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Posts Tagged women's suffrage
Kate Frye's Diary: What Was Kate Doing One Hundred Years Ago Today – The Day She Appears On Our TV Screens?
Posted by womanandhersphere in First World War, Kate Frye's Diary on August 17, 2014
Tonight Kate Parry Frye – in the guise of Romola Garai – appears on our television screens (Sunday 17 August, ITV at 9pm). What was she doing on this day 100 years ago?
Kate was still on holiday from her work with the New Constitutional Society for Women's Suffrage, spending the time with her sister and mother in their rented rooms at 10 Milton Street, Worthing. However, this was no summer idyll such as the Fryes had enjoyed in days gone by. Then they had rented a large house and travelled down from London with their four servants, to spend a season by the sea. Now that they were virtually penniless, these rented rooms were all they could call home. In the life of Kate and, more tragically in that of her sister, we see the jarring disconnect when young women, brought up to a life where marriage was to be their only trade, are left with insufficient money to support their social position and expectations. As such Kate's life story is very much a tale of its time.
Monday August 17th 1914
Gorgeous day. Up and at house work. Out 12.30- just to the shops. Wrote all the afternoon and after tea to 6. Papers full of interest. Preparing for the biggest battle in the World's History. There is no doubt the English have landed over there. I hear from John most days – that he is very busy but not a word of what his work is. Mickie [her Pomeranian] and I went out after tea. Agnes still a bit limp.
John Collins, Kate's fiancé, who had long been an officer in the Territorial Army, had already been recalled to his barracks at Shoeburyness – leaving his engagement with a touring repertory theatre company. Kate's sister, Agnes, at the first hint of the European trouble had taken to her bed, prostrate. Kate, a would-be playwright, was busy writing – although exactly what she was writing at this time she doesn't divulge. On her death forty-five years later she left behind a box of unpublished scripts – and one that was published. She hoped one day to achieve fame and fortune. As it was she would soon be back at work at her suffrage society's headquarters – with a new role as organizer of their War Work Work Room.
To discover more about the entirety of Kate's life – her upbringing, her involvement with the suffrage movement, her marriage, her London flats, her life in a Buckinghamshire hamlet, her love of the theatre, her times as an actress, her efforts as a writer, her life on the Home Front during two world wars, her involvement with politics – and her view of the world from the 1890s until October 1958 – download the e-book – £4.99 – from iTunes – : http://bit.ly/PSeBKPFITVal. or £4.99 from Amazon.
I'd love to hear what you think of Kate and the life she lived.
To read in detail about Kate's involvement in the women's suffrage campaign – in a beautifully-produced, highly illustrated, conventional paper book – see Campaigning for the Vote: Kate Parry Frye's Suffrage Diary.
Suffrage Stories: Mrs Frood, Topsham's Suffragette/ist
Posted by womanandhersphere in Suffrage Stories on July 4, 2013
Some time ago, when researching a talk, 'No Vote No Census', that I gave in October 2011 conference on the 1911 census organised by the National Archives, I came across the boycotting census form of Mrs Frood of Topsham. Since then I have passed on this discovery to a researcher associated with Topsham Museum who has been able to link Mrs Frood directly to the 1913 Suffrage Pilgrimage, the 100th anniversary of which is being celebrated in Topsham today, 4 July 2013.
The 3 March 1911 edition of Votes for Women contains a letter from Mrs M.C. I. Frood of Station Road, Topsham, in which she described how, early in the morning of the polling day for the last election (which must have been Dec 1910/Jan 1911), she went out with a pot of 'good, white oil paint' [I like the fact that it was 'good] and 'printed on the inner edge of the pavement along which voters would pass on the way to the polling station 'Taxation Without Representation is Tyranny' and 'Britons never, never, never shall be slaves. I also printed it along the brick wall of my field, which they also had to pass coming and going to and from the train. ..On the large doors of my field, near the same spot, I printed 'No Votes No Taxes'. I find my field gate a useful place to stick cartoons and cuttings from Votes for Women.'
A month later Mrs Frood was one of those suffragettes who boycotted the 1911 census. Together with one of her daughters, her servant, Beatrice Hutchings and six unknown females, to whom she had clearly given boycotting shelter, she refused to fill in any details on her census form, writing across it 'If I am intelligent enough to fill up this paper, I am intelligent enough to put a cross on a voting paper. No Vote No Census.'
The census enumerator, Mr.H. J. Baker, reported this act of civil disobedience to the Census Office and received a reply from its Secretary, Archer Bellingham, instructing him to fill out the form with the best information he could muster. Mr Baker then annotated the letter, quoting Mrs Frood as saying to him that she had had a 'house full' of boycotters on census night – and 'that I am therefore adding to Numbers 6′. With this number revealed as an arbitrary choice of the enumerator, we can only speculate as to how many Topsham women spent the night at Little Broadway House in Station Road.
Although in 1911 it would appear that Mrs Frood, as a correspondent to Votes for Women, was a supporter of the WSPU, by 1913 she is listed in The Suffrage Annual and Women's Who's Who as secretary of the Topsham branch of the NUWSS. Perhaps she was one of those who were dismayed by the WSPU's increasingly militant tactics. It was one thing to paint slogans (with 'good' paint') on pavements and walls, but quite another to break windows and commit arson. So it was as a leading local NUWSS member that Mrs Frood took part in the Suffrage Pilgrimage in early July 1913.
Who was Mrs Frood?
Mrs Mary Catherine Isabella Frood (nee Campbell, c. 1856-1931) had been born of Scottish parentage in Canada and was living in New Zealand when, in 1878, she married James Nicholson Frood (d. 1913), an Irish-born doctor. She had five children, the first four, all daughters, born in New Zealand and the last, a son, born at sea c 1888 – presumably as the family was returning to England. One of her daughters, Hester, was successful as an artist. Although Mrs Frood actually died in London, her address was still in Topsham – 26 The Strand (Old Court House).
Where was Dr Frood in 1911?
Dr Frood was living with his family (whose name was misrendered as 'Froud') when the 1901 census was taken. But where was he in 1911? The name on the cover of the census form had been written as 'Dr Frood', but this had been amended to 'Mrs Frood' and it is she who is shown as 'Head of Household'. I can find no trace of James Frood elsewhere in the 1911 census, although he did not die until 1913, his death registered in the local area. Interestingly under the terms of his will probate was granted to the Public Trustee rather than to his wife or any other member of the family.
Where was Little Broadway House?
Thanks to Street View I can see Station Road and the pavement along which Mrs Frood painted her slogans. Thanks to Paul Tucker (see Comment below) who tells me that Little Broadway House is still there – the house with the overhanging upper window that I can see in Street View – although now divided into two. Presumably the ground to its side was Mrs Frood's field. So let's take a moment to visualise its gates – decorated with Votes for Women cartoon – a reminder to those walking past on their way to the station that one Topsham woman was prepared to do her bit to win 'votes for women'.
Suffrage Stories: Suffrage Sympathisers In Late-19th-Century Alton, Hampshire
Posted by womanandhersphere in Suffrage Stories on July 3, 2013
While researching 'women's suffrage' in the Hampshire Record Office, Anthony Brunning came across an interesting record of the 19th-century campaign. He has kindly given me permission to publish – below – the names of the Alton women who in 1894 signed the Special Appeal, organised in the hope of convincing the government of the day that women were serious in their call for enfranchisement. The names were, mistakenly, excluded from the final total of 257,796. If anyone has any further information on any of the ladies listed, do let me know.
As the documents bearing the names included in the grand total were, apparently, returned to the various societies with which they were associated, Mrs Wickham's collecting book is a rare survivor of one of the campaigns that belies the popularly-held view that the 19th-century women's suffrage campaign lacked enterprise.
You can find details of the Special Appeal Committee in the entry of that name in my The Women's Suffrage Movement: a reference guide.
Alton Suffragists in 1894
by Anthony Brunning
Among the documents in the Wickham Family papers held by the Hampshire Record Office in Winchester is a Booklet for collecting signatures for an appeal to the House of Commons for an extension of Parliamentary Franchise to women. The booklet was produced by a Special Appeal Committee, formed for the purpose of collecting signatures, under the Chairmanship of Mrs Fawcett.[1] The signed books were to be returned to the Secretary at the Appeal Office (Albany Buildings, 47, Victoria Street, Westminster) by15 January 1894. A page at the end of the booklet states that "the booklet was to be returned to Mrs. Wickham, Binsted Wyke or Miss Julia Cameron, 47 Victoria St., Westminster."
At the beginning of the booklet is the appeal:
Of all Parties and all Classes
To the Members of the House of commons
Many of the women who sign this appeal differ in opinion on other political questions, but all are of one mind that the continued denial of the franchise to women while it is at the same time being gradually extended amongst men is at once unjust and inexpedient.
In our homes it fosters the impression that women's opinion of questions of public interest is of no value to the nation, while the fact of women having no vote lessens the representative character of the House of Commons.
In the factory and workshop it places power to restrict women's work in the hands of men who are working alongside of women whom they too often treat as rivals rather than as fellow-workers.
In Parliament it prevents men from realizing how one-sided are many of the laws affecting women.
We therefore earnestly beg you to support any well-considered measure for the extension of the Parliamentary franchise to women.
Each page had two tear off slips in which ladies could signify their consent to the Appeal. Each slip had line for signing their Christian and surname, stating their title (Mrs., Miss, or other), give an address and record the name of the Parliamentary constituency in which they lived. Above the tear-off slips were three directives: "N.B. ― All Women over 18 may sign. Each must sign for herself. No one may sign twice." Each slip began with the statement "I have read the Appeal from Women and desire that my name be added." The booklet contained twenty-five pages of slips with serrations between them.
Thirty of the ladies who signed came from Alton, two from Binsted 4 miles east by north from Alton and one from East Worldham, 2 miles south-east of Alton. All lived with the Eastern Division of Hants (Petersfield).
|Sophia Emma Wickham
|Binsted Wyke, Alton
|Eleonore Clements
|Binsted Wyke, Alton
|Maria Hall
|The Manor House, Alton
|Ethel M. Hall
|The Manor House, Alton
|Edith Turner
|Wey House, Alton, Hants
|Emma Isabel Redding
|High St., Alton
|Mabel E. Trimmond
|The Parmont, Alton
|M. L. Bedding
|High St., Alton, Hants
|Eliza Little
|High Street, Alton, Hants
|Louisa Trimbrell
|High Street, Alton, Hants
|M. Conduit
|Regent House, Alton, Hants
|E. M. Green
|Regent House, Alton, Hants
|Elizabeth J, Castle
|High St., Alton
|L. Eleanor Faith
|High St., Alton
|Gertrude E. Burrell
|Brooklands, Alton
|Theodosia Hanson
|Alton, Hants
|Mildred E. Trimmer
|The Pavement, Alton, Hants
|Helen Mary Hall
|Brook House, Alton, Hants
|Ellen Osborn
|RosebankSchool, Alton, Hants
|Emily Piggott
|West End, Alton, Hants
|Louisa Dyer
|Ivy House, Alton, Hants
|Alice M. Dyer
|Ivy House, Alton, Hants
|Bessie Farthing
|Westfield, Alton
|Florence C. Farthing
|Westfield, Alton
|Bertha Leslie
|Alton, Hants
|Annie Laura Dyer
|Hill House, Alton
|Mary Hanna Petar
|Weybourne, Alton, Hants
|Selina Petar
|Weybourne, Alton, Hants
|H. Katie Wilkman
|Alton, Hants
|Frances J. Chalcraft
|Anstey Lodge, Alton, Hants
|Millicent Chalcraft
|Anstey, Alton, Hants
|Katharine S. Fell
|Worldham Rectory, Alton, Hants
|Annie Moule
|High Street, Alton
On the inside back cover the collector of signatures was ask to sign, giving name and address in testimony of the authenticity of the contents.
Mrs Sophia Emma Wickham, 60,[2] was the wife of William Wickham, esq, chairman of the County Magistrates for Alton Petty Sessional Division, who according to the 1891 Census was 'living on his own means and a magistrate'.[3] Katharine Fell, 49, was the wife of Reverend George Hunter Fell, 72, vicar of East and West Worldham.[4]
The booklet is interesting in that it gives an indication that there was a women working for extension of the franchise to women in Alton and district in 1893 and that by mischance it was not sent to Central Office. It may be possible to identify the ladies using the 1891 Census and Kelly's Directory for Hampshire.
Hampshire Record Office HRO 38M49/D9/29. Printed booklet, 'Women's Suffrage: An appeal from women' belonging to Sophia Wickham, 1894.
[1] The Committee was composed of: President: Mrs. Fawcett. Treasurer: Mrs. Frank Morrison. Members: The Lady Frances Balfour, Miss Balfour, Miss Helen Blackburn, Mrs. Leonard Courtney, The Lady Knightley, Mrs. Eva McLaren, Mrs. Massingberd, Miss Mordan, Mrs. Wynford Philipps, Mrs. Broadley Reid, The Lady Henry Somerset, Mrs. T. Taylor (Chipchase), Miss Vernon. Secretary: Miss Julia Cameron.
[2] Age given after the names is the age in 1893 calculated from the age given in the census consulted.
[3] Kelly's Directory of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, 1895, 28. TNA: PRO RG12/952/24/2. Binsted, Hants.
[4] Kelly's Directory of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, 1895, 574. TNA PRO RG11/1247/74/14. East Worldham, Hants.
Campaigning For The Vote: Book Launch Invitation
Posted by womanandhersphere in Kate Frye's suffrage diary on May 9, 2013
Women Writers and Italy: Two Englishwomen In Rome and Sarah Parker Remond
Posted by womanandhersphere in Women Writers and Italy on March 30, 2013
Anne ( 1841-1928) and Matilda Lucas (1849-1943) were the daughters of Samuel Lucas, a brewer with land and influence in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. The Lucas family were Quakers. Their mother had died when they were young and after their father's death in 1870 the sisters continued to live for a short time with their step-mother. But then, in mid-1871, they left England for Rome, where, for the next 29 years, they were to spend much of the year. Ten years after her sister's death, Matilda Lucas published excerpts from the letters sent over the years by the sisters to friends and relations back in England. Two Englishwomen in Rome, 1871-1900 (Methuen, 1938) makes very interesting reading.
The few disingenuous sentences I transcribe below would appear to delineate the discomfort that must have been endured by Sarah Parker Remond (1824-94) , or Sarah Remond Pintor as she was by then, as she mixed in society – even expatriate Roman society, which was by no means ruled by convention. An American free-born black woman, Sarah Remond had lived for a time in London, signing the first women's suffrage petition in 1866, perhaps the only black woman to do so, had then travelled to Italy, where she qualified as a doctor. She had married an Italian, Lazzaro Pintor in Florence in 1877. There is some debate as to how long the marriage lasted. From the Lucas' evidence, Pintor did not accompany his wife to this social occasion in Rome in March 1878, but Sarah was sufficiently still married to feel able to don her bridal dress.
However am I correct, I wonder, to read the passage as reflecting the curiosity and, perhaps, also slight discomfort felt by the gathering at the presence of a black woman in their midst? If Sarah was their aunt the P___s must surely have been the 'Putnams' – the family of Sarah's sister, Caroline Remond Putnam, who lived with her in Italy on various occasions. If so the fact that Caroline also was 'black' makes the passage a little difficult to interpret. Why was Sarah specifically their 'black aunt'? Did they have any other kind? So perhaps it was only the bridal dress that was the cause for comment. A simple scene, but something of a puzzle.
March 17, 1878. Tell Madgie that the P___s were there with their black aunt. She was a bride, having just married an Italian, and wore her bridal dress of grey silk. It must have been very trying for Mrs P____. People came up to question her. One Italian said, 'Chi e quell'Africana?' It appears that she is very clever, and a female doctor. She was taken up a good deal in London by different people who were interested in negroes. I think she lived with the Peter Taylors. She has given lectures. I went to sit on the sofa with her, to the amusement of Franz, who cannot rise above her appearance. Dr Baedtke was much impressed to think that anyone has had the courage to marry her, and said, 'In that I should have been a coward.'
Click here for Sarah Parker Remond: A Daughter of Salem, Massachusetts – a very interesting website
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Gallery At The UNISON Centre
Posted by womanandhersphere in The Garretts and their Circle on March 28, 2013
The Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Gallery at the UNISON Centre tells the story of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, of the hospital she built, and of women's struggle to achieve equality in the field of medicine.
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836-1917) was determined to do something worthwhile with her life. In 1865 she qualified as a doctor. This was a landmark achievement. She was the first woman to overcome the obstacles created by the medical establishment to ensure it remained the preserve of men.
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson then helped other women into the medical profession, founding the New Hospital for Women where women patients were treated only by women doctors.
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, by her example, demonstrated that a woman could be a wife and mother as well as having a professional career.
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson worked to achieve equality for women, being especially active in the campaigns for higher education and 'votes for women'.
In the early 1890s the New Hospital for Women (later renamed the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital) was built on the Euston Road and continued to treat women until 2000. For some years this building then lay derelict until a campaign by 'EGA for Women' won it listed status. UNISON has now carefully restored the building, bringing it back to life as part of the UNISON Centre.
Two important rooms in the original 1890 hospital building have been dedicated to the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Gallery. One is the
of the hospital which has been carefully restored to its original form. Here you can study an album, compiled specially for the Gallery, telling the history of the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital in words and pictures, while, in the background you can listen to a soundscape evocative of hospital life. This is interwoven with the reminiscences of hospital patients, snippets from the letters of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and sundry other sounds to stimulate your imagination.
The other Gallery room is what was known when the hospital opened as
This was a room, running along the front of the hospital, parallel to Euston Road, set aside for all women doctors, from all over the country, at a time when they were still barred from the British Medical Association. It was intended as a space in which they could meet, talk and keep up with the medical journals.
Here you can use a variety of media to follow the story of women, work and co-operation in the 19th and 20th centuries.
allowing you to see in words and pictures a quick overview of the life of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and of her hospital.
-named – Ambition, Perseverance, Leadership, Equality, Power in Numbers and Making Our Voices Heard - allowing you to access more information about Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, about the social and political conditions that have shaped her world and ours, and about the building's new occupant – UNISON..
Each monitor contains:
'Elizabeth's Story'. Follow the video from screen to screen. Often speaking her own words, the video uses images and voices to tell the story of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson's life.
'UNISON Now' UNISON members tell you what the union means to them.
and four
'Campaigns for Justice' and 'Changing Lives'.
Touch the screen icons to discover how life in Britain has changed since the birth of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson.
Campaigns for justice
Victorian Britain: a society in flux
Victorian democracy: who could vote, and who couldn't
Did a woman have rights?
Workers organised
Changing lives
The people's lives in Victorian Britain
The medical profession before Elizabeth Garrett
Restricted lives, big ambitions: middle-class women in the Victorian era
Women workers in the first half of the 19th century
Campaigns for justice
The changing political landscape
Widening the franchise: can we trust the workers?
Women want to vote: the beginnings of a movement
Trade unions become trade unions
Changing lives
A new concept of active government: Victorian social reform
Women as nurses and carers
Living a life that's never been lived before: women attempt to enter medicine
International pioneers: women study medicine abroad
Campaigns for justice
Contagious Diseases Acts
Trade unions broaden their vision
Women and education
Women trade unionists
Changing lives
The middle-class century
Working women in the second half of the 19th century
Social reform, philanthropy and paternalism
Women doctors for India
Campaigns for justice
The women's suffrage movement
The Taff Vale decision hampers the unions
The founding of the Labour party
The People's Budget
Changing lives
Work and play
Marylebone and Somers Town
Did the working classes want a welfare state?
1901 – Who were the workers in the NewHospital for Women?
Campaigns for justice
The General Strike – 1926
The first Labour governments
Feminist campaigns between the wars
1901: The lives of working women in London
Changing lives
Work of women doctors in the First World War
Can we afford the doctor? Health services before the NHS
Wartime demand for social justice
The creation of the National Health Service 1945-1948
Campaigns for justice
Equality campaigns
Public sector unions before UNISON
UNISON brings public service workers together
Are trade unions still relevant?
Changing lives
The National Health Service becomes sacrosanct
Did the welfare state change the family?
Women's equality today
Women in medicine now
an interactive table containing short biographies of over 100 women renowned for their achievements in Britain in the 19th-21st centuries. Up to four visitors can use the table at any one time. Drag a photograph towards the edge of the table to discover details of that individual's life. Or search by name or vocation, using the alphabetical or subject lists.
show a changing display of pictures of the hospital as it was and of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and some of the other women whose stories the Gallery tells.
is designed in the style associated with the work of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson's sister, the architectural decorator Agnes Garrett, who was in charge of the original interior decoration of the hospital in 1890. The Gallery's fireplace is the only surviving example of Agnes Garrett's work. Next to this hangs a length of wallpaper, 'Garrett Laburnum', re-created from one of her designs.
In the Garrett Corner a display case and a low table contain a small collection of objects relevant to Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the hospital and early women doctors.
While here do sit down and browse the library of books. These relate to the history of women – in society, in medicine, in the workplace, and in trade unions – and to the Somers Town area.
Decorative plaques that used to hang beside patients' beds, each commemorating a donor's generosity.
You can read in detail about the work of the Garrett family in the fields of medicine, education, interior design, landscape design, citizenship and material culture in Elizabeth Crawford, Enterprising Women: the Garretts and their circle, published by Francis Boutle Publishers, £25. The book can be bought direct from womanandhersphere.com or click here to buy from the publisher
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Gallery at the UNISON Centre
UNISON Centre
130 Euston Road
London NW1 2AY
Telephone: 0845 355 0845
Open Wednesday to Friday 9.00am to 6.00pm
and the first Saturday of every month 9.00am to 6.00pm
Admission Free
Catalogue 178: Books And Ephemera For Sale
Posted by womanandhersphere in Books And Ephemera For Sale, Kate Frye's suffrage diary, Uncategorized on March 15, 2013
Email me if there is any item you would like to order from this catalogue.
