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Inez Milholland Boissevain: Who Died for the Freedom of Women
Lawyer, journalist, socialist, reformer and activist Inez Milholland Boissevain became an icon and martyr for the suffrage movement. She had an electrifying public presence that could move crowds. In 1913, on the day before Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration, she mounted a white horse and led 8,000 marchers in a suffrage parade. By 1916, she had become one of the highest-profile leaders of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage. While on a grueling speaking tour to twelve western states, she fell ill but refused to cancel her engagements. She collapsed at the podium in Los Angeles and died days later. -
Vote Yes on the Woman Suffrage Amendment November 2
This large poster was printed to get out the vote for the suffrage referenda held in Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania on 2 November 1915. The posters were printed by the Empire State Campaign Committee and hung in New York City’s theaters. -
Letter to Lady Constance [Georgina Bulwer-Lytton]
Emmeline Pankhurst was arrested several times for her militant actions. She wrote this letter about the notorious Holloway Gaol, where she had been on hunger strike and was force-fed. The letter’s recipient, fellow suffragette Lady Constance Lytton, came from one of Britain’s leading families. She had sent Pankhurst a book. Pankhurst writes, “I was allowed to have a wardress with me all night for I was very weak & ill & I gave it to her to read. It was strange to watch her absorbed in reading as I lay on the floor wondering what would happen on the morrow.” -
The Suffragette
Christabel Pankhurst was the oldest daughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, the founder of the Women's Social and Political Union. In 1905, she and Annie Kenney carried out the WSPU’s first militant act when they were arrested for disrupting an election meeting. Under the direction of the Pankhursts, WSPU’s tactics became increasingly militant and violent. The Pethick-Lawrences opposed this escalation, and the Pankhursts forced them out. Christabel took over as editor of Votes for Women and changed the newspaper’s name to The Suffragette. -
Manuscript narrative of the Great Pilgrimage of 1913
National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies member Alice Margery New joined fifty thousand women and men from across England in the Great Pilgrimage of 1913. It was the largest public demonstration in British history. The NUWSS organized the pilgrimage and march to demonstrate the depth and breadth of support for women’s suffrage. It was the organizers’ intention that their orderly and dignified pilgrimage would serve as a counterpoint to the militant activities of the Women's Social and Political Union. As they traveled and campaigned for the vote, they were frequently met with hostility and violence. Alice New traveled from Birkenhead to London, nearly two hundred miles. -
Robinson & Cleaver, Swan & Edgar, Swears & Wells, White House Linen Specialists, and T. J. Harries & Co. v. Frederick Pethick Lawrence, Emmeline Pethick Lawrence, Emmeline Pankhurst, Christabel Pankhurst, and Mabel Tuke, [1912] EWHC K.B. 1317, 2595, 2148, 1121 (Deposition)
Wealthy aristocrats Frederick and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence were leaders in the Women's Social and Political Union and the editors of its journal Votes for Women. Their home became WSPU’s London headquarters. In 1912, they were arrested along with other WSPU leaders on charges of conspiracy to commit damage after a window smashing campaign in West London. They were sentenced to nine months in jail, during which they went on hunger strike and were force-fed. The deposition is part of the Pethick-Lawrence papers and is annotated. -
[Certificate honoring Rosa May Billinghurst]
Militant suffragette Rosa May Billinghurst was a member of the Women's Social and Political Union. A childhood illness had paralyzed her from the waist down. Known as the “cripple suffragette,” she campaigned riding on a hand-powered tricycle and in a wheelchair. Billinghurst founded and led the Greenwich Branch of the WSPU and participated in window-smashing, hunger strikes, and other types of direct action. She was arrested several times and force-fed on at least one occasion. This printed certificate from the WSPU, signed by Emmeline Pankhurst and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, thanks her for contributions to the fight for women’s suffrage. The certificate was designed by Sylvia Pankhurst, with the Angel of Freedom, jail portcullis, broad arrow, and other suffrage symbolism. The WSPU gave these certificates to suffragettes after their release from jail. -
[“Justice” march banner]
This parade banner was made by sisters Dorothy, Maud, and Monica Harvey for “The Great Procession of Women” of 18 June 1910. The reverse reads “No Taxation Without Representation.” This march was sponsored by the Women's Social and Political Union and the Women’s Freedom League. Over fifteen thousand women and men marched peacefully through London. Banners served as rallying points and commentary, while also providing natural dividers to organize the mass of protesters. In making the banners, the activists used a traditionally female art form to challenge the limits placed on women in the political sphere. -
