100 Years On, Posters Offer Window Into Struggles of U.K. Suffragists
(more posters and related stories at link)
100 Years On, Posters Offer Window Into Struggles of U.K. Suffragists
The organizations identified on the children’s bibs were linked to the major political parties of the day, said Chris Burgess, exhibitions officer at the University of Cambridge library. The poster argues that support for the groups should be withdrawn until women could vote. Credit Cambridge University Library
In cities like Cambridge, suffragist campaigns deliberately depicted women in academic dress. Women were not allowed to become full members of the city’s main university until 1948. Credit Cambridge University Library
Some posters in the University of Cambridge collection clearly targeted women in textile factories or working as seamstresses. Credit Cambridge University Library
“Campaigning went far beyond the simple equality message to point out how the vote could make a difference in households, at work, on the streets — matters that concern all women,” said Dr. Lucy Delap, a professor of history at Cambridge Credit Cambridge University Library
LONDON — They were wrapped in plain brown paper and addressed to “the librarian” at the University of Cambridge. The delivery took place circa 1910. Sent by a major figure of the suffragist movement in Britain, Marion Phillips, the parcel contained posters illustrating the struggles of women in the country to get the right to vote.It took decades for the posters on fading paper to be rediscovered and dusted off. But the images illustrating women’s fight for voting rights have gone on display for the first time at the university to commemorate the Representation of the People Act of 1918, which gave British women over the age of 30 the right to vote 100 years ago on Tuesday.
The institution bills the posters as “one of the largest surviving collections of suffrage posters from the early 20th century.” “These posters are fantastic examples of the suffrage publicity machine of the early 20th century,” Chris Burgess, the exhibitions officer at the university’s library, says on the exhibition’s website. “They were created to be plastered on walls, torn down by weather or political opponents, so it is highly unusual for this material to be safely stored for over a hundred years.”
In 1909, Home Secretary Herbert Gladstone ordered that imprisoned suffragettes who went on hunger strike be force-fed. Credit Cambridge University Library
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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/04/world/europe/uk-centennial-women-voting-rights.html?action=click&module=RelatedCoverage&pgtype=Article®ion=Footer