Payment may be made by sterling cheque or by Paypal
Postage extra at cost
1. ALEXANDER, Lynn Women, Work and Representation: needlewomen in Victorian art and literature Ohio Unversity Press 2003 [11620] Hardcovers – mint in d/w £15
2. ANDREWS, Maggie The Acceptable Face of Feminism: the Women's Institute as a social movement Lawrence & Wishart 1997 [9533] Soft covers – mint £9
3. ANGERMAN, Anna Et Al (eds) Current Issues in Women's History Routledge 1989 [10641] Includes articles on 'Witchcraft in the Northern Netherlands', 'Female culture, pacifism and feminism: Women Strike for Peace', 'The origins of feminism in Egypt', 'Female aspiration and male ideology: school-teaching in 19th century New England', 'Women's psychological disorders in 17th-century Britain' (by Anne Laurence), 'Whores and gossips: sexual reputation in London 1770-1825′ (by Anna Clark) etc. Soft covers – very good £5
4. ANON After the Dawn: a record of the pioneer work in Edinburgh for the higher education of women Oliver & Boyd 1939 [9159] Based on a scrapbook kept by Sarah Siddons Mair and other records contemporary with the 19th-century movement for higher education in Edinburgh. Very good £48
5. APPRENTICESHIP AND SKILLED EMPLOYMENT ASSOCIATION Trades for London Girls and How to Enter Them Longmans, Green 1909 [9178] Packed with information on trades and wages.Soft covers – good – scarce £38
6. AUCHMUTY, Rosemary A World of Women: growing up in the girls' school story Women's Press 1999 [11875] Soft covers – fine £5
7. BEACHY, Robert Et Al (eds) Women, Business and Finance in 19th-century Europe: rethinking separate spheres Berg 2006 [9208] Fine £12
8. BEER, Patricia Reader, I Married Him: a study of the women characters of Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell and George Eliot Macmillan 1974 [9669] Very good in d/w £15
9. BENJAMIN, Marina (ed) Science and Sensibility: gender and scientific enquiry 1780-1945 Basil Blackwell 1994 [11668] An interesting collection of essays, Soft covers – mint £18
10. BERRY, Mrs Edward And MICHAELIS, Madame (eds) 135 Kindergarten Songs and Games Charles and Dible, no date [1881] [9035] 'These songs are printed to supply a want in English Kindergartens' – the music is, of course, included – as are movement instructions. Mme Michaelis ran the Croydon Kindergarten. Very good £48
11. BLACK, Clementina Sweated Industry and the Minimum Wage Duckworth 1907 [11756] With an introduction by A.G. Gardiner, chairman of the executive committee of the National Anti-Sweating League £45
12. BLOCH, R. Howard Medieval Misogyny and the Invention of Western Romantic Love University of Chicago Press 1991 [11978] Soft covers – fine £18
13. BOYD, Kenneth Scottish Church Attitudes to Sex, Marriage and the Family 1850-1914 John Donald 1980 [9679] Fine in d/w £18
14. BRITTAIN, Vera Lady Into Woman: a history of women from Victoria to Elizabeth II Andrew Dakers 1953 [13161] Good – though ex-public library £8
15. BURGAN, Mary Illness, Gender and Writing: the case of Katherine Mansfield John Hopkins University Press 1994 [11905] Mint in d/w £15
16. BURSTALL, Sara A. The Story of the Manchester High School for Girls 1871-1911 Manchester University Press 1911 [9606] Very good internally – slightly marked cover £38
17. BUTTERWORTH, Annie Manual of Household Work and Management Longmans, Green, 3rd ed 1913 [9186] A text book, written primarily for student qualifying for the Teacher's Diploma of Houswifery. Annie Butterworth taught in the Domestic Arts department of University College of South Wales. Good £12
18. CADBURY, E. And SHANN, G. Sweating Headley Bros 1907 [7636] A study of the sweating system in England and Scotland, the research undertaken at a time when it was a matter of great economic and social concern. Full of facts and figures. This copy presented to Astwood Bank Adult School Library 'with Mr George Cadbury, Jnr's best wishes'. The book itself has the printed dedication to 'George Cadbury, an adult school teacher for forty-eight years, in recognition of his efforts to remedy the lot of the sweated workers.' Soft covers – very good £55
19. CADBURY, Edward, MATHESON, M. Cecile and SHANN, George Women's Work and Wages: a phase of life in an industrial city University of Chicago Press 1907 [8076] US edition of this study of women's work in Birmingham. Good – inner hinge a little loose £50
20. CHAPONE, Mrs On the Improvement of the Mind together with Dr Gregory's, Legacy to His Daughters and Lady Pennington's, Advice to Her Absent Daughter, with An Additional letter on the Management and Education of Infant Children Scott, Webster and Geary, no date c. 1835 [9555] A compendium of Good Conduct – a 'four in one'. With engraved frontispiece and title page -good in slightly rubbed half leather and marbled boards £38
21. CHECKLAND, Olive Philanthropy in Victorian Scotland: social welfare and the voluntary principle John Donald Ltd 1980 [9241] Fine in fine d/w £20
22. CLARK, Alice Working Life of Women in the Seventeenth Century Routledge 1982 [10534] First published in1919. Soft covers – very good £8
23. COLLET, Clara Report by Miss Collet of the Statistics of Employment of Women and Girls HMSO 1894 [7203] Report prepared under the aegis of the Board of Trade – Employment of Women (Labour Department). Very good – 152pp – bound into new protective card covers £85
24. COLLET, Clara Report by Miss Collet on the Money Wages of Indoor Domestic Servants HMSO 1899 [7207] Women workers were in the overwhelming majority of those considered in this report. Fascinating information. Very good in original card covers £55
25. DEMOOR, Marysa Their Fair Share: women, power and criticism in the 'Athenaeum' , from Millicent Garrett Fawcett to Katherine Mansfield, 1870-1920 Ashgate 2000 [11667] Mint £25
26. DICKENS, Andrea Janelle Female Mystic: great women thinkers of the Midle Ages I.B. Tauris 2009 [11947] Soft covers – fine £10
27. DIGBY, Anne Making a Medical Living: doctors and patients in the English market for medicine, 1720-1911 CUP 1994 [10601] Mint in d/w £18
28. DINSHAW, Carolyn and WALLACE, David (eds) The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Women's Writing CUP 2003 [11857] Soft covers – fine £12
29. DON VANN, J. and VANARSDEL, Rosemary T. (eds) Periodicals of Queen Victoria's Empire: an exploration University of Toronto Press 1996 [9600] Fine in fine d/w £18
30. DURHAM, Edith High Albania Virago 1985 [10802] First published in 1909. Soft covers – very good £8
31. ELLIS, Mrs Sarah Stickney The Select Works Henry G. Langley (New York) 1844 [11234] Includes 'The Poetry of Life', 'Pictures of Private Life', 'A Voice From the Vintage, on the force of example addressed to those who think and feel'
Good in original decorative cloth £48
32. ERICKSON, Amy Louise Women and Property in Early Modern England Routledge 2002 (r/p) [9730] Soft covers – fine internally – crease to front cover £15
33. EVERGATES, Theodore (ed) Aristocratic Women in Medieval France University of Pennsylvania Press 1999 [11979] Soft covers – very good £17
34. FARRELL, Christine My Mother Said…; the way young people learned about sex and birth control Institute for Social Studies in Medical Care 1978 [8997] Based on over 1500 interviews with a national random sample of 16- to 19-year olds in 1974-5. Very good in good d/w – though ex-library £10
35. FRYE, Susan And ROBERTSON, Karen (Eds) Maids and Mistresses, Cousins and Queens: women's alliances in early modern England OUP 1999 [7435] A collection of essays exploring how early modern women associated with other women in a variety of roles, from alewives to midwives, prostitutes to pleasure seekers, slaves to queens, serving maids to ladies in waiting …'. Fine £35
36. FULLER, Sophie The Pandora Book of Women Composers Pandora 1994 [8979] Fine in d/w £15
37. GATES, Evelyn (ed) Woman's Year Book 1923-1924 Women Publishers Ltd 1924 (3rd ed) [13196] An invaluable reference work, covering all aspects of the post-emancipation period in considerable detail. Contributors include Millicent Fawcett (aunt of the editor), Commandant Mary Allen, Lena Ashwell, Lilian Barker, Margaret Bondfield, Winifred Cullis, Margaret Llewellyn Davies, Margery Fry, Chrystal Macmillan, Hilda Martindale, Bertha Mason, Edith Picton-Turbervill, Eleanor Rathbone – among many others. Full of facts and figures, names and addresses. Very good internally – cloth grubby – withdrawn from the Women's Library . £65
38. GILBERT, Sandra And GUBAR, Susan The Madwoman in the Attic: the woman writer and the nineteenth-century literary imagination Yale University Press 1984 (r/p) [9549] Soft covers – 719pp – very good £12
39. GILBERT, Sandra And GUBAR, Susan No Man's Land: the place of the woman writer in the twentieth century Yale University Press 1994 [8899] Vol 3 – 'Letters From the Front' .477pp – mint in d/w £25
40. GILLESPIE, Diane F. (ed) The Multiple Muses of Virginia Woolf University of Missouri Press [7496] Fine in d/w £25
41. GLUCK, Sherna Berger and PATAI, Daphne (eds) Women's Words: the practice of oral history Routledge 1991 [11532] Explores the theoretical, methodological, and practical problems that arise when women utilize oral history as a tool of feminist scholarship. Hardback – fine in d/w £15
42. HALLSWORTH, Joseph and DAVIES, Rhys J The Working Life of Shop Assistants: a study of conditions of labour in the distributive trades privately published 1910 [11765] Fascinating insight into the working conditions and wages of a wide range of shop workers with description of some of the reforms that had been put in place. Very good in original cloth £35
43. HARWOOD, Hilda The History of Milton Mount School Independent Press 1959 [9641] Good £15
44. HILDEGARD OF BINGEN Selected Writings Penguin 2001 [11853] With introduction and notes by Mark Atherton. Soft covers – fine £6
45. HOBBY, Elaine Virtue of Necessity: English women's writing 1649-88 Virago 1998 [11939] Soft covers – very good £8
46. HOFFMAN, P.C. They Also Serve: the story of the shop worker Porcupine Press 1949 [9133] Soft covers – very good £15
47. HOLCOMBE, Lee Victorian Ladies at Work: middle-class working women in England and Wales 1850-1914 David & Charles 1973 [11226] Very good in chipped d/w £25
48. HOLT, Anne A Ministry To The Poor: being a history of the Liverpool Domestic Mission Society, 1836-1936 Henry Young (Liverpool) 1936 [9243] Very good – scarce £45
49. HUGHES, Linda K. And LUND, Michal Victorian Publishing and Mrs Gaskell's Work University Press of Virginia 1999 [9537] Fine in fine d/w £15
50. JAMES, Selma Sex, Race and Class Falling Wall Press 1975 [13193] Paper covers – withdrawn from the Women's Library £5
51. JEFFREYS, Sheila Beauty and Misogyny: harmful cultural practices in the West Routledge 2005 [9892] Soft covers – mint £12
52. JEPHCOTT, Pearl With Nancy Seear and John H. Smith Married Women Working Allen & Unwin 1962 [9160] Very good in d/w – with stamp of the Reference and Political Library of the Conservative Research Department £15
53. JOHNSON, Patricia E. Hidden Hands: working-class women and Victorian social-problem fiction Ohio University Press 2001 [10784] 'Argues that the female industrial worker became more dangerous to represent than the prostitute or the male radical because the worker exposed crucial contradictions between the class and gender ideologies of the period and its economic realities'. Soft covers – mint £15
54. KEDDIE, Nikki And BARON, Beth (eds) Women in Middle Eastern History: shifting boundaries in sex and gender Yale University Press 1991 [10511] The first study of gender relations in the Middle East from the earliest Islamic period to the present. Fine in d/w £15
55. KEEBLE, Samuel (ed) Citizen of To-morrow: a handbook on social questions Charles H. Kelly (10th thousand) c 1906 [9811] Dedicated to the members of the Weslyan Methodist Union for Social Science. Among many articles on subject such as housing, land, drink, unemployment etc is one by Marie Stuart, Late Associate of the Royal Sanitary Society, on Women and Social Problems, which covers sweated trades, factory work, infant mortality, creches, shop work etc. Good £14
56. KING, Brenda Silk and Empire Manchester University Press [9845] A study of the Anglo-Indian silk trade, challenging the notion that Britain always exploited its empire. Mint in d/w (pub price £55) £30
57. LERNER, Gerda The Creation of Feminist Consciousness: from the middle ages to 1870 OUP 1993 [11921] Hardcover – fine in fine d/w £13
58. LERNER, Gerda The Creation of Patriarchy OUP 1986 [11924] Soft covers – fine £10
59. LEWIS, Judith Schneid In the Family Way: childbearing in the British aristocracy, 1760-1860 Rutgers University Press 1986 [8652] Very good in slightly chipped d/w £25
60. LITOFF, Judy Barrett And SMITH, David C. We're In This War, Too: World War II Letters from American Women in Uniform OUP 1994 [8310] Fine in d/w £16
61. LLEWELYN DAVIES, Margaret (ed) Maternity: letters from working women collected by the Women's Co-operative Guild Virago 1978 [13159] First published in 1915. Soft covers – very good £8
62. LOANE, M. An Englishman's Castle Edward Arnold 1909 [9060] Martha Loane was a district nurse – this study of the homes of the poor is the result of her social investigation. Good £18
63. (LUXEMBOURG) Richard Abraham Rosa Luxembourg: a life for the International Berg 1989 [1399] Mint in d/w £10
64. MCCANN, Jean Thomas Howell and the School at Llandaff D. Brown (Cowbridge) 1972 [10608] Good – ex-university library £15
65. McMILLAN, Margaret The Child and the State The National Labour Press 1911 [11641] In which she advocated giving poor children a more broad and humane education than they currently were receiving. Vol 9 in the Socialist Library series. Card covers – very good £28
66. MALVERY, Olive Christian Baby Toilers Hutchinson 1907 [8216] A study of the child workers of Edwardian Britain. Good £38
67. MARKS, Lara Metropolitan Maternity maternity and infant welfare services in early 20th century London Rodopi 1996 [11624] Soft covers – fine £22
68. MARTIN, Jane Women and the Politics of Schooling in Victorian and Edwardian England Leicester University Press 1999 [10781] Mint (pub price £65) £35
69. MASON, Michael The Making of Victorian Sexuality OUP 1994 [10599] Fine in d/w £14
70. MILLER, Robert Researching Life Stories and Family Histories Sage 2000 [11520] Covers methods and issues involved in collecting and analysing family histories, and collecting and analysing life histories. (pub. price £24.99) £15
71. NELSON, Claudia Boys Will Be Girls: the feminine ethic and British children's fiction, 1857-1917 Rutgers University Press 1991 [9805] Mint in d/w £18
72. NEWMAN, Barbara St Hildegard's Theology of the Feminine University of California Press 1989 [11856] Soft covers – fine £10
73. NORWICH HIGH SCHOOL 1875-1950 privately printed, no date [1950] [9612] A GPDST school. Very good internally – green cloth covers sunned – ex-university library £15
74. ORRINSMITH, Mrs The Drawing Room: its decoration and furniture Macmillan 1877 [9344] In the 'Art at Home' series. 'The author has endeavoured to give more particular directions as to the furnishing and adornment of the Drawing-Room than was possible in the Miss Garretts' volume treating of the whole subject of 'House Decoration' .' Very good – missing free front end paper many illustrations – a scarce book £60
75. OSBORNE, Honor And MANISTY, Peggy A History of the Royal School for Daughters of Officers of the Army 1864-1965 Hodder & Stoughton 1966 [10609] Good – ex-university library £12
76. PEACH, Linden Contemporary Irish and Welsh Women's Fiction: gender, desire and power University of Wales Press 2008 [11572] The first comparative study of fiction by late 20th and 21st-century women writers from England, Southern Ireland and Wales. Soft covers – mint £15
77. PEDERSEN, Frederik Marriage Disputes in Medieval England Hambledon 2000 [11977] The records of the church courts of the province of York, mainly dating from the 14th c, provide a welcome light on private, family life and on individual reactions to it. Hardcovers – fine in fine d/w £25
78. PHILLIPS, M. And TOMPKINSON, W.S. English Women in Life and Letters OUP 1927 [9151] Describes the lives of Englishwomen of the past, some rich, others poor and unknown – using both historical sources and fiction – from the 14th century to the mid 19th. Very good £20
79. PHILLIPS, Margaret Mann Willingly to School: memories of York College for Girls 1919-1924 Highgate Publications 1989 [13124] Good in card covers – though ex-library £10
80. RENDALL, Jane The Origins of Modern Feminism: women in Britain, France and the United States 1780-1860 Macmillan 1985 [9461] Soft covers – very good £15
81. RICHARDS, Anna The Wasting Heroine in German Fiction by Women 1770-1914 OUP 2004 [9691] Mint in d/w £12
82. ROBERTS, Alison Hathor Rising: the serpent power in ancient Egypt Northgate 1995 [11866] Soft covers – fine £8
83. ROYDEN, A. Maude Political Christianity G.P. Putnams' 1923 (r/p) [13120] Dedicated to members of the Guildhouse congregation. Good – withdrawn from the Women's Library £8
84. SANGER, Margaret (Esther Katz. ed) The Selected Papers of Margaret Sanger Vol 2: Birth Control Comes of Age, 1928-1939 University of Illinois Press 2007 [11583] Hard covers – mint in d/w – heavy (pub price £38) £25
85. SAYERS, Jane The Fountain Unsealed: a history of Notting Hill and Ealing High School privately published 1973 [9688] A study of one of the most successful of the GPDST schools – and one of the best school histories that I have ever read. Very good £28
86. SCARLET WOMEN Scarlet Women Collective April 1978 [11322] Newsletter of the Socialist Feminist Current. Combined issues 6 & 7. Good £4
87. SCARLET WOMEN Scarlet Women Collective August 1978 [11324] Newsletter of the Socialist Feminist Current. Issue 8. Very good £4
88. SHAHAR, Shulamith The Fourth Estate: a history of women in the Middle Ages Routledge 1993 (r/p) [11858] Paper covers – fine £12
89. SHIRAZI, Faegheh Velvet Jihad: Muslim women's quiet resistance to Islamic fundamentalism University Press of Florida 2009 [11615] Hardcovers – mint in d/w £20
90. SHOWALTER, Elaine A Jury of Her Peers: American women writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx Virago 2009 [11900] Hardcover – fine in fine d/w £12
91. SIX POINT GROUP In Her Own Right: a discussion conducted by the Six Point Group Harrap 1968 [12975] Includes contributions from Hazel Hunkins-Hallinan, Marghanita Laski, Pat Hornsby-Smith and Lena Jeger, stemming from a conference 'where it was felt that it was timely to investigate ths uccess of the movement towards emancipation and to discuss the problems remaining fifty years after the emancipation of women'. Paper covers – good £10
92. STAFFORD, H.M. Queenswood: the first sixty years 1894-1954 privately printed 1954 [9643] History of the school. Good – ex-college library £12
93. STANLEY, Liz Et Al (eds) Auto/Biography: Bulletin of the British Sociological Association Study Group on Auto/Biography (1993) [10494] Vol 2, no 1 'Research Practices'. Soft covers – fine £9
94. STENTON, Doris Mary The English Woman in History Allen & Unwin 1957 [8440] Good reading copy – ex-library £15
95. STONE, Dorothy The National: the story of a pioneer college Robert Hale 1976 [8231] History of the pioneering domestic economy training college – The National Training College of Domestic Subjects. Fine in d/w £12
96. TAYLOR, Barbara Mary Wollstonecraft and the Feminist Imagination CUP 2003 [11898] Soft covers – fine £17
97. TAYLOR, Yvette Working-class Lesbian Life: classed outsiders Palgrave 2007 [11575] Hardcovers – mint (pub. price £45) £25
98. THE ENGLISHWOMAN'S YEAR-BOOK AND DIRECTORY FOR 1888 JUBILEE EDITION Hatchard's 1888 [11772] edited by 'L.M. H.' [Louisa Hubbard], comprising Part I Englishwomen and their work in Queen Victoria's reign and Part II
Directory for 1888. A wonderful source – full of details of names and addresses. Very good and tight in decorative boards, a little darkened and marked with age. Extremely scarce £195
99. THE ENGLISHWOMAN'S YEARBOOK AND DIRECTORY 1901 A & C Black 1901 [11770] Ed by Emily Janes. Packed with information. Good internally – cloth covers marked – scarce £80
100. TOBIN, Beth Fowkes Superintending the Poor: charitable ladies and paternal landlords in British fiction, 1770-1860 Yale University Press 1993 [9806] Mint in d/w £18
101. TROUBLE AND STRIFE: Trouble and Strife Collective 1988 [11683] Issue no 14 Winter 1988. Very good £4
102. TROUBLE AND STRIFE: a radical feminist magazine Trouble and Strife Collective 1984 [11679] Issue no 3 Summer 1984. Includes 'Storming the Wimpy Bars: an interview with Lilian Mohin'. Very good £4
103. TROUBLE AND STRIFE: a radical feminist magazine Trouble and Strife Collective 1985 [11680] Issue No. 5. Spring 1985 £4
104. TROUBLE AND STRIFE: a radical feminist magazine Trouble and Strife Collective 1986 [11681] Issue no 9 Summer 1986 £4
105. TROUBLE AND STRIFE: a radical feminist magazine Trouble and Strife Collective 1988 [11682] Issue no 13 Summer 1988 £4
106. TUCKWELL, Gertrude The State and its Children Methuen 1894 [11651] 'Among the social questions with which the nation has to deal there is none, it seems to me, so important as the question of children.' Chapters include: 'Reformatories and Indusrial Schools', 'Workhouse schools and children', 'Canal and van children'; 'Circus and theatre children', 'Homes for blind and deaf and dumb' and 'Work for the Society for the Prevention of Curelty to Children'. Very good – scarce £25
