This article analyses a case of female patronage in Edwardian Leicester, a drinking fountain surmounted by a statuette dedicated to a female Anglo-Saxon ruler. The bequest, by Edith Gittins (1845–1910), is contextualized within the nineteenth-century perspectives on the past that identified the roots of the English people in the Anglo-Saxon period. The article explores the cultural, social and gender implications of Gittins’ intentions behind the bequest both for women's rights and for the use of the past in the construction of civic identity. These have not hitherto received sufficient attention. In order to address these questions the article exploits the potential of a 3D visualization of the urban setting where the fountain was intended to be erected to help frame the historical inquiry.

本文分析了爱德华时代莱斯特 (Edwardian Leicester) 的一个女性赞助案例，这是一个饮水机，上面有一尊献给一位盎格鲁-撒克逊女性统治者的小雕像。伊迪丝·吉廷斯 (Edith Gittins，1845-1910 年) 的遗赠被置于 19 世纪对过去的看法中，这些看法确定了盎格鲁-撒克逊时期英国人的根源。这篇文章探讨了吉廷斯遗赠妇女权利和利用过去构建公民身份的意图背后的文化、社会和性别影响。迄今为止，这些都没有得到足够的重视。为了解决这些问题，本文利用了城市环境的 3D 可视化潜力，该城市环境旨在建立喷泉，以帮助构建历史调查。