Our story
The Hypatia Trust was founded in Penzance in 1996 by Melissa Hardie-Budden MBE, with a simple but ambitious idea: that women's lives, work, and creativity deserved to be collected, preserved, and shared.
Thirty years on, that idea has grown into an archive, a library, a bookshop, an events programme, and a community of readers, researchers, and volunteers who keep it all alive. We're based on Chapel Street in the heart of Penzance, and everything we do connects back to the same convictionL that women's stories matter, and that finding them should be easy.
Our Founder
The Hypatia Trust was created by Melissa Hardie-Budden MBE, writer, publisher, and tireless champion of women's history in Cornwall. Her vision shapes everything we do.
Who Was Hypatia?
A mathematician and philosopher in ancient Alexandria, Hypatia was one of the earliest recorded women in the history of science. She gave us our name and our inspiration.
Our Story
From a single collection in 1996 to thirty years of archive, bookshop, and community: a timeline of how the Trust grew and what we've been up to.