107. TYLECOTE, Mabel The Education of Women at Manchester University 1883 to 1933 Manchester University Press 1941 [13139] With a newscutting obituary of Dame Mabel Tylecote laid in. Good – scarce £40
108. VINCE, Mrs Millicent Decoration and Care of the Home W. Collins 1923 [12870] Mrs Vince had been a pupil of the pioneer 'House Decorator', Agnes Garrett. Very good in rubbed d/w £18
109. WARWICK, Countess Of A Woman and the War Chapman and Hall 1916 [13141] The wartime thoughts of an interesting woman – a social reformer. Includes chapters on 'Nursing in Wartime' and 'Women and the War'. Very good £48
110. WEST, Rebecca The Young Rebecca: writings of Rebecca West 1911-17 Indiana University Press 1982 [11674] Selected and introduced by Jane Marcus. Soft covers – fine £12
111. WILLIAMS, A. Susan Ladies of Influence: women of the elite in interwar Britain Allen Lane 2000 [8087] Studies of, among others, Edith, Marchioness of Londonderry, Katharine, Duchess of Atholl, Nancy Cunard, and Stella, Marchioness of Reading. Fine in very good d/w £12
112. WOODS, Edgar & Diana Things That Are Not Done: an outspoken commentary on popular habits and a guide to correct conduct Universal Publications, no date (1937) [10612] Good £12
113. ALLEN, Alexandra Travelling Ladies: Victorian Adventuresses [13198] Studies of Daisy Bates, Isabella Bird Bishop, Midlred Cabele and Evangeline and Francesca French, Alexandra David-Neel, Jane Digby el Mesrab, Kate Marsden, Marianne North and May French Sheldon. Fine in d/w £10
114. BELL, Alan (ed and with an introduction by) Sir Leslie Stephen's 'Mausoleum Book' OUP 1977 [13199] Intimate autobiography written for Stephen's immediate family after the death of his wife, Julia, the mother of Vanessa and Virginia. Very good in d/w £12
115. BELL, MAUREEN, PARFIT, GEORGE AND SHEPHERD, SIMON A Biographical Dictionary of English Women Writers 1560-1720 G.K. Hall 1990 [11878] Expands the boundaries of what is conventionally recognized as 17th century English literature by uncovering, reintroducing and documenting the lives and works of more than 550 English women who wrote betwen 1580-1720. Fine in d/w £25
116. BETHAM, Matilda A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country printed for B. Crosby 1804 [11227] A fascinating compilation. First edition – 852pp – bound in half leather and marbled boards – very good – scarce £200
117. (BRONTE) Margaret Smith (ed) Selected Letters of Charlotte Bronte OUP 2007 [11632] Mint in d/w £15
118. (COBBE) Frances Power Cobbe Life of Frances Power Cobbe : as told by herself Swan Sonnenschein 1904 [11475] The Posthumous – and best – edition – 'With Additions by the Author and Introduction by Blanche Atkinson'. Fine – rather scarce £75
119. (EDEN) Violet Dickinson (Ed) Miss Eden's Letters Macmillan 1919 [9339] Born, a Whig, in 1797. Her letters are full of social detail. In 1835 she went to India with her brother when he became governor-general. Very good £28
120. (GASKELL) John Chapple (ed) Elizabeth Gaskell: the early years Manchester University Press 1997 [9614] Mint in d/w £18
121. (HILDEGARD OF BINGEN) Sabina Flanagan Hildegard of Bingen: a visionary life Routledge 1990 [11854] Soft covers – fine £7
122. (HOWARD) Elizabeth Jane Howard Slipstream: a memoir Macmillan 2002 [10523] Fine in d/w £8
123. (HOWE) Valarie Ziegler Diva Julia: the public romance and private agony of Julia Ward Howe Trinity Press International 2003 [11892] Hardcover – fine in fine d/w £10
124. (JAMESON) Storm Jameson Journey from the North: autobiography of Storm Jameson Virago 1984 [9685] Soft covers – good – 2 volumes complete £12
125. [JEBB] Alice Salomon Eglantyne Jebb Union Internationale de Secours Aux Enfants 1936 [13170] Short study in French. Paper covers – 53pp – very good £5
126. (JERNINGHAM) Ernest Betham (ed) A House of Letters: being excerpts from the correspondence of Miss Charlotte Jerningham, Lady Jerningham, Coleridge, Lamb, Southey, Bernard and Lucy Barton, and others, with Matilda Betham Jarrolds [2179] 'Also notes of some phases in the evolution of an English family'- the Bethams. Good £28
127. KELSALL, Helen Berridge House Who's Who, 1893-1957 privately published [1957] [13005] A list of all the pupils and staff of the National Society's Training College for Domestic Subjects – with a short history of the college. Paper covers – good £12
128. (KINGSLEY) Robert Pearce Mary Kingsley: light at the heart of darkness Kensal Press 1990 [9667] A biography of the West African traveller. Very good in d/w £15
129. (LOVELACE) Betty Alexandra Toole (ed) Ada, The Enchantress of Numbers: a selection from the letters of Lord Byron's daughter and her description of the first computer Strawberry Press (USA) 1992 [9798] Fine in d/w – inscribed in ink on the free front end paper by the editor. £18
130. (MARTIN) Sarah Martin A Brief Sketch of the Life of the Late Miss Sarah Martin of Great Yarmouth: with extracts from the Parliamentary Reports on Prisons; her own Prison Journals etc C. Barber (Yarmouth) 2nd ed, 1844 [12756] Prison visitor, dressmaker, Sunday School teacher. Her comments on the prisoners are particularly interesting. Good in original cloth £35
131. (MOODIE/TRAILL) Charlotte Gray Sisters in the Wilderness: Susanna Moodie and Catherine Parr Traill, pioneers of the Canadian backwoods Duckworth 2001 [11887] Hardcover – fine in fine d/w £12
132. (MORRELL) Robert Gathorne-Hardy (ed) Ottoline:the early memoirs of Lady Ottoline Morrell; Ottoline at Garsington: memoirs of Lady Ottoline Morrell Faber, 1963 and Faber, 1974 (respectively [9499] Two volumes together, as a set – both good in d/w £28
133. NEWNHAM COLLEGE REGISTER 1871-1950 privately printed [11776] packed with biographical information on students and staff. Soft covers – 2 vols – good – although backing on vol 1 is coming unstuck and outermost cover of vol II is missing- internally very good – scarce £40
134. (NICE) Miranda Seymour The Bugatti Queen: in search of a motor-racing legend Simon & Schuster 2004 [10532] Romantic life of Helle Nice, who set land-speed records for Bugatti in the 1930s. Fine in d/w £8
135. (NICHOL) Anna Stoddart Elizabeth Pease Nichol Dent 1899 [12999] (1807-1897) Scottish Quaker – daughter of the founder of the Peace Society, suffragist, chartist, anti-vivesectionist. Very good – scarce £35
136. (OUTRAM) Mary Frances Outram Margaret Outram 1778-1863; mother of the Bayard of India John Murray 1932 [3593] A wide-ranging, satisfying biography. Good internally – tho' ex-library £15
137. (PHILIPS) Philip Webster Souers The Matchless Orinda Harvard University Press 1931 [9602] An account of the life of Mrs Katherine Philips, the first woman in England to gain the reputation of a poetess.Good – ex university library £28
138. (PROCTER) Zoe Procter Life and Yesterday The Favil Press 1960 [13175] Autobiography of an active member of the WSPU. She had previously been secretary to Pearl Craigie (John Oliver Hobbes) and to 'Henrietta Leslie'- and was a niece of Adelaide Procter, of whom she writes. Much about her imprisonment in Holloway – where she met Dorothea Rock, the woman who was to become her life partner. Very good in chipped d/w – a joint presentation copy signed at Xmas 1960 to 'Rhoda' from the author and Dorothea. £45
139. (PUREFOY) G. Eland (ed) Purefoy Letters 1735-1753 Sidgwick & Jackson 1931 [9338] The letters of Elizabeth Purefoy (1672-1765), whose husband died in 1704, and her son, Henry Purefoy. Elizabeth Purefoy was, as her epitaph recorded, 'a woman of excellent understanding, prudent and frugal' and her letters are full of domestic detail. Very good – two volumes £40
140. (RAVERAT) Gwen Raverat Period Piece Faber 1987 (r/p) [9686] Soft covers – very good £6
141. (RHYS) Francis Wyndham And Diana Melly (eds) Jean Rhys Letters 1931-1966 Deutsch 1984 [9507] Very good in d/w £12
142. [RUSKIN] Mary Lutyens (ed) Young Mrs Ruskin in Venice: the picture of society and life with John Ruskin 1849-1852 Vanguard Press (NY) 1965 [13200] Very good in d/w £12
143. (SOYER) Ruth Cowen Relish: the extraordinary life of Alexis Soyer, Victorian celebrity chef Weidenfeld 2006 [9824] Chef and kitchen designer to the Reform Club and reformer of army catering. Mint in d/w £15
144. (SPRINGFIELD) VALENTINE, Penny And WICKHAM, Vicki Dancing With Demons: the authorised biography of Dusty Springfield Hodder 2000 [10049] Mint in d/w £6
145. (STANLEY) Jane H. Adeane (ed) The Early Married Life of Maria Josepha Lady Stanley, with extracts from Sir John Stanleys 'Praeterita' Longmans, Green 1899 [1675] Follows the life of the engaging Maria Josepha from 1797 until 1817 – much social detail. Very good internally – in rubbed and bumped decorative binding £15
146. (STUART) James Stuart Reminiscences privately printed (Chiswick Press) 1911 [11653] Autobiography of a man who was especially supportive of the women's movement. He was one of the first Girton lecturers in the earliest days at Hitchin and then one of Josephine Butler's chief supporters. His sister was one of the chief peripatetic lecturers for Central Committee for Women's Suffrage in the 1870s. Stuart succeeded Henry Fawcett as MP for Hackney, in 1890 married Laura Colman, who had studied at Newnham, and eventually became director of her family firm, Colmans, mustard manufacturers, of Norwich. In fine condition- scarce £20
147. (TAYLORS) Doris Mary Armitage The Taylors of Ongar W. Heffer 1939 [9601] A joint biography of the family of writers that included Ann and Jane Taylor – the latter the author of 'Twinkle, Twinkle little star'. Good – ex-university library £18
148. (TENNYSON) James O. Hoge Lady Tennyson's Journal University Press of Virginia 1981 [9675] Fine in d/w £18
149. (TREFUSIS) Philippe Jullian And PHILLIPS, John Violet Trefusis: a biography including correspondence with Vita Sackville-West Methuen 1986 [10164] Soft covers – good £7
150. (TROUBRIDGE) Jaqueline Hope-Nicholson (ed) Life Amongst the Troubridges: journals of a young Victorian 1873-1884 by Laura Troubridge John Murray 1966 [9324] Very good in rubbed d/w £10
151. (TUCKER) Agnes Giberne A Lady of England: the life and letters of Charlotte Maria Tucker Hodder & Stoughton 1895 [9599] The standard biography of a popular children's and religious writer – who spent the later years of her life as a missionary in India. Good – though ex-university library £28
152. (TUSSAUD) Kate Berridge Waxing Mythical: the life and legend of Madame Tussaud John Murray 2006 [9827] Fine in d/w £18
153. (TWINING) Louisa Twining Recollections of My Life and Work Edward Arnold 1893 [10625] She was an early 'social worker' – involved with workhouse visiting, promoting the idea of poor law inspectors and was herself a poor law guardian. Very good – scarce £68
154. (WARWICK) Charlotte Fell-Smith Mary Rich, Countess of Warwick (1625-1678), her family and friends Longmans, Green 1901 [1754] Very good £45
155. (WHARTON) R.W.B. Lewis And Nancy Lewis The Letters of Edith Wharton Simon & Schuster 1988 [9747] Fine in fine d/w – 654pp £12
156. (YOURCENAR) Josyane Savigneau Marguerite Yourcenar: inventing a life University of Chicago Press 1993 [10522] Biography of the author of 'The Memoirs of Hadrian' . Translated from French by Joan E. Howard. Fine in d/w £10
157. ANON The Board of Education and Catholic Secondary Schools W. Watson & Co (Birmingham) 1910 [13037] Written by a supporter of Catholic education – and heavily annotated – presumably by someone at the Board of Education. Interesting. Paper covers – good – 16pp in card covers – ex-Board of Education £6
158. ASSOCIATION FOR PROMOTING THE EMPLOYMENT OF HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLWORK Report of Meeting Held at the Westminster Town Hall on Wed Nov 12th 1902 [13043] The Association was formed in 1897 and was disbanded in 1905. The Association's aim, at its most basic, of promoting the employment of middle-class young women – ie those who had attended high schools – in working-class – ie elementary – schools. 'Higher teachers are now at last waking up to the absolute necessity of training, and Elementary teachers are far more cultured than they were five or ten years ago.'16-pp pamphlet – good £4
159. ASSOCIATION OF ASSISTANT MISTRESSES Education Policy (with special reference to Secondary Education) AAM no date (1920s?) [13042] 4-pp leaflet. Good – ex-Board of Education library £2
160. ASSOCIATION OF HEAD MISTRESSES Nursing as a Profession 1923 [13040] 4-pp leaflet . Rather dog-eared- ex-Board of Education library £2
161. BINFIELD, Clyde Belmont's Portias: Victorian nonconformists and middle-class education for girls Dr Williams' Trust 1981 [9158] The 35th Friends of Dr Williams's Library Lecture. Paper covers – 35pp – good – scarce £18
162. BUTLER, Josephine (ed) The Storm Bell Ladies' National Association for the Abolition of State Regulation of Vice Feb 1899 [9802] Single issue. Contains the rather touching notice: 'If there should occasionally be some delay or irregularity in the appearance of the Storm Bell, I beg my Friends to judge its Editor leniently….As I have no Sub-Editor, it will be understood that it is not always easy to prepare even so humble a periodical as this, in time to be out exactly at the right date.' Fine – scarce £28
163. CHARITY ORGANISATION SOCIETY Right and Wrong as to School Feeding COS 1906 [9237] Facts and figures. Paper covers – 8pp – very good – unusual £18
164. CHARITY ORGANISATION SOCIETY D.R. Sharpe Centralised Registration of Assistance COS 1911 [9236] Paper read on 31 May 1911 at the Annual National Conference of Charity Organisation Societies. Paper covers – 14pp pamphlet – good – unusual £18
165. CHARITY ORGANISATION SOCIETY Miss Pike Friendly Visiting and Personal Service COS 1911 [9238] Paper read on 1 June 1911 at the Annual National Conference of Charity Organisation Societies. Paper covers – 11pp – good – a little foxing – unusual £20
166. CO-OPERATIVE HOLIDAYS ASSOCIATION [12798] 3-pp pamphlet, reprinted from 'Modern Language Teaching', June 1910, setting out the work of this Associaiton, which had begun by the Congregational Church in industrial Lancashire, together with
Annual Reports for the year ending Sept 30th, 1910 and Annual Report for the year ending Sept 30th 1911. Interesting – 3 items – the Annual Reports v good – the pamphlet rubbed and split (with no loss of text) – ex-Board of Education library – as a collection £15
167. COLLECTION OF FABIAN SOCIETY TRACTS ETC [13143] The collection comprises: 1) The Abolition of Poor Law Guardians (Fabian Tract 126), 1906; Socialism and Labor Policy (FT 127), 1906; 2) The Case for a Legal Minimum Wage (FT 128), 1906; 3) More Books To Read on Social and Economic Subjects (FT 129), 1906; 4) Miss L.B. Hutchins, Home Work and Sweating: the causes and the remedies (FT 130), 1907; 5) Sidney Webb, The Decline in the Birth-Rate (FT 131), 1907; 6) A Guide to Books For Socialists (FT 132), 1907; 7) The Rev Percy Dearmer, Socialism and Christianity (FT 133), 1907; 8) Small Holdings, Allotments, and Common Pastures (FT 134), 1907; 9) Sidney Webb, Paupers and Old Age Pensions (FT 135), 1907; 10) Edward Carpenter, The Villand and the Landlord (FT 136), 1907; 11) Parish Councils and Village Life (FT 137), 1908; 12) 22nd Annual Report on the work of the Fabian Society for year ended March 1905, reprinted1906; 13) 23rd Annual Report on the work of the Fabian Society for year ended March 1906, 1906; 14) 24th Annual Report on the work of the Fabian Society for the year ended March 1907, 1907; 15) Lecture List of the Fabian Society: London and Provinces, Sept 1907; 16) F. Lewis Donaldson, The Unemployed, Christian Social Union pamphlet no 14, 1907; 17) James Timewell, The Royal Commission on the Metropolitan Police, pub by the Police and Public Vigilance Society, c.1906; 18) Sybella Gurney, Co-operative Housing, pub by the Co-partnership Tenants' Housing Council, c.1907; 19) John Nettlefold, Slum Reform and Town Planning: the Garden City idea applied to existing cities and their suburbs, c 1907. 19 pamphlets in cloth binding which bears the stamp of Westminster Public Libraries. Bookplate on front pastedown shows that it has been withdrawn from the Library. £35
168. FABIAN WOMEN'S GROUP Summary of Eight Papers and Discussions upon the Disabilities of Mothers as Workers Fabian Women's Group (Private Circulation) 1910 [12973] Papers by Mrs Pember Reeves, Dr Ethel Vaughan-sawyer, Mrs Spence Weiss, Mrs Bartrick Baker, Mrs Stanbury, Mrs S.K. Ratcliffe, Miss B.L. Hutchins, Mrs O'Brien Harris. Paper covers – good £15
169. GIRL GUIDES Log of 2nd Worthing Ranger Company April-September 1927 [13127] An exercise book covered in linen with a handpainted Girl Guide trefoil on the front and dried specimens of the Company's three patrols – Poppy, Oak and Silver Birch on the inside front cover. The title page has been lovingly decorated – and there are occasional drawings in the text and a few photographs of the girls at camp. The Log is a handwritten record of the Rangers' activities in 6 months of 1927- recorded in some detail. The names of many of the girls and their leaders are mentioned. Unusual £35
170. GRONNO, Arthur The Woman M.P.: a Periol to Women and the Country Manchester Branch of the Women's National Anti-Suffrage League, 2nd ed c. 1909 [13148] Originally published in 12 articles in the 'Manchester Evening News'. Paper covers – 40pp – very good – very scarce £98
171. INDEPENDENT LABOUR PARTY What Socialism Means for Women ILP c 1905 [12757] ILP Leaflet No 6. 'Socialism means freedom for women just as it does for men. It means enfranchising them…' Worthy aims. Small – 4-pp leaflet £12
172. LIST, Alfred The Two Phases of The Social Evil Ogle and Murray (Edinburgh), 2nd ed 1861 [13142] A short study of prostitution in Scotland. The author was the Registration Examiner of Births, Deaths and Marriages in Scotland and includes tables showing the number of illegitimate births in various towns, relating them to the occupation of the mothers. He points out that 'the sisterhood of the needle occupy the foremost place' and draws the conclusion that the poor wages these women could demand forced them into prostitution. 47pp pamphlet bound into a modern cloth binding. Very good – scarce
173. LONDON INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF PLAIN NEEDLEWORK Annual Report for the Year ending September 30th, 1909 1909 [13041] 24pp – good in card covers – ex-Board of Education library £8
174. MELLORS, Robert Evening School in the Villages of Nottinghamshire [13024] 'An appeal to the ladies and gentlemen of every class in the county to aid in the formation and management of evening schools adapted to local industrial conditions.' Mr Mellors was an alderman on Nottinghamshire County Council. 20-pp pamphlet – good – ex-Board of Education library
175. MINISTRY OF HEALTH Government Evacuation Scheme HMSO 1939 [12786] 'Memo. Ev. 4′. All the details of the scheme to evacuate children, expectant mothers and the disabled from cities in the event of war. Probably missing a blue paper cover – otherwise good – 32pp – ex-Board of Education library £12
176. NATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN Collection of Annual Report and Accounts [13157] Reports for 1961-1966 inclusive – and for 1968 and for 1975/6. Paper covers – good. 7 items – as a collection £10
177. NORWEGIAN JOINT COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL POLICY The Status of Women in Norway Today 1953 [13173] Paper covers -67 pp – with photographs – with drawn from the Women's Library £3
178. PALLISTER, Minnie Socialism for Women ILP no date [1924] [12759] 'Not only the "Intelligent" Women but for all Women' – with a nod to G.B. Shaw. Paper covers -18-pp pamphlet – good £18
179. PAUPER HOSPITALS AND SCHOOLS Return of 'all district and separate pauper hospitals (including asylums of the Metropolitan Asylum District), also of district and separate pauper schools, built during the past ten years; giving the name of hospital or school; names of unions contribution; class of inmates; extent of area; cost of site; cost of building; number of inmates; exclusive of officers; cost per head on number to be accommodated; and number of inmates on 1 May 1885 HMSO 1885 [9205] 6 foolscap pages. Very good – disbound £20
180. REFORMATORIES AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS (COMMITTALS) Returns showing the comparative number of committals of boys and girls to reformatories and industrial schools April 1872 [9150] 'Shows comparative number of committals of boys and girls to reformatories and industrial schools in 1870, with the number of cases in which the parents have been charged with such payment towards their children's cost at such schools as may be considered equal to the expense they are saved by so throwing their children on public support, together with a comparative statement of the number of cases in which such charge has been adjudged, with that of the charges actually recovered and regularly paid.' Raw facts. 4 foolscap pp – disbound £28
181. SENIOR, Mrs Nassau Pauper Schools HMSO 1875 [10457] 'Copy "of a Letter addressed to the President of the Local Government Board by Mrs Nassau Senior, lately an Inspector of the Board, being a reply to the observation of Mr Tufnell, also a former inspector upon her report on pauper schools'. This was a follow-up to Mrs Senior's 1874 report.
