jessen Associates, Inc. of Austin.
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\r\nAfter the ceremony, guests were invited on a brief tour of the campus. During this, President Fleming and his wife invited Mrs. Thomas to the Turner-Fleming House for a brief interlude to take some well-needed rest. Then, they would all gather in the University Commons for a buffet and “good time of eating and fellowship together.”
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\r\nDuring the luncheon, Alma Thomas recited an excerpt from one of her favorite poems, “It is later than you think” author unknown (figure 4). Durwood Fleming later referred to it as the “get up and go” poem.
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\r\nIn the specific section of the poem that Mrs. Thomas recited, the author reflects on the different stages of a woman’s life, and talks about passing the torch on to future generations once your “get up and go has got up and went.”
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\r\nReciting these words at this event, alongside the Great Ladies, solidified the message that Mrs. Thomas had lived a fulfilled life and wanted to empower future generations to do the same. Within the context of the ceremony, we can infer that these figurines themselves were meant to be long-lasting symbols of empowerment specifically towards future SU students, particularly female students.
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\r\nSeeing her last gift to future students established in a prominent place in a building named after her that day in 1976, just a few years before she died, Alma Thomas probably imagined that they would serve that purpose for many generations to come, but that is not what happened.
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\r\nCurrently, these figurines are being stored away in a box in the University Archives. In my own experience, I only learned about them because I was researching the history of the Fine Arts Building and stumbled upon a mention of them in Bill Jones’ The Survive and Excel. From there, I had to do a lot of digging to find where they are now and why.
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\r\nAccording to archival records, in 2015 they were first transferred to the University Archives from the Business office vault, which for many years had become a kind of safe deposit box for artifacts and records owned by the University. In my research, I was never able to determine when exactly the display was removed from the Fine Arts Building or how they got from the Fine Arts Building to the vault in the first place.
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\r\nRecords do show that 2015 was the first time when it was mentioned, between April Hampton Perez and Ted Lucas (the former Dean of Fine Arts who had so graciously accepted the Mrs. Thomas's gift originally and pledged to care for them), that SU no longer wanted to retain the figurines. That’s when the SU Archives agreed to take them, and that is where they have been ever since except for a brief moment in 2019 when they were displayed publicly in the Library.
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\r\nNothing in those communications in 2015 indicates why campus leaders did not consider the figurines worth displaying any more, much less holding onto.
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\r\nApproaching this from the vantage point of 2026, when the School of Fine Arts and the building that houses it are clearly suffering, the long journey of the figurines from a place of prominence to a place of neglect starts to take on even more symbolism.
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\r\nThat is why I believe we should all take another look at these “Great Ladies.” By storing these artifacts in a box in the Archives instead of within the Fine Arts Building, we are not only losing access to the memory of what they represented in a previous time but also missing an opportunity to learn from them as we try to re-establish the Fine Arts School as a place of innovation and inspiration for students.
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\r\nReturning these “Great Ladies” and their symbolic meaning to a prominent public place within the Alma Thomas Fine Arts Building can not only help educate and empower a new generation of young female students but hopefully rekindle a remembrance of the enduring spirit of Alma Thomas herself.
","sponsor":null,"accessinfo":"","lede":"","website":"","related_resources":[],"factoids":[],"files":{"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/2db077f9f264ffe6d8bffa402b6ebb07.jpg":{"id":734,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Figure 1. The last known display of the Great Ladies for a student showcase in the fall of 2019","description":"SU Distinctive Collections & Archives | 2019 | Megan Firestone","thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/2db077f9f264ffe6d8bffa402b6ebb07.jpg"},"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/a15289701231b722466d0a4fd8f29e97.jpg":{"id":735,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Figure 2. Pamphlet for the Great Ladies presentation event","description":"SU Distinctive Collections & Archives, ALma Thomas Papers | 1976 | unknown","thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/a15289701231b722466d0a4fd8f29e97.jpg"},"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/a924290f850373972ca99fec4b60d0a8.jpg":{"id":737,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Figure 3. Crowd watching Alma Thomas's speech at the Great Ladies presentation event in the FAB gallery","description":"Alma Thomas is on the right with President Durwood Fleming right behind her. Dean of Fine Arts Ted Lucas is in the foreground on the left. | SU Distinctive Collections & Archives, Alma Thomas Papers | 1976 | unknown","thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/a924290f850373972ca99fec4b60d0a8.jpg"},"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/e256fe4c42ce08f1d4dc455ca520bcb7.jpg":{"id":739,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Figure 4. Photocopy of a poem Alma Thomas read at the event and later sent to Durwood Fleming","description":"SU Distinctive Collections & Archives, Alma Thomas Papers | photocopy made in 1976 | unknown","thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/e256fe4c42ce08f1d4dc455ca520bcb7.jpg"},"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/70fe7426f5c665eb98444426ef0ad83b.jpg":{"id":738,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Figure 5. Alma Thomas and Durwood Fleming at Great Ladies presentation event","description":"SU Distinctive Collections & Archives, Alma Thomas Papers | 1976 | unknown","thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/70fe7426f5c665eb98444426ef0ad83b.jpg"},"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/2366047b76781137b2e675d14e24d9a0.jpg":{"id":740,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Figure 6. Alma Thomas posing with friends after Great Ladies presentation event","description":"SU Distinctive Collections & Archives, Alma Thomas Papers | 1976 | unknown","thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/2366047b76781137b2e675d14e24d9a0.jpg"},"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/9227c31f208e35c6545bdfaca14cca7c.jpg":{"id":749,"mime-type":"image/png","title":"Figure 7. Austin Citizen article about Great Ladies gift","description":"SU Distinctive Collections & Archives, Alma Thomas Papers | 1976 | Austin Citizen newspaper","thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/9227c31f208e35c6545bdfaca14cca7c.jpg"}}}