Career
Her first stage appearance was with the Oxford University Dramatic Society in February 1894, when she played Iris in The Tempest. She made her London debut in 1894 as Hippolyta in Ben Greet"s production of A Midsummer Night"s Dream. In 1895 she played the lead role in Herbert Beerbohm Tree"s stage play Trilby at the Haymarket Theatre, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by George du Maurier.
She portrayed Mistress
Darling in the original 1904 production of Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn"t Grow Up. In 1910 Baird was performing in The Princess Clementina, a George Pleydell stage version of a A.E.W. novel. In her role as Jenny, Baird performed the character as a socially pointed comic relief.
This is suggested by lines such as “She swore more loudly than she had wept … she struck at his head with her fist… And what do you make of me? A maggot?” In 1913 she retired from the stage, due to a miscarriage, and involved herself in charitable causes, especially with infant welfare.
In her retirement Baird put her attention towards family at the Saint Pancras School for Mothers, of which she was a board member for many years. The first report from the school in 1907 shows that H.B. was an honorary treasurer and Baird had contributed £2.2.00.
In 1908 the second report showed that Baird was involved in organizing a tea party, along with entertainment, for 78 mothers and their babies. She raised £15.0.0 with the sales of autographs and speaking at a prize event.
The purpose of the school was to provide mothers with advice and information along with home visits and babies health care.
While on this committee she used audio visual education such as magic lantern slides for a fathers evening. According to a report on Bairds time on the committee, she used these slides to show the effects bad housing conditions on infants. In 1917 Baird used her theater and film experience to create the film Motherhood.
With the help of Percy Nash, Baird created Motherhood to try and help improve the living habits of mothers and infants.
The film itself draws from the Saint Pancras Poor Law Guardians program in which it shows a newly married Mary (Lettie Paxton), cleaning her house and breathing in laundry fumes. This reflects the 1917 health goal of teaching women to choose good advice rather than advice passed down by an older generation.
Baird used the film Motherhood to create political demands for social improvement. She used her fame and on-screen promotions to “better the women of Britain.”.