24pp – large format – disbound. £55
182. SIDGWICK, Mrs Henry University Education for Women Manchester University Press 1913 [12791] 'Presidential Address delivered to the Education Society, Manchester University, on 21st November, 1912.' Paper covers – 24pp – ex-Board of Education library – good £15
183. SIR HENRY JONES [11407] writes a glowing testimonial for his former pupil, Mabel Atkinson, a candidate for a lectureship at the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire. She was a Fabian and a suffragette Fine £48
184. THE ASSOCIATION OF HEAD MISTRESSES List of Public Secondary Schools for Girls 1903 1903 [13045] Card covers – good – ex-Board of Education Library £10
185. THE ASSOCIATION OF HEAD MISTRESSES List of Public Secondary Schools for Girls 1905 1905 [13046] Card covers – good – ex-Board of Education library £10
186. THE ASSOCIATION OF HEADMISTRESSES Girls' Patriotic Union of Secondary Schools: Subscription list for the 'Star and Garter' home at Richmond for sailors and soldiers totally disabled in the war 1916 [13044] List of schools that subscribed. The treasurer was Miss Gadesden of Blackheath High School. 1-p leaflet — ex-Board of Education library £2
187. WHITE, Florence The Spinsters Manifesto!!: a detailed statement of the case for contributory (non-retiring) pensions at 55 National Spinsters Pensions Association 1945 [11346] 'We herewith present the case for pension consideration for single women at 55, trusting that after perusal you will be impressed by the reasonable nature of the reform advocated, agreeing with us that single women are indeed the OVERLOOKED SECTION in the present Social Insurance Proposals'. Pamphlet -12pp – fine £28
188. A WOMAN'S RIGHT TO CHOOSE Abortion Law Reform Association
Why we must fight the Abortion (Amendment) Bill and how to go about it [13197] 20-pp pamphlet giving 'Some Information about the Abortion (Amendment) Bill' – and including a 'List of Members of Parliament who voted AGAINST the Bill's Second Reading, 7 Feb 1975) £8
189. WOMEN'S UNIVERSITY SETTLEMENT FOR WORK IN THE POORER DISTRICTS OF LONDON Fifteenth Annual Report WUS March 1902 [13038] Packed with names of subscribers as well as a report of the work accomplished by the Settlement. Paper covers – good -ex-Board of Education library £18
Real Photographic Postcards
190. CLARK'S COLLEGE, CIVIL SERVICE Preparing for the Lady Clerk's G.P.O. Exam [9233] Photograph of the young women preparing for this exam which, if they passed, offered a chance of bettering themselves. Very good – unposted £12
191. HORTICULTURAL COLLEGE FOR WOMEN, HEXTABLE [12876] real photographic postcard of Hextable House, home of Swanley Horticultural College (for details of which see Crawford, 'Enterprising Women: the Garretts and their circle'). The card was posted on 19 Jan 1918 from, I assume, a student to her mother, with the message 'Have arrived safely.' Good £8
192. MERCHANT TAYLORS' SCHOOL FOR GIRLS [11781] Real photographic postcard of the exterior of the Crosby, Liverpool, girls' school. The ink message on the back includes 'The view is of Aunty Nina's school..' and continues onto the front of the card on white space to the side of the photograph. Posted in, I think, 1933. Good £10
193. BAILLIE, Joanna A Series of Plays in which it is attempted to delineate the stronger passions of the mind Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown, a new edition 1821 [2509] A handsome set – newly rebound in cloth £120
194. MCLEOD, Irene Rutherford Songs to Save a Soul Chatto and Windus 1916 (7th ed) [13186] A collection of poems. An introductory note states that some had been previously published in, amongst other journals, 'Votes for Women'. Irene McLeod had been a member of the WSPU's Young Purple, White and Green Association and of its Drummers' Union. Very good £20
195. MAZZANTINI, Margaret Don't Move Chatto & Windus 2004 [8907] A novel with a Roman setting. Soft covers – uncorrected proof copy – fine £6
196. MOGGACH, Deborah In The Dark Chatto 2007 [10805] A very readable novel – set in the First World War. Fine in d/w £7
197. PROCTER, Adelaide Anne Legends and Lyrics Bell & Daldy, 14th ed 1872 [1585] Poems by a leading member of the Langham-Place group. very good – leather, with gilt decorations and all edges gilt £28
198. SIGOURNEY, Mrs (ed. F.W.N. Bailey) The Poetical Works of Mrs L.H. Sigourney G. Routledge 1857 [2428] Neatly rebound in cloth £20
199. SINCLAIR,Catherine Modern Society; or, the March of the Intellect William Whyte 1837 [10803] Very good in half-leather and marbled boards £20
200. SPARK, Muriel Territorial Rights Macmillan 1979 [8910] Set in Venice. Very good in d/w £12
201. SWAN, Annie S. Aldersyde: a Border story of seventy years ago Oliphant, Anderson, & Ferrier 1885 (r/p) [9697] Good reading copy – cover marked £8
202. SWAN, Annie S. Carlowrie: or, among Lothian folk Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier, no date, reprint (1890s?) [9696] Good reading copy £8
203. SWAN, Annie S. The Secret Panel Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier 1896 (r/p [9701] Very good in decorative binding £8
204. SWAN, Annie S. The Strait Gate S.W. Partridge, no date (1890s?) [9706] Good in decorative binding £8
205. TRAVERS, Graham [pseud of Margaret Todd] Mona MacLean: medical student William Blackwood, 14th ed 1899 [11784] Novel written by Sophia Jex-Blake's friend and biographer. Cover marked – scarce £38
206. YONGE, Charlotte M. A Book of Golden Deeds T. Nelson, no date, reprint [9698] Good reading copy £5
Suffrage Non-fiction
207. BLACKBURN, Helen (ed) A Handbook for Women engaged in social and political work J.W. Arrowsmith 1895 [3534] Packed with information and names; Helen Blackburn's precise intelligence shines through. Two pull-out diagrams. Very good – and very scarce £80
208. CAMPBELL, Olwen W. The Feminine Point of View Williams & Norgate 1952 [4231] The report of a Conference which began in the winter of 1947 and included among its members Teresa Billington-Greig and Margery Corbett Ashby. Olwen Campbell was the daughter of Mary Ward, who had been the leading light of the Cambridge Association for Women's Suffrage. Very good in d/w £18
209. GIBSON, Sir John The Emancipation of Women Gwasg Gomer 1992 [10973] First published in 1891. Gibson was editor of the 'Cambrian News' between 1875-1915 and a strong supporter of women's suffrage in Wales. Soft covers – mint £12
210. KENT, Susan Sex and Suffrage in Britain, 1860-1914 Princeton University Press 1987 [1361] Fine in d/w (which has one slight nick) £20
211. MARTIN, Anna Mother and Social Reform NUWSS 1913 [11478] Two articles reprinted from the 'Nineteenth Century and After' issues of May and June 1913 as a booklet. Anna Martin, deeply concerned about the level of infant mortality and general ill-health of poor women and children, argues for easier separation in cases where the husband and father is neglectful or worse, the right of women to a 'maintenance' that is in some way defined. With a membership form for the NUWSS tipped in at the front, and a subscription form to 'The Common Cause' at the back. Paper covers (with a few nicks at edges) – very good condition -64pp £45
212. OWEN, Harold Woman Adrift: the menace of suffragism Stanley Paul [1912] [13140] Anti-suffrage polemic by a playwright and journalist.. Good – scarce £55
213. PANKHURST, Sylvia The Suffragette: the history of the women's militant suffrage movement 1905-1910 The Woman's Journal (Boston) 1911 [4798] This history of the British militant suffrage movement was first published in the USA – this copy bears the pinprick library mark of Louisville Free Public Library – very good – scarce £85
214. PETHICK-LAWRENCE, Frederick The Women's Fight for the Vote The Woman's Press 1910 [13138] One of the classics of the women's suffrage campaign. Very good internally – delightfully decorated cover (purple and gold) slightly rubbed and faded- – very scarce £150
215. RUBINSTEIN, David Before the Suffragettes: women's emancipation in the 1890s Harvester 1986 [13158] Soft covers – very good £15
216. SEAWELL, Molly Elliot The Ladies' Battle Macmillan Co (NY) 1911 [11143] She was an American novelist who here argues against women's suffrage, maintaining that if women were to vote an unlooked-for 'general revolution' would be inaugurated. Good – uncommon £38
217. STOPES, Charlotte Carmichael British Freewomen: their historical privilege Swan Sonnenschein, 3rd ed 1907 [13137] An important volume in the historiography of the women's suffrage movement. Mrs Stopes made use of material collected by Helen Blackburn. Good. £65
Suffrage Biography
218. (LESLIE) 'Henrietta Leslie' (pseudonym of Gladys Schutze) More Ha'pence Than Kicks; being some things remembered MacDonald, 2nd imp 1943 [11239] Her autobiography – she was a keen supporter of the WSPU – gave shelter to Mrs Pankhurst at her house in Chelsea. Good internally – cover rubbed – quite scarce £19
219. (LYTTON) Lady Betty Balfour (ed) Letters of Constance Lytton William Heinemann 1925 [10628] Very good – in purple cloth, with design by Syvlia Pankhurst on front cover £68
220. (MILL) John Stuart Mill Autobiography Longmans, Green 1873 [1463] First edition. Good – in rubbed half leather and marbled boards £55
221. (PANKHURST) Barbara Castle Sylvia and Christabel Pankhurst Penguin 1987 [13160] Paper covers – very good £5
222. (PANKHURST) Richard Pankhurst Sylvia Pankhurst: artist and crusader Paddington Press 1979 [13162] Fully illustrated study of her work as an artist. Very good £12
Suffrage Fiction
223. ARMOUR, Margaret Agnes of Edinburgh Andrew Melrose 1911 [3719] A novel of its time – the suffrage movement although not central to the plot – flows along behind, occasionally breaking the surface in a discussion of women's rights and attitudes to the campaign. Interesting – very scarce – I've only seen it previously in the Briitish Library. Very good in rubbed paper wrapper – with a little card inlaid – showing that it had been presented to Nesta Prichard, of Form Vb, as a prize for mathematics. £55
224. ETHELMER, Ellis Woman Free Women's Emancipation Union 1893 [13144] 'Woman Free' is a 32-page poem – enhanced by c 200 pp of notes revealing a wide range of reading – Richard Jefferies, Tennyson, Geddes and Thomson's Evolution of Sex , Mary Wollstonecraft; Westermarck's History of Human Marriage, Walt Whitman, Ruskin, and J.S. Mill. Its central idea is that men's sexual violence and exploitation of women followed from their destruction of the Matriarchate. Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy, the begetter of the Women's Emancipation Union, and her busband, Ben, jointly used the pseudonym 'Ellis Ethelmer'. Interesting and idiosyncratic. Good – and very scarce. I cannot remember that I have ever had a copy in stock before – certainly this is the first time this century. £95
225. JOHNSTON, Mary Hagar Constable 1913 [1344] Includes mention of the US women's suffrage campaign. Very good £12
226. JOHNSTON, Sir Harry Mrs Warren's daughter: a story of the women's movement Chatto & Windus 1920 [1342] A suffrage novel. Very good – presentation copy from the author's wife £85
227. LUCAS, E.V. Mr Ingleside Methuen, 7th eds, no date 1910912?) [1397] A novel with suffrage scenes. Very good £15
228. MASSIE, Chris Esther Vanner Sampson Low, Marston & Co no date (1937) [1436] The heroine is a suffragette. Very good in d/w £85
229. PAGE, Gertrude The Winding Paths Hurst & Blackett c 1911 [8th ed] [12888] A novel with a suffrage theme. 'The men call them "new Women" with derision, or mannish, or unsexed; but those who have been among them, and known them as friends, know that they hold in their ranks some of th most generous-hearted, unselfish, big-souled women who exist in England to-day…One such as the best of these was Ethel Hayward..' Good £20
230. ROBERTS, Katherine Pages From the Diary of a Militant Suffragette Garden City Press 1910 [11202] There has been some doubt about whether this is an autobiography or fiction. I tend to think that it is fiction – clearly written by an active suffragette – but am not further forward about who Katherine Roberts was. Extremely interesting – and vivid. Paper covers – a little chipped – but a very good copy – clean and tight – of a very scarce book £250
231. ROBINS, Elizabeth The Convert Women's Press 1980 [11672] Her suffrage novel. Reprint of the 1907 edition – with an introduction by Jane Marcus £9
232. SAUTER, Lilian Through High Windows Curtis & Davison (11a Church St, Kensington) 1911 [12880] Poems. Includes 'Woman's Plea for Suffrage' and 'Woman's Song of Freedom.'. The latter was set to music by Annette Hullah and published by the London Society for Women's Suffrage £25
233. SHAW, Bernard Press Cuttings: a topical sketch compiled from the editorial and correspondence columns of the Daily Papers Constable & Co no date (1909) [13000] as performed by the Civic and Dramatic Guild at the Royal Court Theatre, London, on the 9th July 1909. A suffragette play. In grey card covers a little chipped at edge £35
234. TEMPEST, Evelyn [pseud. of Edward Cuming] The Doubts of Diana Hodder & Stoughton [1911/12] [12881] Light-hearted novel – with the heroine taking part in a suffragette raid akin to 'Black Friday' ['The rumour that Govenment had thoughts of employing policemen from other parts of London was lightly discredited; everybody was sure no such thing would be done, even by the new Home Secretary'] and ending up in a police court. Good in original binding £28
235. TREVELYAN, Sir G.O. Ladies in Parliament, Horace at Athens, and other pieces George Bell, new edition 1888 [1736] '"The Ladies in Parliament" was composed during the the great agitation which followed the rejection of Mr Gladstone's Reform Bill of 1866′. Very good £25
236. WHITE, Percy To-Day Tauchnitz 1913 [12885] A very readable novel – with suffrage taking central stage – alongside criticism of the divorce laws. The heroine, as in 'Ann Veronica', is prepared to sacrifice her social position for the Cause and enter into a legal pact rather than a conventional marriage. Paper covers – good – scarce £18
Suffrage Ephemera
237. ANTI-SUFFRAGE CAMPAIGN [13053] Typed letter, dated 18 July 1910, from George Calderon, Acting Secretary to the Campaign Committee, on note paper headed 'Anti-Suffrage Campaign' and giving the names of committee members and the office address (Palace Chambers, Bridge Street, Westminster, S.W.) The letter thanks an MP for the 'really splendid speech' he gave 'on Saturday'. Very good £25
238. BODICHON, Mrs Reasons for the Enfranchisement of Women London National Society for Women's Suffrage, no date late 1860s? [9519] Printed by Head, Hole & Co, Farringdon Street and Ivy Lane, E.C. Scarce and important pamphlet -8pp – good £250
239. CALLING ALL WOMEN: Newsletter of the Suffragette Fellowship Suffragette Fellowship 1963 [13171] Issue for February 1963 – with photograph of bronze statuette of Christabel Pankhurst by Sir Charles Wheeler on the cover and inside a report of the unveiling at Peaslake of a portrait and plaque recording the work of Emmeline and Frederick Pethick Lawrence and a review of Mary Gawthorpe's memoir, 'Up Hill to Holloway'. Very good £30
240. CALLING ALL WOMEN: Newsletter of the Suffragette Fellowship Suffragette Fellowship 1971 [13172] Issue for 1971 – with photograph of the statue of Mrs Pankhurst on the cover and inside a photograph and report of the unveiling of the suffrage memorial in front of Caxton Hall, together with a short autobiographical piece by Grace Roe Very good £30
241. CONSERVATIVE AND UNIONIST WOMEN'S FRANCHISE ASSOCIATION A Reply to the Anti-Suffragists CUWFA [13191] 4-pp leaflet written by Annesley Horsfall. Pages detached – edges very nicked – but text untouched. Withdrawn from the Women's Library £12
242. CORONATION PROCESSION 17 June 1911 [11274] A stereoscope photograph of 'The Empire Car' – part of the 'Pageant of Empire' part of the procession staged by the suffrage societies to mark the Coronation of George V. Very good £95
243. DAILY GRAPHIC 7 May 1913 [8536] The front page is devoted to an interior view of the destruction of St Catherine's Church, Hatcham – inside there is another photograph of the fire – with fire engine. Also a report of the defeat of the Dickinson Bill proposing a measure of women's enfranchisement. Complete issue – very good £18
244. DAVIES, Emily Parliamentary Franchise for Women 1904 [13066] A 4-pp pamphlet, a reprint of a letter written to the Editor of 'The Times' on 31 March 1904. Emily Davies had, of course, been an instigator of the suffrage movement 38 years previously and noted that 'within the last 20 years a marked change has taken place in public opinion in regard to it. The tone of mingled disapproval and derision, once so common, has to a great extent disappeared, and a disposition is shown to give the quesion a fair hearing, with an undertone of prophecy that "it will come"'. The pamphlet is not credited to any specific suffrage society, but was, presumably, sold by the NUWSS. Fragile, chipped at edges – unusual – and scarce £55
245. ELMY, Elizabeth Wostenholme Woman's Franchise: the need of the hour ILP 2nd ed, no date [1907] [12760] A campaigner for women's suffrage since the mid-1860s, she had put aside a lifetime's aversion to party politics and joined the Manchester ILP in 1904. This article was originally published in the 'Westminster Review'. In her concise style she analyses the events of the previous 40 years and demands that Liberal MPs who profess to support women's suffrage honour their pledges. £65
246. FAWCETT, Mrs Henry Home and Politics an address delivered at Toynbee Hall and elsewhere Women's Printing Society 1894 [12939] A much reproduced speech – first given c 1890. This printing does not bear a date but probably c 1900. It carries the ownership stamp of Margaret Clark, Street, Somerset who in 1909 married Arthur Gillett – so probably predates 1909. 8pp – a little creased and marked – but tight £35
247. HILL, MISS OCTAVIA Women and the Suffrage 1910 [13150] 2-sided leaflet, reproducing a letter from Octavia Hill to the Editor of the 'Times', dated 14 July 1910. In this she repudiates the necessity of votes for women – 'Let the woman seek the quiet paths of helpful real work, be set on finding where she is wanted, on her duties, not on her rights…' The 2-sided leaflet was printed by the National Press Agency Ltd and does not carry the imprimatur of the anti-suffrage society, although I imagine that group was probably behind its publication, the NPA being their usual printer. Good – very scarce £68
248. IN MEMORIAM Rt Hon Lord and Lady (Emmeline) Pethick-Lawrence of Peaslake [13195] 4-pp leaflet describing the various commemorations of the lives of the Pethick-Lawrences. Issued by the Suffragette Fellowship under the names of Lady (Helen) Pethick-Lawrence and Grace Roe. Good £15
249. INTERNATIONAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE CONGRESS [13134] Budapest June 15-20 1913. This is a small advertising paper label (double-sided) for the Congress – showing two graceful women stretching their arms, to hold hands across the globe. The type-face is very 1913. A pretty and interesting memento of the last pre-war international women's gathering. Fine -amazingly ephemeral – and unusual £85
250. L'UNION FRANCAISE POUR LE SUFFRAGE DES FEMMES La Charte de la Femme 1910 [13192] par Jean Finot suivie d'une Enquete sur le Vote Politique des Femmes en France. 60 pp – fair – paper covers present but detached £8
251. LEIGH SMITH, Barbara A Brief Summary in Plain Language of the Most Important Laws Concerning Women; together with a few observations thereon Holyoake & Co, 2nd edition revised with addition 1856 [9033] Barbara Leigh Smith (later Barbara Bodichon) was 27 years old when she wrote this pamphlet, first published in 1854 as part of her campaign to change the Married Women's Property Acts. This pamphlet is extremely scarce (I have never had a copy for sale before), bound inside recent paper covers. Rather amusingly, the printed price of 'Threepence' has been scored through and '1 1/2 d' added – a comment, presumably, then on the interest being shown in the campaign by a public not yet awakened to the cause. Very good £280
252. LENNOX, Geraldine The Suffragette Spirit The Suffragette Fellowship 1932 [12960] One of the series of 'Suffragette Lectures' – given at Caxton Hall on 17 Nov 1931. Paper covers – good internally -although has been folded. Paper covers carry many shelf marks – withdrawn from the Woman's Library – scarce £40
253. LONDON AND NATIONAL SOCIETY FOR WOMEN'S SERVICE Report, October 1st 1938 to March 31st 1943 [13194] A Report giving details of how Women's Service House fared during the early years of the war (bombed) and where the Library was accommodated (Oxford) – together with details of the Society's perilous financial postition. Good £25
254. LONDON SOCIETY FOR WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE [12935] single-sheet leaflet setting out the LSWS's 'Policy'.Printed by the Women's Printing Society sometime after 1910 (the year in which the Society moved to 58 Victoria Street – the address given). Very good £15
255. MCCABE, Joseph Woman in Political Evolution Watts & Co 1909 [9803] An overview -from ' Woman Before Civilisation' to 'The Moral Base of Enfranchisement.'Paper wrappers – one nick at spine eats into the margin of a few pages -and a tiny bit of text is lost on two pages, but does not interfere with reading. £28
256. MCLAREN, Lady 'Better and Happier': An Answer from the Ladies' Gallery to the Speeches in Opposition to the Women's Suffrage Bill, February 28th, 1908 T. Fisher Unwin 1908 [13102] I have always been rather an admirer of Laura McLaren and her straight-forward prose. 46-pp – paper covers present but detached – text otherwise good and tight – scarce £75
257. (MARSH) Suffragette Fellowship Memories of Charlotte Marsh published for the Suffragette Fellowship by Marion Lawson June 1961 [12979] Paper covers – tribute to a leading WSPU activist – 20-pp pamphlet -card covers reproduces her hunger strike medal. Good -carries library marks – withdrawn from the Women's Library. Scarce £30
258. MEN'S LEAGUE FOR OPPOSING WOMAN SUFFRAGE Gladstone on Woman Suffrage MLOWS c. 1909 [13146] The Men's League for Opposing Woman Suffrage was founded in early 1909 and in 1910 merged with the Women's National Anti-Suffrage League to form the National League for Opposing Woman Suffrage. This pamphlet – reproducing the Grand Old Man's words on the subject is pamphlet no 3 issued by the Men's League, presumably quite soon after its founding in 1909. 4-pp – good, with some foxing, scarce £78
259. MEN'S LEAGUE FOR OPPOSING WOMAN SUFFRAGE Is Woman Suffrage A Logical Outcome of Democracy? MLOWS c 1909 [13147] Pamphlet no 6 published by the short-lived Men's League for Opposing Woman Suffrage. 4-pp – very good – scarce £60
260. MILL, Mrs Stuart (Harriet Taylor Mill) The Enfranchisement of Women Trubner & Co 1868 [12964] A reissue, in pamphlet form, of the important article that Harriet Taylor contributed to the 'Westminster Review' in 1851. Paper covers – back cover has a tear across – front cover has several library shelf marks – withdrawn from the Women's Libary. But internally good – and scarce £75
261. MISS MORGAN, OF BRECON The Duties of Citizenship Women's Local Government Society c 1912 [12946] Extracts reprinted from a paper read at the Annual Conference of the National Union of Women Workers, Manchester, October 27th 1896. By the time this leafet was issued Miss Morgan had beed Mayor of Brecon, 1911-12. 4-pp – good – withdrawn from the Women's Library £15
262. NATIONAL LEAGUE FOR OPPOSING WOMAN SUFFRAGE The 'Conciliation' Bill: Revised Version NLOWS no date (1911) [13152] The 2-sided leaflet, no 33 in the series, is headed 'Against Votes for Women' and ends with 'Vote and Work Against Votes For Women In Parliamentary Affairs'. Very good – very scarce £75
263. NATIONAL LEAGUE FOR OPPOSING WOMAN SUFFRAGE Mr J.R. Tolmie's Reply to Mr L. Housman's Pamphlet NLOWS no date (1913) [13145] The pamphlet of Laurence Housman's to which this refers is 'The Physical Force Fallacy'. Pamphlet no 37 issued by the National League for Opposing Woman Suffrage. 4-pp – very good £65
264. NATIONAL LEAGUE FOR OPPOSING WOMAN SUFFRAGE Woman Suffrage and the Factory Acts NLOWS no date [13155] A 4-pp leaflet, no 8 in the NLOWS series, pointing out that the 'Women's Party' (ie pro-suffrage campaigners) were opposed to the 'humane acts' limiting women's work in factory etc because 'most of them harbour such a jealous mistrust of men that they suppose even their evidently disinterested actions to be prompted by insidious and harmful motive.' The leaflet concludes 'To grant women the franchise would therefore be to raise a fresh obstacle in the way of progress and to defer reforms still necessary for the welfare of the working classes..' Very good – very scarce £75
265. NATIONAL SOCIETY FOR WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE CENTRAL COMMITTEE: First Report of the Executive Committee presented at the General Meeting of the Central Committee held on Wednesday 17 July 1872 National Society for Women's Suffrage 1872 [12931] See my 'Women's Suffrage Movement: a reference guide' as to how and why the Central Committee came into being. This – the Committee's first report, contains lists of names of members of the Committee, of subscribers, and of the Local Committtes around England and Scotland that affiliated to the Central. In original paper covers – rubbed – very scarce £95
266. NATIONAL UNION OF WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE SOCIETIES [3986] with the Men's League (Portsmouth branches) – Programme for an evening meeting that began with a musical recital, followed by the singing of suffrage songs (the words are printed – one of them is by Margaret O'Shea, sister of the secretary of the Portsmouth NUWSS society and then a speech by Lady Balfour followed by more singing and then a closing speech by Alice Abadam. Interestingly the Vote of Thanks is seconded by Alderman Sanders, LCC, who in 1908 was Labour parliamentary candidate for Portsmouth and whose wife, Beatrice, was financial secretary to the WSPU. I think this programme may date from 1908 – because there is a mention at its foot of an Exhibition of Banners (Fuller's tea Rooms, Palmerston Road) – and such exhibitions were common after the June 1908 Hyde Park rally. 1 sheet -good £180
267. NATIONAL UNION OF WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE SOCIETIES Final Report of the Professional Women's Patriotic Service Fund NUWSS Oct 1915 [12943] 'The Fund began work in Jan 1915, when a Committee was formed for the purpose of assisting professional women, by paying their salaries and offering their services to organisations which are dealing with war needs.' I knew nothing of this short-lived Fund before reading this Report. It lists, on the one had, donors and, on the other, the positions in which they had placed needy 'professional' women. The Fund was wound up when it became clear that its services were no longer required. The Committee included, among others, Mrs Auerbach, Mrs Fawcett, Catherine Marshall, Ray Strachey, Dr Jane Walker – and its secretary was Kathleen Courtney. 12pp – good – scarce £50
268. NATIONAL UNION OF WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE SOCIETIES Memorial of Head Mistresses of Girls' Public Secondary Schools NUWSS 1909 [12934] 'The headmistresses who signed this Memorial asked Mr Asquith to receive a deputation in order that they might lay their views before him in person. This request was refused.' Text of the memorial forwarded to Asquith in June 1909 – listing all those who had signed it. 16-pp pamphlet – goodish – a bit creased around the edges £35
