Thread by @sixteenthCgirl

Morning Twitter, I have some great things to tell you about.
First up: #WeAreBess - a brand-new exhibition opening today @NThardwick (Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire), designed to make us think anew about both Tudor and modern women

Bess of Hardwick was an extraordinary success for a woman living in the Tudor period - she built 4 homes, married 4 times, and became the 2nd richest woman in the country after Elizabeth I - but she's been defamed throughout history

We remember her chiefly by what her estranged & embittered 4th husband said about her, which wasn't very nice - but historians have repeated these judgments through the centuries. It was time for a reappraisal based on evidence of her character.

So this exhibition does just that, but in an innovative way. As so many of the themes are relevant to modern women - women's experiences over time, how women are spoken about, and whether they are believed when they speak (how timely is that), we asked them to tell Bess's story

And they do through their comments and gorgeous portrait photographs, taken by @photographer77, which now hang among the Tudor portraits in the Long Gallery at Hardwick Hall. Want a sneak peek?

Here we go. Next to Bess herself is Professor Dame Mary Beard @wmarybeard

A particular favourite of mine is The Right Reverend Libby Lane, Bishop of Stockport - first female bishop in the Church of England - hanging in an alcove with Archbishop Thomas Cranmer and Cardinal Reginald Pool. #WeAreBess

And then there's teenage Arbella Stuart hanging near teenage activist @AmikaGeorge #WeAreBess

And your final glimpse is of @cathynewman @junodawson and @MsLadyPhyll, among others. Please go along to see what they have to say about Bess, Tudor women, and modern women, and how the past and present can talk to each other.
#WeAreBess ... (second announcement later today)