Pioneering Female String Players from The Strad archives

Below are a selection of photographs from an exhibition held at the Barbican Library in London, celebrating The Strad's 125th anniversary year in 2015.

During the first half of the 20th century The Strad’s pages reflected the growing number of female string players making their names professionally in Europe and America. While learning a musical instrument had previously been encouraged as a lady’s accomplishment, changing attitudes encouraged increasing numbers of talented woman to take to the concert platform as soloists and orchestral musicians, and to further their studies at the world’s most prestigious institutions.