269. NATIONAL WOMEN'S SOCIAL AND POLITICAL UNION Second Annual Report Woman's Press 1908 [12972] Includes long list of subscribers, the WSPU financial accounts, and details of their activitis during 1907. Good internall – paper covers present, but detached. Scarce £95
270. NATIONAL WOMEN'S SOCIAL AND POLITICAL UNION Second Year Intermediate Report NWSPU 1907 [12981] Includes financial accounts for six months ending 31 Aug 1907 – together with a description of the WSPU's activities and a list of subscribers. This was published after Mrs Despard etc had broken away to form the WFL. Fair – paper covers present but detached. Scarce £95
271. NEVINSON, Henry W Women's Vote and Men WFL no date (1910?) [12978] Reprinted from 'The English Review'. 11-pp pamphlet, original paper covers with library shelf marks. Fair – withdrawn from the Women's Library £15
272. OSLER, Mrs A.C. Why Women Need the Vote Templar Press (Birmingham) no date (1910) [13126] 55-pp pamphlet by the doyenne of the Birmingham Women's Suffrage Society. According to COPAC the only copies held by UK libraries are at Birmingham and the Women's Library. Good internally – paper covers damaged and with shelf marks – withdrawn from the Women's Library £45
273. PANKHURST, EMMELINE ET AL Suffrage Speeches From the Dock: Conspiracy Trial, Old Bailey, May 15th-22nd 1912 The Woman's Press, no date (1912) [12965] The speeches given during their trial for conspiracy by Mrs Pankhurst, Mrs Pethick-Lawrence, Mr Pethick Lawrence and Tim Healy (counsel for the defence). They were reprinted and published by the WSPU's publishing arm, the Woman's Press. Fair – first 4 pages present but detached – spine reinforced with sellotape – paper covers chipped and carry library shelf marks – withdrawn from the Women's Library- extremely scarce £55
274. PHILLIPS, Mary The Militant Suffrage Campaign privately printed 1957 [11357] 'This pamphlet is designed to tell in a concise form the story of the 'Votes for Women Canpaign' and to explain the reasoned policy on which it was based.' Mary Phillips had been a leading WSPU organizer. Soft covers – 15pp – scarce £65
275. PUNCH CARTOON [12766] 30 Nov 1910, scene is a suffragette demonstration, 'Votes for Women' flags flying. Two young street urchins observe and comment. Caption is 'Man of the World (lighting up), "Well 'ave to give it 'em, I expect, Chorlie"'. Half-page illustration £10
276. PUNCH CARTOON [12767] 13 July 1910, full-page – the caption is 'Excelsior!' as Suffragist puts her shoulder to the boulder of 'Women's Suffrage' and says, 'It's no good talking to me about Sisyphus; he was only a man' £10
277. PUNCH CARTOON [12768] 13 March 1912, full-page, suffragettes wield hammers in the background as Roman-type matron, bearing a paper labelled 'Woman's Suffrage' comments 'To think that, after all these years, I should be the first martyr'. the heading is 'In the House of Her Friends' £10
278. PUNCH CARTOON [12769] 23 January 1918 – A St Joan figure holds the 'Woman's Franchise' banner and, with arms outstretched, cries out 'At Last'. Full page – very good £12
279. PUNCH CARTOON [12770] 20 July 1910, Asquith is placing The Women's Suffrage Bill on an overhead shelf and saying to the assembled cabinet, 'Well, Gentlemen, now that your individual consciences had had their fling, let's get to work again'. Just so. Very good £10
280. PUNCH CARTOON [12772] 10 January 1912 -full page – 'United We Differ'. Lloyd George and Lewis Harcourt are back to back on a platform. Lloyd George addressing his side, where a Votes for Women' banner is to be seen, cries 'Votes for Women! Don't you listen to my esteemed colleague!'. While addressing his, male, crowd cries 'No Votes for Women! My esteemed colleague is talking nonsense!'. Asquith's cabinet was split on this issue. Very good £10
281. PUNCH CARTOON [12773] 5 Oct 1927 -full-page – The Conservative Party (in the guise of one four-plussed chap in a shooting party) looks at a young flapperish women taking a gun from the ghillie and says 'I hope she's got enough 'intutition' not to let off in my direction'. The explanation is given: 'The question of extended suffrage for women (in whose 'intutition' Mr Baldwin reposes so much confidence) will be raised at the approaching Conference of the Conservative Party.' £10
282. PUNCH CARTOON [12775] 21 October 1908 – full page – two burglars 'on the way to suburban night-work' pass a line of policemen marching in the opposite direction. The wallposter announces a Votes for Women demonstration in Parliament Square – and the burglars agree that 'sufferajits' are a good thing, keeping the police occupied they we they do. £10
283. PUNCH CARTOON [12776] 2 December 1908 – a Bernard Partridge full-length illustration shows Asquith (Andromedus) chained to his rock – beset by the sea monster taunting him with her Votes for Women triton and searching for salvation from Persea – the Women's National Anti-Suffrage League. Very good £12
284. PUNCH CARTOON [12777] 21 January 1912 – full page – 'The Suffrage Split'. Sir George Askwith (the charismatic industrial conciliator), as 'Fairy Peacemaker', has tamed the dragon of the Cotton Strike – and Asquith, wrestling to keep a seat on the Cabinet horse turns to him 'Now that you've charmed yon dragon I shall need ye to stop the strike inside this fractious gee-gee.' £10
285. PUNCH CARTOON [12778] 21 October 1908 – c. half-page – two effete anti-suffragist club loafers – the one to the other, 'The idea of their wantin' to be like us!' and the response 'Yes, makin' themselves utterly ridiculous!'. £8
286. PUNCH CARTOON [12779] 7 December 1910 – small cartoon captioned 'Voter's Vertigo'. Yet another general election is at hand and the poor voter is in a frightful spin as he wrestles with 'don't tax the poor man's dreadnought'; 'home rule for suffragettes' and 'two power standard for the house of lords' £6
287. SCOTCHMEN AT DOWNING STREET Speeches by the Delegates 18 July 1913 [12936] The 'Scotchmen' were the Northern Men's Federation for Women's Suffrage founded by Maud Arncliffe-Sennett with the purpose of taking a deputation to see Asquith. The intention was that the deputation should, for maximum publicity, be timed to coincide with the arrival of the NUWSS 'Pilgrims' in London. Asquith, however, held true to his word – repeated on several occasions – that he would no receive the deputation. This pamphlet, which they had prepared in advance, contains the speeches they would have given. The 'Scotchmen' were, in the main, members of the Edinburgh and Glasgow city council and the deputation stressed its non-party credentials. 16-pp in card covers – in good condition – withdrawn from the Women's Library £60
288. SNOWDEN, Philip The Dominant Issue Feb 1913 [12945] A comment on the 'Franchise Bill fiasco' – that is, Asquith's promise that a Manhood Suffrage Bill would be amended to include women – and the Speaker's eventual ruling that such an amendment would destroy the Bill. Pamphlet reproducing an article first published in 'The Christian Commonwealth' . Good – a little foxed and grubby £25
289. STRACHEY, Philippa Memorandum On The Position of English Women In Relation to That of English Men London & National Society for Women's Service 1935 [12985] 23-pp pamphlet. Paper covers, goodish condition, withdrawn from the Women's Library £12
290. STRACHEY, Ray The Women's Movement in Great Britain: a short summary of its rise, methods and victories National Council of Women of Great Britain no date (c 1928) [13109] A pamphlet abridged from Strachey's 'The Cause'. Chipped and rubbed – withdrawn from the Women's Library £10
291. SUFFRAGETTE FELLOWSHIP Roll of Honour Suffragette Prisoners 1905-1914 Suffragette Fellowship no date [1966] [13107] 16-pp, double column, listing all the suffragette prisoners that the Suffragette Fellowship knew of. A couple of names have been added in ink. Internally fine – cover has shelf markings etc – withdrawn from the Women's Library. Scarce £150
292. THE ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF THE BIRTHDAY OF MRS EMMELINE PANKHURST [12986] will take place on Friday 14th July 1939. Single sheet leaflet setting out the plans for the celebration and a list of the societies that were supporting the occasion. Good £20
293. THE BISHOP OF LONDON The Claim of Justice Church League for Women's Suffrage 1914 [12940] 'A speech delivered in the House of Lords in support of the Earl of Selborne's Women's Enfranchisement Bill, 5th May, 1914′. 14pp in yellow card covers – small format – printed by Francis & Co, The Athenaeum Press, which did so much to further the suffrage cause. Good – scarce – withdrawn from the Women's Library £40
294. THE CATHOLIC CITIZEN [13016] 'Organ of St Joan's Alliance (formerly the Catholic Women's Suffrage Society) 15 May 1963. fair – withdrawn from the Women's Library – together £4
295. THE EARL OF LYTTON The House of Lords and Women's Suffrage P.S. King for the NUWSS 1914 [12944] Speech given on 6 May 1914 in a debate on the private member's bill introduced by Lord Selborne which would have enfranchised municpal women voters. Very good – 36pp in card covers £45
296. THE REV. F.M. GREEN The Clergy and Politics Church League for Women's Suffrage no date, c 1913 [12941] CLWS pamphlets No 4 – printed by Francis & Co. 8-pp – a little creased – withdrawn from the Women's Library £25
297. The Suffragee [13004] I'm suffering from a suff-e-ragette
Suffering sore you can see
Since my wife's joined the suffragists
I've been a suffragee
Sings Jock Mills on this Homophon Company (6816) record. I haven't listened to the record – no longer have a suitable player. Surface, to my untutored eye, looks rather marked – the label is in good condition. But it has survived. 'Recorded in London. Pressed in Berlin' Scarce £95
298. THE WOMEN'S BULLETIN: organ of the Women's Freedom League WFL [13068] 10 issues from 1957-1961. The Bulletin, usually 4 or 5 mimeographed, stapled pages covering feminist issues, was by the late 1950s/60s produced irregularly. These issues, by no means a complete run for the period, give a flavour of the concerns of the day. Lilian Lenton was the editor and Teresa Billington-Greig was still a contributor. Together £50
299. VOTES FOR WOMEN, 16 August 1912 [13190] Complete copy – although the pages are detached. The main news in this issue is of the sentencing in Dublin of Mary Leigh and Gladys Evans. Fair reading copy – scarce £60
300. VOTES FOR WOMEN, 26 July 1912 [13188] An incomplete copy – pp 693-698 (inc) and 703-708 (inc) – but gives a flavour £30
301. VOTES FOR WOMEN, 27 September 1912 [13176] At this date the paper, owned and edited by Emmeline and Frederick Pethick-Lawrence, was still the mouthpiece of the WSPU. However this issue contains both news of the Pethick-Lawrences' imminent return from Canada and that of the WSPU's move from Clement's Inn to Lincoln's Inn House. The two items – and that describing the large meeting to be held in the Albert Hall – were not unconnected, I think. This is one of the last issues of the paper before the Pethick-Lawrences were ousted from the WSPU. In fair condition – splits on spine – and some annotation, probably contemporary. Scarce £95
302. VOTES FOR WOMEN, 9 June 1911 [13189] Incomplete copy – pp 589-592 (inc) and 601-604 (inc) – but gives a flavour. The WSPU is planning the Coronation Procession. £30
303. WIDDOWSON, Florence The Power of the Vote ILP c 1928 [12758] A 2-sided leaflet appealing to the newly-enfranchised young woman to vote for Socialism. Good £12
304. WOMEN ON WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE [12763] full-page of line drawings, by R.M. Paxton, from 'Black & White, 22 October 1903 showing 'The afternoon sitting at the National Convention in Defence of the Civic Rights of Women at the Holborn Town Hall last Friday'. I rather feel that the importance of this event, held on 16-17 October, as a turning point in the suffrage campaign is overlooked by suffrage historians. It was, in the main, the result of Elizabeth Wostenholme Elmy's persistence that it was held, backed by W.T. Stead. She was very keen that there should be a mass suffrage campaign in the run-up to the next election. 200 delegates attended and it marked a revitalisation of the NUWSS. Mrs Pankhurst, whether or not she was invited, did not attend; she had held her first kitchen-table meeting with the group that became the WSPU on 10 October. The timing may be a coincidence. The vignettes in the illustration show 'Mrs Elmy on Women's Highest Mission', The chairman, the Rev Alfred Steinthal, Mrs Green (President of the Women's Co-operative Guild), Miss Eva Gore-Booth (Sec Women's Trade Union Council Manchester) and a scene of a section of the gathered company listening attentively. Very good – unusual £18
305. WOMEN'S LOCAL GOVERNMENT SOCIETY The Parish Meeting and Parish Council LGS 1919 [13154] 4-pp leaflet explaining the scope and powers of the parish council. It was issued in January 1919, under the name of (Miss) C.G. K. Scovell who adds 'The country looks to its women voters to arouse interest in local affairs, and to take their share of the steady and unobtrusive work that has to be done by Parish Councils.' Miss Scovell lived in Sussex – and this leaflet was printed in Hove. Good £48
306. WOMEN'S NATIONAL ANTI-SUFFRAGE LEAGUE On Suffragettes: extracts from 'What's Wrong With The World' by G.K. Chesterton WNASL c 1909 [13151] 'They do not create revolution; what they do create is anarchy'. 2-sided leaflet – noo 30 in the WNASL's series of leaflets – very good – very scarce £78
307. WOMEN'S NATIONAL ANTI-SUFFRAGE LEAGUE To The Women Of Great Britain WNASL c 1909 [13149] An appeal to women to pause and think before signing any petitions etc in favour of 'votes for women'. 1-p leaflet -Number 10 in the League's series of leaflets – with the rubber stamp of the 'Manchester Branch: 1 Princess Street, Albert Square' Very good – very scarce £78
308. WOMEN'S NATIONAL ANTI-SUFFRAGE LEAGUE Woman's Suffrage and Women's Wages WNASL c 1909 [13156] 'The leaflet concludes Woman Suffrage therefore has nothing to do with wages, and the interests of woman workers can be promoted, and are constantly being promoted in quite other ways.' One of the ways that the League thought would help solve the problem of the inequality of wages between the sexes would be 'The more even distribution of the female population throughout the terrotory of the Empire, by means of emigration'. Two-sided leaflet – very good – very scarce £65
309. ROBERTSON, Margaret Working Men and Women's Suffrage NUWSS Aug 1913 [12937] Margaret Robertson was a university graduate and NUWSS organiser. This pamphlet was written at a time when the NUWSS had set up its Election Fighting Fund to support Labour Party candidates – and was intended for distribution amongst trade unionists. Small format, 24pp in card covers £35
Suffrage Postcards – Real Photographic
310. ARREST OF CAPT. C.M. GONNE [12914] Member of the Men's Political Union for Women's Enfranchisement, Parliament Square, November 18th, 1910.' Capt Gonne was photographed by the 'Daily Mirror' being escorted by two policemen during the 'Black Friday' tumult. Capt Charles Melvill Gonne (1862-1926), Royal Artillery, was the author of 'Hints on Horses' (John Murray, 1904), an active suffragist, who supported his wife, a tax resister, and was a cousin of Maud Gonne, the Irish nationalist heroine. Very good -unusual – unposted £190
311. CICELY HAMILTON [12954] photograph by Lena Connell. Fine – unposted £120
312. DR THEKLA HULTIN [13168] The Finnish MP is photographed at her desk. She sent the card from Helsingfors (Helsinki) on 12 April 1917 to Mrs Louisa Thompson-Price of the Women's Freedom League. From the message on the reverse it would appear that the two women shared a birthday 'I wish you all the best (including the vote) in the following 50 years…' Very good – posted – very unusual £120
313. EDITH CRAIG [12955] photographed by Lena Connell, published at The Suffrage Shop, 31 Bedford Street (therefore the card dates from c 1910 – before its removal in 1911 south of the Strand). Fine – unposted £120
314. FREDERICK PETHICK LAWRENCE [13166] photographed by F. Kehrhahn & Co, Bexley Heath. (For an article unravelling who 'F. Kehrhahn' was see 'The WSPU Photographer, DORA and the Nazis' – on my website). Fine – unposted – unusual £120
315. GREAT VOTES FOR WOMEN DEMONSTRATION IN HYDE PARK [13163] The WSPU rally on Sunday 21 June 1908. Crowds as far as the eye can see – with massed banners, including those of Cardiff and Newport, waving in the breeze. Fine – published by Sandle Bros – unposted £85
316. MISS GRACE ROE [12958] The caption is 'UNDAUNTED'!' She is being marched out of the WSPU headquarters, Lincolns Inn House, by police, arrested in May 1914. She was not released from prison until under the amnesty in August. The postcard photography was by courtesy of the 'Daily Mirror'. An iconic image. Fine – unposted – scarce. £190
317. 'RUINS OF ST KATHERINE'S CHURCH, BURNT DOWN MAY 6 1913 [11824] Real photographic card. There are several images published on postcards of the ruins of St Catherine's (this is the correct spelling; the card's publisher was a bit slapdash) Church at Hatcham in Surrey, for the burning of which the suffragettes were thought responsible – but I have never seen this one before. £35
318. SIR WILLIAM LEVER'S BUNGALOW [8958] at Rivington. The photographic postcard shows it after it had been set on fire by Edith Rigby, Preston's infamous suffragette. The note, in ink, on the reverse reads 'Sir William Lever's Bungalow, Rivington. fired by Suffragettes 1 a.m.July 8th 1913.' I have never seen this image before. Very good – unposted £95
319. THE WOMEN'S GUILD OF EMPIRE [12877] 'souvenir packet' of 6 postcards, in their original printed paper envelope, published by the Women's Guild of Empire. The cards are: 1) 'Women's Guild of Empire Committee' – the 6 members of the Committee, who included Flora Drummond and Elsie Bowerman, sit around a table; 2) Mrs R.S Henderson, president; 3) Mrs Flora Drummond, Controller-in-Chief; 4) WGE banner 'Peace Unity Concord' surrounded by members; 5) Banner Making for the Great Demonstration April 17th 1926 – Mrs Drummond under an 'Effeciancy and Entrprise' banner; 6) 'Women Pipers from the Lothians' – with Mrs Drummond in control Scottishness was to the fore. An extremely rare set – I have never seen any of these cards before – and, in general, there are few images of the Guild of Empire and its work. The printed envelope carries details of the 'Objects' of the Guild and of its work. All cards in pristine condition – dating, I assume, to c 1926. As a set £220
320. WOMEN'S FREEDOM LEAGE Miss Muriel Matters of Australia, Lecturer [12918] Women's Freedom League 1 Robert Street, Adelphi, London WC. The card, headed 'Votes for Women' , shows Muriel Matters seated, reading a book and was published by the WFL Fine – unposted £120
321. WOMEN'S FREEDOM LEAGUE Miss Sarah Benett [12950] photographed by Lena Connell. In this studio photograph Sarah Benett is wearing her WFL Holloway brooch; she was for a time the WFL treasurer. She was also a member of the WSPU and of the Tax Resistance League. This photograph by Lena Connell was also used on a WFL-published postcard – but this one is not attributed to the WFL. The background to the image is little irridescent. £100
322. WOMEN'S FREEDOM LEAGUE Mrs Amy Sanderson [12919] Women's Freedom League, 1 Robert Street, Adelphi, London WC. She had been a member of the WSPU, and, as such had endured one term of imprisonment, before helping to found the WFL in 1907. She is, I think, wearing her WFL Holloway brooch in the photograph. Card, published by WFL, fine – unusual – unposted £150
323. WOMEN'S FREEDOM LEAGUE Mrs DESPARD AND MRS COBDEN SANDERSON WAITING FOR MR ASQUITH [12911] 'Arrested August 19th, 1909′ They are shown wating outside 10 Downing Street as part of the campaign to picket the Prime Minister in a vain attempt to force him to accept a petition. Fine condition – scarce – unposted £180
324. WOMEN'S FREEDOM LEAGUE Mrs Edith How-Martyn , ARCS, BSc [12917] Hon Sec Women's Freedom League 1 Robert Street, Adelphi, London WC. She is wearing herWFL Holloway brooch. Photographed by M.P. Co (London) – which I think is probably the Merchants Portrait Co in Kentish Town that did a fair amount of work for the WFL. The card is headed 'Votes for Women' and was published by the WFL. Fine – unposted £120
325. WOMEN'S FREEDOM LEAGUE Mrs Marion Holmes [12921] card headed 'Votes for Women' published by the Women's Freedom League, 1 Robert St, Adelphi, London WC. Mrs Holmes was joint editor of the WFL paper 'The Vote'. She is photoraphed wearing herWFL Holloway badge as well as one of the WFL enamel badges. Fine – unusual – unposted £120
326. WOMEN'S FREEDOM LEAGUE Suffragette At Work in Prison – Mrs Borrmann Wells WFL 1910 [13132] Bettina Borrmann Wells was an organiser for the WFL in London, having worked for suffrage in the US for a couple of years. She had spent 3 weeks in Holloway in 1908 and is here seen in prison garb, down on her hands and knees as though scrubbing the cell floor. 'Woman's work'. Fine – unposted £120
Suffrage Postcards: Suffrage Artists
327. ARTISTS' SUFFRAGE LEAGUE Go Hang Yourselves – We Fought at Acre, and you were not there [13012] The suffragist figure (dressed in a loose aesthetic robe) leans on a shield whose message is, '190? The Franchise Won'. Behind here is a 'No taxation without representation' BANNER. She is addressing two crinolined ladies, with '1909' running as a repeat around the bottom of their skirts – who are throwing up her hands in horror at her aT her words – and exclaim 'Oh my dear!! So unladylike!!!' Printed and published by the Artists' Suffrage League. Fine – unposted – scarce £95
328. ARTISTS' SUFFRAGE LEAGUE Miss Jane Bull [13010] addresses Master Johnnie Bull, asking, 'Give me a bit of your Franchise Cake, Johnnie' He replies 'It wouldn't be good for you' She responds 'How can you tell if you won't let me try it? it doesn't hurt those other little girls' – she points to Finnish, New Zealand, Australian and Norwegian children – boys and girls.Postcard published by the Artists' Suffrage League. The artists are 'C.H. & D.M.' Very good – unposted £95
329. WOMEN WRITERS' SUFFRAGE LEAGUE [12957] postcard for the League designed by W.H. Margetson. 'Woman' is dragged from the feet of blind 'Justice' by the figure of 'Prejudice'. This is the coloured version – in fine condition – unposted £85
Women and the First World War
330. CABLE, Boyd Doing Their Bit: war work at home Hodder and Stoughton, 2nd imp 1916 [8646] Includes a chapter on 'The Women'. Good £18
331. CAHILL, Audrey Fawcett Between the Lines: letters and diaries from Elsie Inglis's Russian Unit Pentland Press 1999 [11675] Soft covers – mint £15
332. [HALL] Edith Hall Canary Girls & Stockpots WEA Luton Branch 1977 [12884] Memories of life in the First World War – and of the '20s and '30s. During the War Edith Hall's mother was landlady to munition workers – 'the Canaries' (so called because the chemicals turned their skin yellow) at the Hayes factories.
Soft covers – signed by the author £10
333. MARLOW, Joyce (ed) The Virago Book of Women and the Great War Virago 1998 [11926] Hardcover – fine in fine d/w £12
334. WALKER, Dora M. With the Lost Generation 1915-1919: From a V.A.D.s Diary A. Brown & Sons (Hull) 2nd imp 1971 [12879] 'A "Girl's Eye View" of work in some of the famous War Hospitals of 1914-1918.' – written at the time by the author to her father. Dora Walker worked in hospitals in Britain, France and Belgium. With 20 photographs. Fine – scarce £25
Women and the First World War: Ephemera
335. DENNYS, Joyce Portrait of Nurse Winifred Whitworth [11472] Winifred Fanny Whitworth (b.1891) was a VAD nurse at the Royal Naval Auxiliary Hospital, Truro, when she was commended for 'valuable service in connection with the war' in the London Gazette 29 Nov 1918. She was the only daughter (with 6 brothers) of Mr & Mrs R. Whitworth of Truro. Joyce Dennys (1893-1991), illustrator and humourist, was herself a VAD, working in hospitals in Devon. She was commissioned c 1915 to draw the pictures for 'Our Hospitals ABC', pub by John Lane. She must have visited the Royal Naval Auxiliary Hospital at Truro c 1917, when she was working in the VAD adminsitration office. The pastel and gouache portrait of Nurse Whitworth is one of 31, unsigned drawings, that were contained in a sketch book. Research by an art dealer, specialising in art of the First World War, established that the sketch book was the work of Joyce Dennys. Plenty of scope, I feel, for further research on Nurse Whitworth and her fellow Cornish VADs. Very good – mounted £95
336. HMSO Annual Report of the Chief Inspector of Factories and Workshops 1915 HMSO 1916 [13125] With a Special Report appended by Adelaide Anderson, HM Principal Lady Inspector of Factories, on 'Effect of the Second Year of War on Industrial Employment of Women and Girls'.. Good reading copy – missing blue paper covers £12
337. SCOTTISH WOMEN'S FIRST AID CORPS [12892] natural-coloured linen canvas satchel with the initials 'S.W.F.A.C.' [Scottish Women's First Aid Corps] machine-embroidered in red on the front.The satchel hangs from a long red grosgrain ribbon strap which has a buckle for altering its length. The bag still contains an Esmarch's Triangular Bandage – printed with images of how to apply, in a variety of ways, the bandage to wounded men, together with two packs labelled 'Scottish Women's First Aid Corps First Field Dressing', supplied by J. Gordon Nicholson, Pharmaceutical Chemist, 15 Hanover Street, Edinburgh, and two small safety pins on a piece of card, presumably to be used for fixing the bandages. Luckily this SWFAC member was required to put the bandages to the test. The SWFAC had been formed in 1909 by Mary E. Macmillan and came into its own in the First World War, appealing to middle and upper-middle class women who wanted to 'do their bit'. The SWFAC ran classes in First Aid and sick nursing and some of its recruits then went out to nurse in Italy and Serbia. Very good – an unusual survival £120
338. THE WOMEN'S IMPERIAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION Sixth Annual Report 1915 [12796] The Associations's first Aim was 'To teach the women of the Empire the elementary principles in health; particularly with reference to the care and nurture of children'. This annual report gives full details of the Association, its work, and its subscribers and supporters. With many photographs. Paper covers – 52pp – good – ex-Board of Education library £10
339. YOUR KING & COUNTRY WANT YOU a woman's recruiting song Chappell & Co 1914 [12802] Sheet music – words & music by Paul A. Rubens. The cover is illustrated by John Hassall. 'The entire profits from the sale of this song will be devoted to Queen Mary's "Work for Women" Fund'. 'Oh! we don't want to lose you but we think you ought to go. For your King and your Country both need you so; We shall want you and miss you but with all our might and main. We shall cheer you, thank you, kiss you when you come back again'. Makes the spine creep. 6-pp – very good £38
Women and the First World War: Fiction
340. MARCHANT, Bessie A Girl Munition Worker: a story of a girl's work during the Great War Blackie [1916] [13002] Novel of the First World by 'the girls' Henry'. This would appear to be a first edition -with an ownership inscription for 'Xmas 1916′ on free front end paper In original pictorial cloth cover – cloth rubbed and corners bumped – very scarce £45
To be published at end of March 2013
- Drawn from a new primary source, Campaigning for the Vote tells, in her own words, the efforts of Kate Frye, a working suffragist, to convert the men and women of England to the cause of women's suffrage. The detailed diary Kate kept all her life (1878-1959) has been edited to cover 1911-1915, years she spent as a paid organiser for the New Constitutional Society for Women's Suffrage.
- No other diary gives such an extensive account of the working life of a suffragist, one who had an eye for the grand tableau – such as following Emily Wilding Davison's cortége through the London streets – as well as the minutiae of producing an advertisement for a village meeting.
- With Kate for company we can experience the reality of the 'votes for women' campaign as, day after day, in London and in the provinces, she knocks on doors, arranges meetings, trembles on platforms, speaks from carts in market squares, village greens, and seaside piers, enduring indifference, incivility and even the threat of firecrackers under her skirt.
- Kate's words bring to life the world of the itinerant organiser – a world of train journeys, of complicated luggage conveyance, of hotels – and hotel flirtations – , of boarding houses, of landladies, and of the 'quaintness' of fellow boarders. This was not a world to which she was born, for her years as an organiser were played out against the catastrophic loss of family money and enforced departure from a much-loved home. Before 1911 Kate had had the luxury of giving her time as a volunteer to the suffrage cause; now she depended on it for her keep.
- Kate Frye gives us the fullest account to date of the workings of the previously shadowy New Constitutional Society for Women's Suffrage. She writes at length of her fellow workers, never refraining from discussing their egos and foibles.
- After the outbreak of war in August 1914 Kate continued to work for some time at the society's headquarter, helping to organize its war effort, while allowing us to experience her reality of life in war-time London.
- Campaigning for the Vote is over 200pp long and contains over 70 illustrations, all drawn from Kate Frye's personal archive. ISBN 978 1903427 75 0 £14.99
- Advance orders may be placed either with womanandhersphere.com or with the Francis Boutle Publishers – or with any good bookshop.
For a video of Campaigning for the Vote: the diary of Kate Parry Frye - a talk given in the House of Commons during 'Parliament Week' – see the Youtube Parliament Channel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2aeMUGkmDM
Wrap-around paper covers, c. 200pp, over 70 illustrations
The Women's Suffrage Movement 1866-1928: A reference guide
Elizabeth Crawford
'It is no exaggeration to describe Elizabeth Crawford's Guide as a landmark in the history of the women's movement…' History Today
Routledge, 2000 785pp paperback £65
The Women's Suffrage Movement in Britain and Ireland: a regional survey
Elizabeth Crawford
'Crawford provides meticulous accounts of the activists, petitions, organisations, and major events pertaining to each county.' Victorian Studies
Routledge, 2008 320pp paperback £26
Enterprising Women: the Garretts and their circle
'Crawford's scholarship is admirable and Enterprising Women offers increasingly compelling reading' Journal of William Morris Studies
Francis Boutle, 2002 338pp 75 illus paperback £25
Kate Frye's Suffrage Diary: 'Campaigning for the Vote' Is Here
Posted by womanandhersphere in Kate Frye's suffrage diary, Suffrage Stories on March 13, 2013
Here is the front cover of Campaigning for the Vote: Kate Parry Frye's Suffrage Diary – published by Francis Boutle Publishers.
The key points about the book are:
- Drawn from a new primary source, Campaigning for the Vote tells, in her own words, the efforts of Kate Frye, a working suffragist, to convert the men and women of England to the cause of women's suffrage. The detailed diary Kate kept all her life (1878-1959) has been edited to cover 1911-1915, years she spent as a paid organiser for the New Constitutional Society for Women's Suffrage.
- No other diary gives such an extensive account of the working life of a suffragist, one who had an eye for the grand tableau – such as following Emily Wilding Davison's cortége through the London streets – as well as the minutiae of producing an advertisement for a village meeting.
- With Kate for company we can experience the reality of the 'votes for women' campaign as, day after day, in London and in the provinces, she knocks on doors, arranges meetings, trembles on platforms, speaks from carts in market squares, village greens, and seaside piers, enduring indifference, incivility and even the threat of firecrackers under her skirt.
- Kate's words bring to life the world of the itinerant organiser – a world of train journeys, of complicated luggage conveyance, of hotels – and hotel flirtations – , of boarding houses, of landladies, and of the 'quaintness' of fellow boarders. This was not a world to which she was born, for her years as an organiser were played out against the catastrophic loss of family money and enforced departure from a much-loved home. Before 1911 Kate had had the luxury of giving her time as a volunteer to the suffrage cause; now she depended on it for her keep.
- Kate Frye gives us the fullest account to date of the workings of the previously shadowy New Constitutional Society for Women's Suffrage. She writes at length of her fellow workers, never refraining from discussing their egos and foibles.
- After the outbreak of war in August 1914 Kate continued to work for some time at the society's headquarter, helping to organize its war effort, while allowing us to experience her reality of life in war-time London.
- Campaigning for the Vote is over 200pp long and contains over 70 illustrations, all drawn from Kate Frye's personal archive. ISBN 978 1903427 75 0 £14.99
- Advance orders may be placed either with me or with the publisher – or with any good bookshop.
Suffrage Stories: Kate Frye's Suffrage Diary, The Royal Albert Hall, And The Importance of Gas
Posted by womanandhersphere in Suffrage Stories on March 5, 2013
The Royal Albert Hall was the scene of many grand suffrage occasions – organised by both the constitutional and the militant suffrage societies. The management of the Hall has recognised this by supporting its archivists in mounting a small display relating to its suffrage past. The display may be viewed by anyone with a ticket to an event in the hall.
Researchers use the primary sources available and Suzanne Keyte, Project Archivist at the Royal Albert Hall, has mined what is known as the Hall's 'Gas Book' to recreate a list of occasions on which the Hall was rented for suffrage-related meetings. The 'Gas Book' records the amount of cubic feet used each time the Hall was let for a concert or a political or a religious meeting and, with certain provisos, can be used as an indication of the size of the audience.
Kate Frye witnessed several grand suffrage occasions in the Hall. Here she describes an evening stewarding for the London Society for Women's Suffrage at a Mass Meeting of suffrage societies in support of the Conciliation Bill
I sat and sewed a red, green and white scarf for the evening. We had tea at 4.15 and I had a rush to dress and take Mickie [her dog] out and get off by soon after 5 o'clock. I was due at the Albert Hall at 5.30. Was given a job to do till 6.30 – or rather before – when we all went to our posts. Mine was Balcony – selling of programmes and 'Common Causes' [the NUWSS newspaper] & helping with the collections. The hall looked lovely – the banners were so beautifully arranged – but it wasn't so full as I should have liked. The W.S.P.U. had a crowded meeting on Thursday and collected £8,000. Wonderful people one simply cannot hear from the Balcony. Mrs Swanwick was the only one I could really hear – her elocution is marvellous. It was so interesting seeing all the Societies – but [ie except for] the W.S.P.U. there – such lots of colours & badges – and I got very chatsome to some of my companions upstairs from the different societies.
When the meeting was nearly over I went down to the hall & tried to sell 'Common Cause'. Old Major General Sir Alfred Turner, who was sporting around with Adeline Bourne, bought one of me with a beam and a handful of coin – he is a joke. It had come on to pour with rain and the Wrights insisted on bringing me as far as their place in their Taxi which was kind. '
The Hall's 'Gas Book' shows that for this meeting the NUWSS consumed – and were charged for – 47,800 cubic feet of gas. On this November night one imagines that it would have been necessary to have lit all the Hall's lamps. In fact, on 19 March 1908, when Kate Frye attended the first WSPU meeting to be held in the Albert Hall, that night's gas consumption had been very similar- 46,800 cubic feet (click here to see Kate's description of that meeting). From this idiosyncratic source we can deduce that the NUWSS did not lag behind the WSPU in ensuring that their evening meetings were brilliantly lit, even though, from Kate's account, they were not necessarily able to muster as large an audience.
There was something to be said for staging meetings in the Albert Hall on summer evenings. For at the meeting held there that marked the finale to the NUWSS's procession through London on 13 June 1908, gas consumption was only 16,000 cubic feet. We know when the meeting started because Kate Frye carefully noted in her diary that, after marching from the Embankment in the rearguard position which the Kensington branch had been allotted, she reached the Albert Hall at 5.10, just as the meeting was about to begin. Clearly less artificial illumination was required for a meeting held on an early evening in summer than for one in the winter, thereby reducing at least one element of the cost. (See here for the entry from Kate's diary describing the procession).
Suzanne Keyte has identified c 30 suffrage meetings that were held at the Royal Albert Hall. By June 1913, however, after pressure had been exerted on hall owners throughout the country, the management of the Hall decided that they would refuse the WSPU any further lettings. What was in effect their last meeting had taken place a couple of months earlier, on 10 April.
Campaigning for the Vote: Kate Parry Frye's Suffrage Diary edited by Elizabeth Crawford
For a full description of the book click here
Wrap-around paper covers, 226 pp, over 70 illustrations, all drawn from Kate Frye's personal archive.
Copies available from Francis Boutle Publishers, or from Elizabeth Crawford – firstname.lastname@example.com (£14.99 +UK postage £3. Please ask for international postage cost), or from all good bookshops. In stock at London Review of Books Bookshop, Foyles, National Archives Bookshop.
Kate Frye's Suffrage Diary: Palmist At The Women's Freedom League Bazaar
Posted by womanandhersphere in Kate Frye's suffrage diary on December 10, 2012
By 1909 Kate Frye was keenly involved – as a volunteer – in the women's suffrage campaign. Although she belonged to the constitutional London Society for Women's Suffrage she was happy to give her services to other, more militant, suffrage societies – such as the Women's Freedom League.
Dramatis Personae for these entries
Marie Lawson (1881-1975) was a leading member of the WFL. An effective businesswoman, in 1909 she formed the Minerva Publishing Co. to produce the WFL's weekly paper, The Vote.
May Whitty (1865-1948) and Ben Webster (1864-1947) were a well-established theatrical couple. Kate had toured with May Whitty in a production of J.M. Barrie's Quality Street in 1903.
Ellen Terry (1847-1928) the leading Shakesperean actress of her age.
Edith Craig (1869-1947) theatre director, producer, costume designer, and a very active member of the Actresses' Franchise League. She staged a number of spectacles for suffrage societies, working particularly closely with the Suffrage Atelier and the Women's Freedom League. In January 1912 Kate appeared in Edith Craig's production of The Coronation.
Lena Ashwell (1862-1957) actress, manager of the Kingsway Theatre, a vice-president of the Actresses' Franchise League and a tax resister.
Thursday April 15th 1909 [The Plat, Bourne End]
I went up to London at 9.50 all in my best. Went to Smiths to leave the books – then straight from Praed St to St James Park by train and to the Caxton Hall for the 1st day of the Women's Freedom League Bazaar. Got there about 11.30 – everything in an uproar, of course. I had to find out who was in authority over me and where I was to go to do my Palmistry. I had to find a Miss Marie Lawson first and then was taken to a lady who had charge of my department and she arranged where I was to go. A most miserable place it seemed – in a gallery overlooking the refreshment room. I meant to have gone out to have a meal first – but it all took me so long running about getting an extra chair etc that I should have missed the opening. Then another Palmist hurried up – the real thing who donned a red robe. I was jealous. Madame Yenda.
We got on very well, however, and exchanged cards (I have had some printed) it was all about as funny as anything I have ever done and I have had some experiences.
Then I went back to the main room which was beginning to get thronged and stifling from the smell of flash- light photographs. I discovered Miss May Whitty and Mr Ben Webster and chatted to them while we waited for Miss Ellen Terry who was half an hour late. Miss Whitty was awfully nice and I quite enjoyed meeting her again. Ellen Terry looked glorious in 15th century costume and was very gay and larkish. Her daughter Edith Craig was there to look after and prompt her – and 'mother' her – what a mother to have had. I expect she had to pay for it. She is a sweet-looking woman with a most clever face – only a tiny shade of her Mother in it but Ellen Terry took the shine out of everyone – what a face to be sure. When she went round the stalls I went to the Balcony and for a little time Madame Yenda and I tried to work up there together but it was impossible. All my clients had to disturb her as they walked to and fro so at last I came out to find 3 more Palmists waiting and nowhere for them to work. One, a real professional, was very cross especially at the small fee being charged and I don't think she could have been there long. Two other girls, looking real amateurs, were also there. So I sat a while at a table outside and told a few but it wasn't very satisfactory and at 2 o'clock I went out for some lunch leaving the four others there. I went into a Lyons place in Victoria Street and then went back a little before 3 o'clock meaning to have a look round the Bazaar but I was pounced on to begin again and I was alone at it all the afternoon from 3 till 5.45 up in the gallery. I was left at it with sometimes just a few minutes in between but must have told 40 hands I should say. I did about 7 or 8 before 2 o'clock. We were only supposed to give 10 minutes at the outside but I could not quite limit myself and sometimes, when there wasn't a rush, I had long talks with the people. It was very interesting and on the whole I think I was successful. Train to Praed St and to Smiths for the books and home by the 6.45.
Friday April 16th 1909 [The Plat, Bourne End]
I went straight to Caxton Hall by train from Praed St to St James's Park – left some flowers at the flower stall. Mother had packed up some lovely bunches for me. Then I went up to the l[ondon] S[ociety] for W[omen's] S[uffrage] office on business connected with the Demonstration – then back to the Caxton Hall for the opening of the Green White and Gold Fair on the second day. Miss Lena Ashwell was punctual 12 o'clock and she looked delicious and did it all so nicely. Madame Yenda was there but no other Palmists. My chatty friend, who greeted me rapturously, helped fix up the gallery a much nicer place – but clients did not come very early -they were all following Lena Ashwell – so I had 1/- from Madame Yenda myself. I think she was clever but, of course, I am rather a hard critic at it. She told me a great many things I know to be absolutely true and she gave me some good advice especially about morbid introspective thoughts and I think she is quite right. I do over worry. I am to beware of scandal which is all round me just now. She predicts a broken engagement, a rich alliance and always heaps of money. I should have immense artistic success in my profession if only I had more confidence in myself and if only I had some favourable influence (a sort of back patter, I take it) to help me but such an influence is far away. I shall never live a calm uneventful existence. I shall always spend so much of myself with and for others. I am rather glad of that. I was just beginning to tell her her hand but I wouldn't let her pay as she told me she was very poor and I could see it when some clients came for us both and we both had to start our work.
I didn't feel a bit inclined for work at first but got into it and had wonderful success. Kept on till 2 o'clock – went to the Army and Navy Stores then and had some fish for lunch – then back – saw the 'Prison Cell' for 5 and was very interested – then started work at 2.45 and never moved off my chair till 6.15. I did have an afternoon of it. Madame Yenda had gone and I was alone in my glory. I must have had quite another 40 people if not more and they were waiting in line to come in to me. I seem to delight some of the people and one or two said I quite made them believe in Palmistry. One old lady came back for another shill'oth [shilling's worth] as I had been so good with her past and present she wanted her future. I must have been very clairvoyant as I told the people extraordinary things sometimes and they said I was 'true'. Of course one or two I could not make much headway with but that must always be so.
Where I found I had missed my train I wanted to go on but my chatty friend was really awfully decent and would not hear of it. She said if I would tell one man who had been waiting ever so long that was all I must do and she would send the others away. There were about 18 waiting and she did – rather to my relief. I felt 'done'
Campaigning for the Vote: Kate Parry Frye's Suffrage Diary edited by Elizabeth Crawford
For a full description of the book click here
Wrap-around paper covers, 226 pp, over 70 illustrations, all drawn from Kate Frye's personal archive.
Copies available from Francis Boutle Publishers, or from Elizabeth Crawford – firstname.lastname@example.com (£14.99 +UK postage £3. Please ask for international postage cost), or from all good bookshops. In stock at London Review of Books Bookshop, Foyles, National Archives Bookshop.
You can listen here to a talk I gave in the House of Commons – 'Campaigning for the Vote: From MP's Daughter to Suffrage Organiser: the diary of Kate Parry Frye'.
Kate Frye's Suffrage Diary: The Mud March, 9 February 1907
Posted by womanandhersphere in Kate Frye's suffrage diary on November 21, 2012
Kate Frye had first joined a suffrage society in the spring of 1906. Her choice was the Central Society for Women's Suffrage (later renamed the London Society for Women's Suffrage) – a constituent society of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies Interest in the long-running women's suffrage campaign leapt ahead in the following few months and in February 1907 the NUWSS staged the first open-air suffrage spectacular – a march through the wintry, muddy London streets. For obvious reasons this became known as the 'Mud March'. Kate's estimate of 3000 participants accords with later reports.
Saturday 9 February 1907 [25 Arundel Gardens, North Kensington]
In bed to breakfast – and what was my utter disgust – and disappointment – to hear the torrents of rain – and there was not a shadow of its coming last night – it was bitterly cold. As it was so heavy I hoped it would stop – but it went on and on into a fine heavy drizzle. They said I should be mad to go in the procession and though I knew I must – I went out at 12.30 taking Mickie a walk and sent a telegram to Alexandra Wright telling her the rain prevented my joining them. I had arranged to be at their house at 1 o'clock and go with them to Hyde Park. We all had lunch. I knew I was going all the time – but couldn't go. Off to wash my hands. 2 o'clock. 'They will be just starting', said I. Then as I washed I made up my mind I would go rain or no rain and – lo – the rain had ceased. I prepared a plan to Agnes. She too knew she was to be of it – both flew upstairs and were out of the house before 2.15.
We tore to Notting Hill Gate – meaning to go the quickest way. No motor bus – so we tore for the train – it came in as I started to race down. In we scrambled – had to change at South Kensington much to our disgust – but we were not kept long. We flew out at Charing Cross and up Villiers Street. No sign of the Procession of Women Suffragists in the Strand. They were timed to leave Hyde Park at 2 o'clock so I had to pluck up my courage and ask a policeman. No, they had not passed. So, knowing the route, we flew up as far as Piccadilly Circus and there in about 2 minutes we heard strains of a band and waited, anxious and expectant. The crowd began to gather and we were nearly swept away by the first part – a swarm of roughs with the band – but the procession itself came – passed along dignified and really impressive. It was a sight I wouldn't have missed for anything – and I was glad to have the opportunity of seeing it as well as taking part in it.
We stood right in front so as not to miss our contingent – and I asked if they knew where it was. Miss Gore Booth said it was coming and we were fearfully excited and I was so anxious not to miss our lot. I shrieked out when I saw Miss Doake's red head in the distance and we dashed up to them and asked if we could join in. Alexandra carried our banner. Mrs Wright said come along here – it felt like boarding an express train but I suppose it was a quite simple rally though I cannot look back on it as that – but we were so excited and so anxious not to miss them. We walked three abreast – Miss Doake, Agnes and I – I was on the kerb side – behind us Gladys [Wright], Miss Ellis and Mrs Doake. North Kensington was not very well represented but I really do not know who else of us was there.
Then the real excitement started. The crowds to see us – the man in the street – the men in the Clubs, the people standing outside the Carlton – interested – surprised for the most part – not much joking at our expense and no roughness. The policemen were splendid and all the traffic was stopped our way. We were an imposing spectacle all with badges – each section under its own banners. Ours got broken, poor thing, unfortunately, and caused remarks. I felt like a martyr of old and walked proudly along. I would not jest with the crowd – though we had some jokes with ourselves. It did seem an extraordinary walk and it took some time as we went very slowly occasionally when we got congested – but we went in one long unbroken procession. There were 3000 about I believe. At the end came ever so many carriages and motor cars – but of course we did not see them. Lots of people we knew drove.
Up the Strand it was a great crowd watching – some of the remarks were most amusing. 'Here comes the class' and two quite smart men standing by the kerb 'I say look at those nice girls – positively disgraceful I call it.' Then 'Ginger hair – dark hair – and fair hair' 'Oh! What nice girls' to Miss Doake, Agnes and I. Several asked if we had brought our sweethearts and made remarks to express their surprise at our special little band. 'All the prizes in this lot' etc. The mud was awful. Agnes and I wore galoshes so our feet were alright but we got dreadfully splashed. It was quite a business turning into the Exeter Hall. A band was playing merrily all the time – the one which had led the procession – and there was one not far off us. Three altogether, I was told.
We got good seats and of course had to wait some time before the meeting started – it was just after 4 pm when it did – but there was a ladies' orchestra performing and playing very well and a lady at the organ in between whiles. The meeting was splendid. Mr Walter McLaren in the Chair and Israel Zangwill as chief speaker – he was so splendid and most witty. Miss Gore Booth – Mrs Fawcett – Mrs Eva McLaren – Lady Strachey and several other ladies spoke and Keir Hardie made an excellent speech. It was altogether a wonderful and memorable afternoon – and felt we were making history – but after all I don't know, I am sure, what will come of it. The MPs seem to have cheated and thoroughly 'had' us all over it. They wanted the Liberal Women's help to get into the House and now they don't care two straws or they are frightened of us. We walked up to Tottenham Court Road and came home by bus. It was nearly 7 o'clock when we got in. .. I felt bitterly tired all the evening after the excitement.
Dramatis Personae for this entry
Agnes, Kate's elder sister
Mickie, Kate's beloved dog
Alexandra and her sister, Gladys, lived at 10 Linden Gardens. It was under their influence that Kate had joined the London Society for Women's Suffrage.
Violette Mary Doake (b 1888) her parents were Irish, which may account for the red hair. Her mother, Mary Elizabeth Doake, was also a suffragist. Her father, Richard Baxter Doake, described in the 1911 census as a 'tea planter', was elected as a Progressive party member in 1892 to the LCC seat relinquished by Frederick Frye. In 1901 the Doakes lived at 24 Stanley Gardens, close to the Fryes. By 1911 they had moved to 25 Ladbroke Gardens.
Walter McLaren and his wife, Eva were members of a family of long-standing supporters of women's suffrage. He had been Liberal MP for Crewe in the 1890s and regained the seat in 1910.
Israel Zangwill, Jewish novelist and very effective writer and speaker in support of women's suffrage
Lady Strachey had worked for women's suffrage since the 1860s. She remarked that after this march she had to boil her skirt.
Keir Hardie, first Independent Labour Party MP. He had strongly supported a motion in favour of women's suffrage at the Labour party conference on 26 January
Campaigning for the Vote: Kate Parry Frye's Suffrage Diary edited by Elizabeth Crawford
For a full description of the book click here
Wrap-around paper covers, 226 pp, over 70 illustrations, all drawn from Kate Frye's personal archive.
Copies available from Francis Boutle Publishers, or from Elizabeth Crawford – firstname.lastname@example.com (£14.99 +UK postage £3. Please ask for international postage cost), or from all good bookshops. In stock at London Review of Books Bookshop, Foyles, National Archives Bookshop.
Am I Not A Woman And A Sister: Women and the Anti-Slavery Campaign
Posted by womanandhersphere in Uncategorized on October 1, 2012
Am I Not a Woman and a Sister: women and the anti-slavery campaign
'Am I not a woman and a sister' reads the legend arching over the female figure of Justice as she reaches towards a kneeling black slave woman, who holds her chained hands up in supplication. In the 1830s this powerful emblem was used on printed matter and on artifacts associated with women-only, or 'ladies', anti- slavery associations. It very consciously echoed the motto, 'Am I Not a Man and a Brother', adopted in 1787 by the founders of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Throughout the long years of abolitionist campaigning women were always participants, their role becoming, over the years, increasing prominent. Experience gained in a movement of such social, economic and political importance was to prove valuable when, in the 1860s, they launched the campaign to gain their own political freedom.
In 1787, however, women could take no direct part in politics, their role confined to that of exercising influence on those who did have political power. One such woman was Lady Middleton, a member of the evangelical Clapham Sect, who conducted a country-house salon at Barham Court in Kent. It was she who, according to Thomas Clarkson, in 1786 persuaded both William Wilberforce and himself to take up the anti-slavery cause. Lady Middleton's own interest in the subject was not new. In 1782 she had been among the subscribers to Letters of Late Ignatius Sancho, the first prose work by an African to be published in England. Ignatius Sancho, born on a slave ship, had, as a child, been a house slave in London, at Greenwich.
Women's influence extended to rather more than cajolery over the dinner table. Another member of the Clapham Sect, Lady Middleton's close friend the writer Hannah More, was asked, in late 1787, to write a poem to draw attention to the discussion soon to take place in Parliament. She quickly composed Slavery, a Poem, published as a large, handsomely printed, 20-page book. She was just one of many women writers who wielded their pens in the abolitionist cause. Although they did not have direct power women could exercise their influence through the medium considered most suitable to their sex, poetry.
Women were also a valuable source of the finance necessary for the funding of the campaign. Although the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was formed and officered by men, there was no attempt to prevent women from becoming subscribers. Subscriptions ranged from one to five guineas, sizeable sums, indicating that those donating were drawn from the middling to wealthy section of society. Fortunately for us, the Society printed a report listing by name all its subscribers. Women clearly had no more qualms at having their names listed in such a quasi-political publication than they did in appearing as subscribers to a novel or volume of poetry. It is possible, therefore, to study the names of 206 women, comprising about ten per cent of the total, who in the late-18th century made public their condemnation of the slave trade.
The main, London-based, committee attracted members from all around the country. It is noticeable that there are few obviously upper-class or aristocratic women on the list. Only three titled ladies subscribed: Lady Hatton of Longstanton, the Dowager Countess Stanhope (who gave £50), and the Dowager Viscountess Galway. A superficial investigation would indicate that all three were women associated with families with radical sympathies. Indeed the Dowager Countess Stanhope's son, who had succeeded her husband as earl, was soon to style himself 'Citizen Stanhope' to demonstrate his support for revolution in France. Two others of those listed, 'Miss Pelham and Miss Mary Pelham of Esher' were members of an influential Whig family, counting a former prime minister amongst their forebears.
The names of some subscribers have entered the literary canon. Prominent are Elizabeth Carter (writer and 'blue stocking'), Sarah Trimmer (evangelical educationalist and writer) and Mary Scott of Milborne Port, Dorset, who in 1774 had written a lengthy poem, The Female Advocate, in which she drew attention to Phillis Wheatley, the first slave and black woman to have a book of poetry published in Britain.
Information can, with some application, be teased out about many of the other names on the list. A quick Google search reveals that, at random,' Mrs Elizabeth Prowse of Wicken Park, Northampton' was the sister of Granville Sharp, a leading member of the Abolition Committee. That 'Mrs Peckard, Cambridge' was, probably Martha, the wife of Peter Peckard, vice chancellor of Cambridge University and a preacher of sermons against the slave trade. It was he who, he in 1785 had set the question, 'Is it lawful to make slaves of others against their will?', for the University's Latin essay won by Thomas Clarkson, the first step in his abolitionist career.
Through the Will Search facility at DocumentsOnline on the National Archives website it is possible to read the wills of some of the subscribers and discover a little more about their lives. For example, 'Mary Belch, Ratcliffe' was a corn chandler of Broad Street, Ratcliffe, in east London and 'Deborah Townsend, Smithfield Bars' was either the wife or the daughter of a Smithfield grocer. The wills may not reveal much about their abolitionist sympathies but they do demonstrate that women from this sector of society were committed to the cause.
The will of another subscriber, 'Elizabeth Freeman, Woodbridge', reveals that she was a Quaker and that she left 'to my poor relations in America twenty pounds to be disposed of by friends of the Monthly Meeting in North Carolina'. It might be presumed that with these connections she knew something of conditions in an American slave state. Further research might indicate that other women subscribers from Woodbridge were also Quakers. Some names, of course, do indicate clear Quaker connections. Five female member of the well-known Fox family of Falmouth were subscribers and, with their fellow Quakers, are likely to be traceable through the records kept by the Society of Friends.
Women were also subscribers to the separate local committees formed in provincial towns. In Manchester 68 out of total of 302 subscribers were women. However few of the names include any indication of address and are, therefore, more difficult to identify. Some were wives of men involved with the Manchester committee. One such was 'Mrs Bayley of Hope', wife of Thomas Bayley, Unitarian, JP and penal reformer. Here too many the female subscribers were likely to have been nonconformists, particularly Unitarians and Quakers, a large number having connections with Manchester's manufacturing interests.
In Bristol, notorious as a slave port, subscribers to the local committee included Miss Anna Goldney and 'Mrs Goldney'. It has to be remembered that 'Mrs' at that time was a title given to unmarried as well as married women and, therefore, that the latter was probably Ann Goldney, who was unmarried and had recently inherited the family's Clifton estate from her brother. The Goldneys were Quakers although an ancestor, Thomas Goldney, had, in the early 18th century, been the principal investor in a venture leading to the capture of slaves, the family fortune enhanced by investment in the manufacturing of guns for trade with Africa. Between them, Ann and Anna Goldney, a cousin living in the Clifton household, gave a generous six guineas.
Other Bristol women subscribers were Mrs Esther Ash, Mrs Frampton, Mrs Olive and Mrs Merlott, all of whom had at least one other thing in common, being subscribers in 1787 to a translation of Persian poems by Charles Fox. It is likely some were Quakers, but 'Mrs Merlott' was probably the unmarried sister of John Merlott, a Presbyterian sugar refiner.
Named women also subscribed to local committees in Birmingham, Exeter, Leeds and Leicester, some of which were probably set up with the encouragement of Thomas Clarkson as he acted as roving ambassador for the Abolition Society. He also organized mass petitions that were such a novelty of this campaign, an early manifestation of the method to be used by popular protest groups throughout the 19th century. Women, however, were not signatories. It was presumably thought that if they were the value of the petition would be diminished.
Women did, though, on occasion take part in public debates about the slave trade. One such was held in 1788 in La Belle Assemblée, a concert hall in Brewer Street, Soho, London, where 'ladies were permitted to speak in veils'. In 1792 women were also present at a debate at the Coach-makers' Hall, Foster Lane, Cheapside calling for the boycott of West Indian sugar and rum. The motion was carried by a unanimous vote of 600.
The subject of this latter meeting was one that women were making their own. For, although denied political power, they were able, at least in theory, to influence the economy. As early as 1788 Hannah More had urged a friend 'to taboo the use of West Indian sugar in your tea'. Women, as chief purchasers of household goods, were encouraged to boycott slave-produced sugar from the West Indies, shopping instead for that grown in the East Indies by free labour. It is thought that by 1791-92 the sugar boycott affected as many as 300,000 people.
As well as redirecting their spending power to 'free' produce, women were also encouraged to purchase items that would proclaim their support for the abolitionist cause.
Thousands of Josiah Wedgwood's 'Am I Not a Man and a Brother' jasperware cameos were incorporated into brooches, bracelets, earrings and hair ornaments, allowing the wearer to indicate sympathy with the abolitionist cause. The 'kneeling slave' image was also rendered on a variety of other artefacts and was considered a very suitable subject for young girls to embroider on their samplers.
Women could also buy china bearing anti-slavery messages. The tea table was the sphere of influence particular to the woman of the house and, while entertaining her friends, she could pass round a sugar bowl bearing the motto, 'East India Sugar not made/By Slaves/By Six families using/East India, instead of/West India Sugar, one/Slave less is required'. By boycotting West Indian sugar and displaying articles such as this she turned herself from a passive consumer into a political activist.
Women were able to demonstrate their sensibility by buying and subscribing to the slim volumes of abolitionist poetry that were finding a popular readership. These were written by women of all sorts and conditions, by, as already noted, the evangelical Hannah More, by her working-class protogée, Ann Yearsley, by Mary Robinson, ex-mistress of the Prince of Wales, and by a succession of young women, such as Mary Birkett of Dublin. Women were also able to educate the younger generation by purchasing works such as The Negro Boy's Tale: a poem addressed to children, published by Amelia Opie in 1802.
By then, however, the mass popular campaign had collapsed. In 1792 the British public had watched in horror as the French monarchy was overthrown by the mob and, in the same year, slaves in Saint-Domingue (Haiti) rose up against their masters. Whatever its theoretical sympathy with the anti-slavery campaign, the British public had no wish to unleash similar forces. When the act abolishing Britain's direct involvement in the slave trade was passed in 1807 it was as a result, not of popular protest, but of parliamentary manoeuvrings, in which, of course, women played no part.
There was no further popular agitation against slavery until 1823 when Wilberforce and Clarkson once again took the lead in the formation of the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Dominions. Over the intervening years there had been a decided change in the position of women who now had no inhibition about founding their own anti-slavery societies. The first such was formed in Birmingham in 1825. Here Lucy Townsend, the wife of an Anglican clergyman, worked with a Quaker, Mary Lloyd. Contact was made through their various denominational networks and soon towns such as Manchester, Sheffield, Liverpool, Bristol, Newcastle, York, Southampton and Plymouth, as well as London, supported ladies' associations. There were also groups in Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
The formation of these societies and the activities they undertook did not escape criticism. Wilberforce expressed what one imagines was a very common view: 'All private exertions for such an object become their character, but for ladies to meet, to go from house to house stirring up petitions – these appear to me proceedings unsuited to the female character as delineated in Scripture'.
For women were now, indeed, a petitioning force. In the early 1830s hundreds of thousands of women signed petitions. Those presented in 1833 alone bore the signatures of 298,785 women, nearly a quarter of the total. A large number – 187,157 – were on a single petition circulated by the London Female Anti-slavery Society and presented to the House of Commons on 14 May 1833, the day the emancipation bill was produced.
Women were not only, by petitioning, participating in the political process, but were now even questioning the aims of the movement. In 1824 Elizabeth Heyrick, a Leicester Quaker, published a pamphlet, Immediate not Gradual Abolition, calling for immediate emancipation of slaves, in contradistinction to the Anti-Slavery Society's aim of gradual emancipation. In 1830, at Elizabeth Heyrick's suggestion, the influential Birmingham women's society threatened to withdraw its funding from the Anti -Slavery Society if it did not agree to change its aim to immediate abolition. The change was agreed.
Elizabeth Heyrick was also the leader of a new campaign to boycott West Indian produce, especially sugar. Like that of the late-18th century, the 19th-century campaign appealed to the woman of the family to exercise her economic power. In 1828 the Peckham Ladies' African and Anti-Slavery Association published Reasons for Using east India Sugar, demonstrating to its readers 'that by substituting east India for west India sugar, they are undermining the system of slavery, in the safest, most easy, and effectual manner, in which it can be done'. 'If we purchase the commodity, we participate in the crime. The laws of our country may hold the sugar-cane to our lips, steeped in the blood of our fellow-creatures; but they cannot compel us to accept the loathsome potion.'
Women also exercised their talents in order to raise funds for the cause. The bazaar became a particularly womanly form of demonstrating support. As ever, this activity was regarded in some quarters as a waste of effort. In a letter of 22 September 1828 the salon hostess, Mary Clarke Mohl, wrote: 'My niece spends all her time making little embroidered bags to be sold for the Anti-Slavery Society …which would be all very well if, instead of turning seamstress to gain £10 a year, she put some poor woman in the way of work'.
Only three years after the Anti-Slavery Society had agreed to change its agenda, the 1833 Anti-Slavery Act abolished slavery within the British colonies. Although a period of apprenticeship was imposed on former slaves before they could obtain freedom, a determined effort by the abolitionists led, in 1838, to the early termination of this system. A national women's petition on behalf of the apprentices addressed to the newly crowned Queen Victoria had carried the signatures of 7000,000 women, a number described as 'unprecedented in the annals of petitioning'.
Although Britain no longer allowed slavery within its own territories the anti-slavery campaign continued, with the aim of abolishing slavery world wide. In 1840 the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society organized the first World Anti-Slavery Convention. Women delegates, among them a grand-daughter of Lady Middleton, arrived in London from all parts of Britain. From across the Atlantic came women belonging to a section of the US abolitionist movement that wished to combine anti-slavery activity with campaigns for women's rights. All women were, however, denied participation in the proceedings. As might be expected that decision led not only to a split in the British anti-slavery movement but, indirectly, to the beginning of the US campaign for women's suffrage. Several of the British women who were barred, women such Elizabeth Nicholls (later Pease), Hannah Webb, Maria Waring, and Matilda Ashurst Biggs, were among those who 26 years later signed the first women's suffrage petition.
Both factions of the American anti-slavery movement were keen to gain support from British activists and throughout the 1840s and 1850s strong transatlantic links were developed. As in Britain, bazaars became a particular field of endeavour for American abolitionist women, with the British societies keen to supply boxes of goods for sale. In 1846 the Glasgow Society reported that at the Boston Anti-Slavery fair 'every one of the great plaid shawls sold instantly. The beautiful cloaks sold, and also the bonnets. Aprons do well. The shawls sent by the Duchess of Sutherland sold immediately.'
The societies organized lecture tours for members of the American movement. In 1853 the Glasgow Society sponsored Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose novel Uncle Tom's Cabin had already sold 1.5 million copies in Britain and in 1861 the Edinburgh Society organized a series of lectures by Sarah Remond, whom they described as 'a lady of colour from America.' She wrote: 'I have been received here as the sister of the white woman'.
Even after the ending of the American Civil War and the freeing of slaves in the US, British women's societies continued their work, concentrating now on providing aid for the 'Freedmen'. The Birmingham women's anti-slavery society continued to meet until 1919.
Over the years many of the women's anti-slavery societies printed reports, listing the members of their committees. It is now possible to study these, together with publications such as the Anti-Slavery Reporter, to discover not only who the women were who worked for this cause, but also to examine the clear links between the members of the abolitionist and of the women's suffrage movements.
Further Reading
C. Midgley, Women Against Slavery: the British campaigns 1780-1870, Routledge, 1992.
Anti-Slavery International: http://www.antislavery.org .
Wilberforce House Museum, Hull: details of materials relating to the anti-slavery campaign can be found by searching for 'Wilberforce House' at http://www.cornucopia.org.uk .
http://www.quaker.org.uk contains an article on the Quaker involvement in the anti-slavery campaign. The library at Friends' House, London, contains useful biographical records.
BBC History: Elizabeth Crawford, Women: From Abolition to the Vote
Kate Frye's Suffrage Diary: Spring 1908 – Suffrage Hope – WSPU in Albert Hall 'a little too theatrical but very wonderful'
Posted by womanandhersphere in Kate Frye's suffrage diary on September 26, 2012
Another extract from Kate Frye's manuscript diary. An edited edition of later entries (from 1911), recording her work as a suffrage organiser, is published as Campaigning for the Vote: Kate Parry Frye's suffrage diary.
Kate's MP, Henry Yorke Stanger, was the promoter of the current Enfranchisement Bill – the latest in the long line that stretched back through the latter half of the 19th century. Despite, as Kate describes, the bill passing its second reading, the government eventually refused to grant facilities to further the debate. However, that blow was yet to come as Kate records in these entries details of the suffrage meetings she attended in February and March 1908. She had the knack of always being present on the great occasions – and on 19 March was in the Albert Hall to witness the rousing – and profitable – reception given to Mrs Pankhurst on her release from prison.
Dramatis personae:
Miss Harriet Cockle, was 37 years old, an Australian woman of independent means, lving at 34 de Vere gardens, Kensington.
Mrs Philip Snowden – Ethel Snowden (1880-1951) wife of the ILP politician, Philip Snowden.
Mrs Clara Rackham (1875-1966) was regarded as on the the NUWSS's best speakers. In 1910 she became president of the NUWSS's Eastern Federation, was founder of the Cambridge branch of the Women's Co-operative Guild, and was sister-in-law to Arthur Rackham, the book illustrator.
Margery Corbett (1882-1981- later Dame Margery Corbett-Ashby) was the daughter of a Liberal MP. At this time she was secretary of the NUWSS.
Mrs Fanny Haddelsey,wife of a solicitor, lived at 30 St James's Square, Holland Park.
Mrs Stanbury had been an organiser for NUWSS as far back as 1890s.
Tuesday February 25th 1908 [London-25 Arundel Gardens]
We got home at 5.15 and had tea. Then I did my hair and tidied myself and Agnes and I ate hot fish at 6.30 and left soon after in a downpour of rain for the Kensington Town Hall – we did get wet walking to the bus and afterwards. We got there at 7 o'clock to steward – the doors were opening at 7.30 and the meeting started at 8.15. I was stewarding in the hall downstairs and missed my bag – purse with 6/- and latch Key etc – very early in the evening which rather spoilt the evening for me as I felt sure it had been stolen. It was a South Kensington Committee of the London Society for Woman's Suffrage and we were stewarding for Miss Cockle. It was a good meeting but not crowded but, then, what a night. Miss Bertha Mason in the Chair. The speech of the evening was Mrs Philip Snowdon, who was great, and Mrs Rackham, who spoke well. The men did not do after them and poor Mr Stanger seemed quite worn out and quoted so much poetry he made me laugh. Daddie had honoured us with his presence for a little time and had sat on the platform – so I feel he has quite committed himself now and will have no right to go back on us. We were not in till 12.20 and then sat some time over our supper.
Wednesday February 26th 1908
Before I was up in the morning Mother came up in my room with my bag and purse and all quite safe. It had been found and the Hall Door Keeper had brought it. I was glad because of the Latch Key. Daddie generously had paid me the 6/- which I was able to return.
Friday February 28th 1908
Mr Stanger's Woman's Suffrage Bill has passed the second reading. I had to wait to see the Standard before going to my [cooking] class. That is very exciting and wonderful – but of course we have got this far already in past history. Oh! I would have liked to have been there.
MargWednesday March 11th 1908
To 25 Victoria Street and went to the 1st Speakers Class of the N.[ational] S.[ociety] of W.[omen's] S.[uffrage]. I was very late getting there and there was no one I knew so I did not take any part in the proceedings and felt very frightened. But Alexandra Wright came in at the end and I spoke to Miss Margery Corbett and our instructoress, Mrs Brownlow. And then I came home with Alexandra from St James's Park station to Notting Hilll Gate.
Thursday March 12th 1908
Mother went to a Lecture for the NKWLA [North Kensington Women's Liberal Association] at the Club and Agnes and I started at 8 o'clock and walked to Mrs Haddesley [sic] for a drawing-room Suffrage Meeting at 8.30. Agnes and I stewarded and made ourselves generally useful. The Miss Porters were there and a girl who I saw at the Speakers' Class on Wednesday. Alexandra was in the Chair and spoke beautifully – really she did. And Mrs Stanbury spoke. Mrs Corbett and Mrs George – all very good speakers. Mrs Stanbury was really great and there were a lot of questions and a lot of argument after, which made it exciting. It was a packed meeting but some of the people were stodgy. Miss Meade was there with a friend – her first appearance at anything of the kind she told us and she said it was all too much for her to take in all at once. The "class" girl walked with us to her home in HollandPark and we walked on home were not in till 11.45. I was awfully tired and glad of some supper and to get to bed.
Mrs Pankhurst had been arrested on 13 February as she led a deputation from the 'Women's Parliament' in Caxton Hall to the House of Commons. She was released from her subsequent imprisonment on 19 March, going straight to the Albert Hall where the audience waiting to greet her donated £7000 to WSPU funds. Kate was there.
Thursday March 19th 1908
I had a letter in the morning from Miss Madge Porter offering me a seat at the Albert Hall for the evening and of course I was delighted….just before 7 o'clock I started for the Albert Hall. Walked to Notting Hill gate then took a bus. The meeting was not till 8 o'clock but Miss Porter had told me to be there by 7 o'clock. We had seats in the Balcony and it was a great strain to hear the speakers. It was a meeting of the National Women's Social and Political Union – and Mrs Pankhurst, newly released from Prison with the other six was there, and she filled the chair that we had thought to see empty. It was an exciting meeting. The speakers were Miss Christabel Pankhurst, Mrs Pethick Lawrence, Miss Annie Kenney, Mrs Martel and the huge sums of money they collected. It was like magic the way it flowed in. It was all just a little too theatrical but very wonderful. Miss Annie Kenney interested me the most – she seems so "inspired" quite a second Joan of Arc. I was very pleased not to be missing so wonderful an evening and I think it very nice of Miss Porter to have thought of me. She is quite a nice girl of the modern but "girlie" sort – a Cheltenham girl and quite clever – but very like a lot of other girls. Coming out we met, strangely enough, Mrs Wright and Alexandra (Gladys was speaking at Peckham) and after saying good-bye to Miss Porter I walked home with them as far as Linden Gardens. Got in at 11.30 very tired indeed and glad of my supper. Mother was waiting up.
Campaigning for the Vote: Kate Parry Frye's Suffrage Diary edited by Elizabeth Crawford
For a full description of the book click here
Wrap-around paper covers, 226 pp, over 70 illustrations, all drawn from Kate Frye's personal archive.
Copies available from Francis Boutle Publishers, or from Elizabeth Crawford – firstname.lastname@example.com (£14.99 +UK postage £3. Please ask for international postage cost), or from all good bookshops. In stock at London Review of Books Bookshop, Foyles, National Archives Bookshop.
Kate Frye's Diary: Canvassing for the Progressives in North Kensington,1907
Posted by womanandhersphere in Kate Frye's suffrage diary on September 13, 2012
Another extract from Kate Frye's manuscript diary. An edited edition of later entries (from 1911), recording her work as a suffrage organiser, is published as Campaigning for the Vote: Kate Parry Frye's suffrage diary.
The LCC elections were due to be held on 2 March 1907; Kate and her family supported the Progressive Party. In fact, before becoming an MP, her father had been an LCC councillor on the Progressive ticket.
Dramatis Personae for these entries:
Sir Weetman Pearson, Lady Denman's father, in 1910 became Lord Cowdray and it was as 'Lady Cowdray' that his wife was to be involved with a number of suffrage organisations. Lady Pearson was, according to Lady Denman's biographer, 'determined to become a leading political and social hostess' and the Pearsons' house at 16 Carlton House Terrace, its opulent interior decorated in the mid-19th century by Owen Jones in the islamic style, provided a perfect setting. As we shall read, Kate, who was something of an expert on these matters, rated the Pearsons' tea very highly.
H.Y. Stanger: Liberal MP for North Kensington, the seat once held by Kate's father, in February 1908 introduced a women's suffrage bill, which passed its second reading before being blocked. This was the greatest progress a bill had made since 1897.
Thomas McKinnon Wood: member of the London County Council for Central Hackney (1892-1909) – leader of Progressive Party (1898-1907). Elected MP for a Glasgow constituency, 1906.
Mr Jephson: Henry Jephson, retired civil servant, who was standing again as a Progressive member for North Kensington on the LCC.
Violette Mary Doake (b c. 1888): lived with her parents at 24 Stanley Gardens, Kensington. In 1892 her father had been elected as a Progressive member of the LCC for Kensington North; unsurprisingly the Doake family was staunchly suffragist.
Thursday February 21st 1907
At 2.30 Mother and I went by train from Notting Hill Gate to Charing Cross and walked through the Horse Guards and up the Duke of Yorks steps to Carlton House Terrace – Sir Wheetman [sic] Pearson's house – by invitation of Lord and Lady Denman to a drawing Room meeting to hear Mr McKinnon Wood – Mr Wilks and the work we could do for the Progressives at the L.C.C. elections.
Nearly all ladies there. Lord Denman was a sort of Chairman & both he and Lady Denman spoke – she seems very nice. My dear friend Mr McKinnon Wood spoke again most beautifully – I do admire him. Of course I knew it all but I dare say some the facts came new to a good many there. Mr Stanger, Mr Jephson and Mr Percy Harris were there.
There was a most gorgeous tea downstairs afterwards it really was quite perfect – such cakes – in such quantities – I made a pig of myself and eat [ate] three and I had my tea and milk poured out of solid gold articles. I really did enjoy the party and the house is wonderful – what a position – looking out on the Park.
Friday February 22nd 1907
I dressed myself. John [her fiance] came at 7.30 to dinner and afterwards Daddie took he, Agnes and I up to the Horbury Rooms [Ladbroke Road] to the Opposition L.C.C. Candidates' meeting – Mr Davis and Major Skinner. Well I thought it would be interesting but I never expected to be so thoroughly amused.
The Chairman was so funny and Harcourt-Smith such a noodle – a Dickens character with an eye glass. And as for Major Skinner I have never seen or heard the like really. He didn't seem sharp and made quite an object of himself. He tried to propitiate the ladies – I never heard anything so awful. I blushed for him. He kept right away from the question of the L.C.C. altogether. The only decent man there, for though Mr Whittiker Hampson speaks well, I wouldn't trust him, was Mr Hume-Williams who opposed Mr Stanger at the Parliamentary Elections. He is a gentleman and speaks well, but he was not convincing – none of them were – they all talked nonsense – have no programme of work at all to bring forward. Their great cry is 'give us a chance' and they tell awful stories about the rates, which have really nothing to do with the County Council. It will be a real grief to me if those two dreadful people get in.
John, a thoroughly conservative spirit, doggedly tory, to the backbone was quite turned over by them though he thinks he upholds their views. I do so hate him to be a 'Moderate' thinker. We came back and talked them over and laughed merrily at their expense till John had to go at 11 o'clock.
Wednesday February 27th 1907
When I got home at 5 o'clock I found a note and bundle from Gladys Wright asking me to deliver some Women's Suffragist things. So after tea Agnes went out with me and we did Arundel Gardens and Elgin Crescent – a tremendous number of Women Voters in both. They were papers urging the Women to use their Vote. I feel rather shaky as they are sure to Vote Conservative but that is a cowardly way of looking at the matter, I know.
Thursday February 28th 1907
Went off to the [North Kensington Liberal] Club – Mother, Agnes and Florence [the Fryes' maid] were there – and the room was full. Miss Jephson, Miss Doake, Mr McArthur, Mr Lewis, Mr Hatt and the usual workers and lots of people I did not know all working at top speed.
The great London County Council Election day at last and, very fortunately, a beautiful day for it. I should have been canvassing all this week, much as I hate the work – but I am so interested in the Election – but I have felt so awfully seedy I simply hadn't the strength for it…Agnes and I went to the Pembridge Ward Committee Room and got some work to do. I had Westbourne Grove to do and it took me till 4.30. Mother and Agnes went together. I got so tired I felt nearly dead when I had taken the cards back and came home to tea. But I couldn't rest and after tea Mother and I walked up to the Golborne Ward Committee Room.
It is depressing work in this Ward. There is no enthusiasm – but up there there was very little excitement amongst the workers – and my heart sank though most of them were cheerful. We saw Mr Jephson in the Committee Room. Miss Jephson, Mrs and Miss Doake, Mrs Willis and lots of workers. Mr Jephson was flying about madly in his Motor Car. Mother and I did three streets – Blagrove Road and two other long ones and kept on till within a few minutes of eight o'clock.
I got so excited and interested that I don't know how I managed to keep going as I did. I did feel ill but I did some good work. Got one woman to vote who had never used her vote before. I had almost to hold her by force and interest her by telling her how I worked to get a vote. She decided she would go if she was driven. So I sent Mother off to find a carriage and I waited and hung on to her. It was so long coming I flew into the middle of the road and managed to stop Mr Jephson's car almost by main force it seemed to me – but just then Mrs Widgery drove up in a carriage and she took the woman and a man who went to look after her.
Sunday March 3rd 1907
Florence brought me the news and later the paper. Jephson and Pope beaten and the whole of London swept clear by the Moderates. 'God help London' I say since London does not seem inclined to help itself.
Campaigning for the Vote: Kate Parry Frye's Suffrage Diary edited by Elizabeth Crawford
For a full description of the book click here
Wrap-around paper covers, 226 pp, over 70 illustrations, all drawn from Kate Frye's personal archive.
Copies available from Francis Boutle Publishers, or from Elizabeth Crawford – email@example.com (£14.99 +UK postage £3. Please ask for international postage cost), or from all good bookshops. In stock at London Review of Books Bookshop, Foyles, National Archives Bookshop.
Kate Frye's Diary: 'Paddington Pandemonium'
Posted by womanandhersphere in Kate Frye's suffrage diary on August 23, 2012
In the following diary entry Kate describes the pandemonium that occurred at a December 1907 suffrage meeting organised by the North Kensington Local Committee of the Central Society for Women's Suffrage – the non-militant London NUWSS society – chaired by Mrs Millicent Fawcett. From Kate's account the main culprits were medical students from nearby St Mary's Hospital and from University College Hospital in Bloomsbury, such student having had, through the ages, a reputation for unruly behaviour. From Kate's observation, the stories of stinkbombs and the release of mice, specifically intended to upset the genteel female audience at suffrage meetings, were all too true.
Lady Grove (1862 -1926) was a leading Liberal suffragist and author of The Human Woman, 1908. The Paddington Baths, in Queen's Road, Bayswater, were soon to be demolished to make way for an enlarged Whiteley's department store.
Thursday 5th December 1907 [25 Arundel Gardens, North Kensington]
'At 2 o'clock Agnes and I started off to Linden Gardens and called for Alexandra Wright and several of her helpers and we all walked to the Paddington Baths to help arrange the room for the meeting in the evening. There was a good bit to do – numbering the chairs – partitioning them off and hanging up banners and posters etc. Left [home again] just before 7 o'clock in a bus to Royal Oak and went to the Paddington Baths for the London (Central) Society's meeting for Women's Suffrage. Gladys and Alexandra have been weeks getting it up and I did no end of clerical work for it at Bourne End. We were the first Stewards to arrive after Gladys and Alexandra and were decorated with rosettes and given our directions. Lots of the women were very nervous of a row. My department was the gallery, to look after people up there and give invitations for a private meeting next week.
The people came in thick and fast and the doors were opened at 7.30 and with the first group of young men below in the free seats I knew what would happen. The place was soon hot, bubbling over with excitement, and I had my work cut out keeping gangways clear and looking after people and telling them they would be safe. We had expected an exciting evening but this realised our worst expectations. It was Bedlam let loose. A couple of hundred students from St Mary's and University College Hospitals arrived and insisted on sitting together and never ceased all the evening singing, shouting, blowing tin trumpets, letting off crackers, letting loose mice and, what is worse, scenting the floor with a most terrible-smelling chemical.
From the very start they never gave a single speaker a moments hearing. Mrs Fawcett was in the Chair and Lady Groveand others spoke and they went on with the meeting to the bitter end – and bitter it must have been to the speakers. I never heard a word. I felt too angry to be frightened though I must own I did not like the fireworks and saw the most appalling possibilities in that frantic howling mob of mad animals. Agnes owns to being terrified – all the more credit to her for sticking to her place amongst them and she was with them all the evening. I felt mad at not being there in the midst of them. When I could leave I just went down and spoke to John, who I saw standing near Agnes. She had decorated him as a Steward to help in case the worst happened.
I went back to my post until I was no longer any good there and then I went into the very midst of the seething mass and talked to any of them I could get at. Just to silence them, as I did for a few minutes at a time, was a triumph. Cries of 'Oh I think I like Suffragettes' as I went amongst them and, then, 'He is flirting with a Suffragette' taken up and sung by them all. I spoke like a Mother to several and smiled at them. If they had only known my true feelings I don't think they would have been so polite to me. Great credit to all the women in the building is due – not only the Stewards – but the audience there. There was never any excitement or panic amongst them and only one Stewardess failed us. She, poor thing, was so terrified she bolted without waiting for hat or coat – but of course we keep that dark. The men Stewards were very good but quite powerless to stop the noise and hubbub. And what could four policemen do? It was an organised 'Rag' and nothing but a force of police to outnumber them could have stopped them. They longed for a fight and said so – and no end of them had most terrible looking clubbed sticks which they brandished. We did the only possible thing, I consider. Kept as much order as we could and tried to avoid bloodshed. We had a little unfortunately when, after the meeting was over, they charged for the Platform, sweeping everyone before them. Very fortunately there were large exit doors each side of the platform and most of the people got out of them. I was flung aside and then followed them up. They tore down as many banners as they could and stole one and tore down all the posters. They were like wild cats. The policemen chased them round a little but we would not allow any arrests to be made. The firework ringleader was caught but allowed to go. I spoke to Mrs Wright – red with rage. Poor things, we were all either red or white. Mr Willis, Mrs and Miss Doake and several others. Mr Percy Harris was Stewarding. One man Steward got a most awful crack on the ear and was considerably blooded – he looked awful. Several of the boys had their collars torn off and became very proud in consequence. It was a great wonder and a still greater mercy that more damage was not done. I felt so responsible for the ordinary public who had paid their money. I could only hope to get over the evening safely for their sakes. Personally I wished and still wish to smash the Boys, though at times I could not help laughing. They were not nice boys – all plain and common looking – mostly undersized and no gentlemanly looking one amongst them. I was glad to notice that as I hope they are not the best we can show in our hospitals.
After the general public had gone the police sent word that it was impossible to clear the hall while there was a woman left in it so we left with Mrs and Miss Doake and all came back in the bus with Mrs Willis. Miss Doake said she had never enjoyed a night so much in her life before. I cannot say the same. It was a terrible experience. We could not lose that terrible smell from our noses and mouths. I could taste it through everything at supper. John came home with us and did not leave till after 12o'clock. Agnes and I were too excited to go to bed and sat talking of our experiences. Lots of people will be made all the keener through it, but a great many will be very disgusted I fear.'
As you can see from this note, carefully preserved by Kate, Mrs Fawcett's meeting was re-arranged for early 1908 – to be held in the safety of Bertha Mason's house in nearby Hyde Park Square.
Campaigning for the Vote: Kate Parry Frye's Suffrage Diary edited by Elizabeth Crawford
For a full description of the book click here
Wrap-around paper covers, 226 pp, over 70 illustrations, all drawn from Kate Frye's personal archive.
Copies available from Francis Boutle Publishers, or from Elizabeth Crawford – email@example.com (£14.99 +UK postage £3. Please ask for international postage cost), or from all good bookshops. In stock at London Review of Books Bookshop, Foyles, National Archives Bookshop.
Collecting Suffrage: Punch cartoon
Posted by womanandhersphere in Collecting Suffrage on August 8, 2012
21 January 1912 – full page – 'The Suffrage Split'. Sir George Askwith (the charismatic industrial conciliator), as 'Fairy Peacemaker', has tamed the dragon of the Cotton Strike – and Asquith, wrestling to keep a seat on the Cabinet horse turns to him 'Now that you've charmed yon dragon I shall need ye to stop the strike inside this fractious gee-gee.'
In very good condition £10 plus £1 postage.
To buy contact: firstname.lastname@example.com
Suffrage Stories: 'Madame Mantalini'
Posted by womanandhersphere in 1911 Census, Suffrage Stories, The Garretts and their Circle on July 30, 2012
Since 2009, when details of the 1911 census were released, I have (with, for a time, Dr Jill Liddington) been investigating how the women of the country responded to the call issued by the more militant suffrage societies to boycott the census. In the process I have discovered women of a suffrage inclination of whom, until now, suffrage history has known nothing.
One of these was a 'Miss S. Marsden', whose census form was delivered to her at 69 Church Street, Kensington, and who refused the enumerator any details about herself. However, Miss Marsden did not leave the form blank, writing on it one of the longest statements that I have so far encountered. Although the right edge of the census form is badly damaged, creating gaps in her comments, I think we can get the gist.
'I, Mdme Mantalini, a municipal voter and tax payer, refuse to fill in this census paper, as I have no intention of furnishing this government with information and thereby helping them to legislate for women without obtaining their consent or first consulting them in the [missing words] effective way possible & extending the franchise to duly qualified women. As a responsible, law-abiding citizen I have conducted my business for sixteen years; as an employer of labour I have [contributed?] to the wealth of the state and in return I have been taxed for the upkeep of no 10 Downing Street. No 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the prime minister, but converted by his wife into a show-room for a French [dress maker?] (free of all duty and taxation) to exhibit his Paris models and take orders from them to be executed in Paris. I [missing words] with very few exceptions the dressmaking establishments in England are all owned by women, & only women & [missing words] workers. It therefore comes to this, that the only way open to us to protest at 'our trade' being ruined in [missing words] our taxes, is to drive home to the government by every method available that women are determined [missing words – perhaps 'not to be governed'] without their consent.'
Would that not whet any researcher's appetite? Who was Miss Marsden/Mdme Mantalini? What had Margot Asquith been up to?
In fact the second question was the easier to answer. An inspection of The Times archive revealed that in May 1909 Margot Asquith had been called to task by drapers' associations from around the country for inviting the Parisian designer Paul Poiret to show dresses in 10 Downing Street.
Poiret then was the epitome of chic – designing dresses that relied on draping, rather than tailoring – so much easier to wear – and promoting hobble skirts, harem pants and kimono coats – designs such as these.
In response to a letter of complaint from an MP, Mrs Asquith explained, 'I received in my private rooms at tea from 20 to 25 of my personal friends and a well-known French costumier, whose models can be bought in any London shop, brought some specimens for the inspection of myself and my guests. It was a purely personal occasion.' In fact, such was the rumpus, that henceforward Margot Asquith was obliged to patronize British costumiers, such as Lucile although probably not, I fear, Madame Mantalini.
I thought at first that when Miss Marsden referred to herself on the census paper as 'Mdme Mantalini' it was merely as short-hand to describe her position as a dressmaker – that being the name of the dressmaking establishment at which, in Nicholas Nickleby, Kate Nickleby is apprenticed. But, consulting my 1908 London street directory, I found that the shop at 69 Church Street (which is still there) was, indeed, that of 'Mrs Sybil Mantalini'. It was then only a short step to establish that Mrs Mantalini was, in fact, Miss Sybil Marsden, who was on the London Electoral Register by dint of her occupation of those premises, and the question of' 'Who was Miss S. Marsden?' was solved.
But now I was hooked. Who was Miss Sybil Marsden? Why was she such an outspoken dressmaker?
I discovered that she had 9 siblings and in 1911 was living at the family home, 82 RedcliffeGardens in South Kensington, with her mother and one unmarried sister. Her father, Algernon Moses Marsden, had been a fine art dealer but, by 1901, had been declared bankrupt several times. His background was most interesting; he had declined to enter the family's successful clothing business, clearly preferring the more elevated association with 'art'.
Marsden was by all accounts – mainly in the bankruptcy reports – an engaging fellow – as is evident in the portrait of him by James Tissot, painted in 1877, when Sybil was four-years-old. At that time Marsden was Tissot's dealer, but gambling and high-living proved his downfall. It would appear that after his final bankruptcy in 1901 he removed himself to New York, where he died in 1920. I can now see that the choice of the name 'Madame Mantalini' may have been even more to the point than I first thought. In Nicholas Nickleby it is Mr Mantalini's extravagance that resulted in the bankruptcy of his wife's business – an awful warning to Sybil Marsden. No wonder Algernon's daughter had little faith in the ability of men to manage her affairs.
The cinéaste members of my family play the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game (whereby any named film actor has to be connected with fellow-actor KB by links covering no more than 6 films). I am hopeless at that – but think I might be a contender in Six Degrees of Garrett. This particular case is easy: Sybil Marsden, Algernon Marsden, James Tissot, J.M. Brydon, Agnes and Rhoda Garrett. As I discuss in Enterprising Women: the Garrets and their circle, the two young women were undergoing their architectural training with Brydon in 1873, at a time when he was working on the design of a new studio for Tissot, attached to the artist's St John's Wood house. Did they go on a site visit? Had they perhaps even seen in the flesh, as it were, the tiger skin and the fashionable blue vase, that serve to emphasise Algenon Marsden's exoticism and good taste.
Kate Frye's Suffrage Diary: 3 December 1906
Posted by womanandhersphere in Kate Frye's suffrage diary on July 26, 2012
Kate's family had always taken an interest in politics; her father had been Liberal MP for North Kensington in the 1890s and into the 20th century her mother was the president of the North Kensington Women's Liberal Association. However, the meeting described below is the first occasion that Kate mentions in her diary her attendance at a specifically 'suffrage' meeting and of the disturbances that had been caused by the WSPU's 'rowdy attacks'.
At 8 o'clock [evening] Agnes [Kate's elder sister] and I went off to KensingtonTown Hall to a Woman's Suffrage meeting – got up by the Central Society. Lady Frances Balfour was presiding. We went by bus – when we got there the large hall was packed. Alexandra Wright was at the top of the stairs and directed us up to the overflow meeting and that was packed too. After a bit the speakers came in to us – the Hon Mrs Bertrand Russell, Miss Gore Booth, Lady Frances Balfour and Mr Cameron Corbett M.P. I heard excellent speeches all of them – they really did put the case in a nutshell and were most instructive and interesting.
Then Gladys Wright came and fetched me out and came and asked me to act as a Steward and collect – then later she went in for Agnes – and we both did what we could. We collected in the Gallery first – then later I was stationed to get the people as they came out. It was very amusing really – and I got so hot and excited – off my head with it – we certainly are in the thick of things always. Some of the people gave a lot – others shook their heads and frowned. One man said I wanted too much – to marry as well as a Vote. I had quite a flirtation on the stairs with a big smart young man – who stopped to ask me a question – he didn't seem to know anything about anything and when he said the speaker had referred to Earl Percy as 'half asleep' – I said 'That is true about a great many people' – he did laugh.
I am afraid I felt I was more like a helper at a Bazaar than at so grave a thing as a Woman's Suffrage Meeting – but then it is so hard for me to be serious about anything – but I am in earnest – I really do feel a great belief in the need of the Vote for Women if only as a means of Education. I feel my prayer for Women in the words of George Meredith 'More brains, Oh Lord, more brains.' But we are coming along and not slowly by any means. Of course all these rowdy attacks on the Ministers and these imprisonments have sounded coarse and unpleasant and the jokery made of it most bad for the cause – but women have waited patiently for so long the sort of women who have gone for the matter in this rowdy method are not the best educated or most refined amongst our members.
At this meeting every thing passed off in a most orderly dignified spirit – and the speeches from the women were delightful and must have come as a revelation to many of the audience. There was a declaration there for any working woman there who cared to sign – a number did – I did – as I have a profession [Kate was a rather unsuccessful actress]. Naturally they don't want crowds of names without any meaning or strength in them. We came home after hearing the amount collected nearly £20 – about the cost of getting up a meeting – the reason for the collection. Bus to Notting Hill – got in soon after 10.30 – in a frenzy of excitement.
Campaigning for the Vote: Kate Parry Frye's Suffrage Diary edited by Elizabeth Crawford
For a full description of the book click here
Wrap-around paper covers, 226 pp, over 70 illustrations, all drawn from Kate Frye's personal archive.
Copies available from Francis Boutle Publishers, or from Elizabeth Crawford – email@example.com (£14.99 +UK postage £3. Please ask for international postage cost), or from all good bookshops. In stock at London Review of Books Bookshop, Foyles, National Archives Bookshop.
Suffragette postcards: suffragettes and policemen 2
Posted by womanandhersphere in Collecting Suffrage on July 25, 2012
Here is another card in the 'Philco Series', titled 'SUFFRAGETTES ARE GOING ABOUT STICKING BILLS IN PROMINENT PLACES' and in this particular case that is pasting a 'Votes for Women' on the back of a policeman, who is in the process of accosting another bill-sticking suffragette. Needless to say the women are the usual stereotypical trilby-wearing, bespectacled harradens. In the scene a pillar box and a dog have also been plastered with V f W posters. The message on the reverse – written in pencil from the same sender to the same recipient as that of the card in the previous 'Collecting Suffrage' post – that is Win to Mrs James – reads 'And the best of wishes for a happy Christmas. The suffragettes what and how they do things in London.' Very good – unposted £45 post free. NOW SOLD
Suffragette postcards: suffragettes and policemen
Posted by womanandhersphere in Collecting Suffrage on July 24, 2012
The increased activity of the women's suffrage campaign in the early years of the 20th century coincided with the golden age of the postcard. It proved to be a subject very popular with the burgeoning number of commercial postcard publishers and cards with a 'suffragette' theme outnumber those relating to other contemporary campaigns – such as Tariff Reform and Home Rule.
Without too much effort, anyone interested can still build up a collection of cards reflecting the varying views of Edwardian society on women's desire for citizenship – and their methods of achieving it. The suffrage societies themselves all produced cards – portraits of their leaders or photographs of great suffrage occasions – although they are vastly outnumbered by cards produced by the commercial publishers.
The incongruence of women battling with policemen – as on 'Black Friday' in November 1910 – certainly caught the publishers' attention and there are many variations on the theme. This card was published by Philco Publishers, whose office was in Holborn Place – very close to WSPU headquarters. This card was not posted but is written to 'Mrs James'. The message reads 'I do not know what you will think of this. But this is suffragettes in vengeance and in their battle array.'
The stereotypical harridan (trilby hat, glasses, high-colouring, big nose) wearing 'Votes for Women' sash wields her umbrella as she kicks a policeman. In the background another, similar, scene is enacted. There is a tall clock tower – which might just be intended as Big Ben – at the very back of the scene, attached to a misty building. This card, which is in good condition, was one of a series. It is available for sale from me: £45 post free. NOW SOLD
See the August 2012 issue of BBC History Magazine for Prof June Purvis's article on 'suffragette' cards published by commercial publishers and click here for details of her very interesting and informative accompanying podcast (June's piece begins 20 minutes into the recording).