[WSPU tea service]
Commissioned by the Women’s Social and Political Union and designed by Sylvia Pankhurst, this tea service was originally made for use in the Tea Room of the first WSPU fundraising bazaar at the 1909 Women’s Exhibition in London. At the close of the exhibition, the remaining pieces were assembled into tea sets and sold. Pankhurst designed devices and symbols for the WSPU, as well as their membership card. Her “Angel of Freedom” design incorporates prison bars, thistles, shamrocks, roses, and chains. The collection includes eighteen pieces from this set, more than any other collection holds. -
Beware! A Warning to Suffragists
In 1908, actress and writer Cicely Hamilton founded the Women’s Writers’ Suffrage League with Bessie Haton, choosing to fight for suffrage with their pens rather than by direct action. Her suffrage plays were a great success. In Beware!, printed by the Women’s Printing Society, her ironic poems are illustrated with drawings by Mary Lowndes, Dora Meeson Coates, and C. Hedley Charlton. They were all members of the Artists’ Suffrage League, which was founded by siblings Clemence and Lawrence Housman. There are two copies in the collection. -
[“Votes for Women” scarf]
This pristine silk motor scarf was sold in London before the Women's Social and Political Union's “Woman’s Sunday” March on 21 June 1908. The government had challenged the suffrage movement to show numbers, and more than 250,000 activists traveled to Hyde Park to join the demonstration. Women were urged to wear their colors and they flocked to stores for merchandise in the WSPU’s signature purple, white and green. Christabel Pankhurst noted that if the government still refused to act, the WSPU would be obliged to increase its militant actions. -
News of the World: Suffragettes in Gaol, Amazing Scene in House of Parliament [...]
This broadsheet lists the headlines for the Sunday, 28 October 1906 issue of News of the World. On 23 October, 150 WSPU members had arrived at Westminister, each asking to see a member of Parliament. Only twenty were admitted, and during the conflict that followed ten suffragettes were arrested. They were later convicted and sentenced to two months in Holloway Gaol. As hoped, the sentences made the newspapers. -
Women's Suffrage Deputation: Received by the Prime Minister, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, on Saturday, May 19th, 1906, at the Foreign Office
British Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman agreed to meet with representatives from the suffrage movement on 19 May 1906. This National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies publication reprints the speeches delivered by Members of Parliament and representatives of over 1,000 women from 25 groups and institutions. The organizations listed demonstrate the Women's Social and Political Union’s success in bringing working class women into the movement. At the meeting, the Prime Minister revealed that he could not overcome his cabinet’s opposition to woman suffrage. This item is part of the Emmeline and Frederick Pethick-Lawrence Papers. -
[“Woman Suffrage Party” sash]
Sashes were ubiquitous during suffrage parades and demonstrations. Large groups of women wearing sashes, white dresses and hats made a powerful visual statement about public support for votes for women. But activists could wear them at any time or for any occasion. This sash is in the yellow of the American Woman Suffrage Party. The mark near the fold is likely a cigarette burn. -
[Woman’s suffrage campaign realia]
The Lisa Unger Baskin Collection includes a wide selection of American and British suffrage pins. Activists were encouraged to “show your colors all day long” and have the “courage of their convictions.” The black on gold “Votes for Women” button was the most widely used design in the United States. Note the pins for Catholic, Welsh, and men’s organizations. Goods promoting the cause included badges, ribbons, jewelry, and even mechanical pencils. American and British activists borrowed designs from each other and adapted them as needed. -
Letter to Sarah M’Clintock
Mary Ann M’Clintock was a Quaker and founded the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society. Her house in Waterloo, New York, was a stop on the underground railroad. In her home, over tea, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth M’Clintock, Martha Coffin Wright, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton met in 1848 and decided to call a convention for Women’s Rights. They drafted the Declaration of Sentiments on M’Clintock’s tea table over the course of two days. At the end of this letter to M’Clintock’s daughter, Stanton inquires “Would you sell the table on which the Declaration was written and what would you ask for it?” She did purchase the table. -
[Portrait of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton]
Stanton and Anthony first met in 1851 at an anti-slavery meeting in Seneca Falls. Stanton was one of the leading philosophers of suffrage and human rights, while Anthony organized volunteers and directed the campaigns. When their efforts to have women’s suffrage included in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments failed, they established the National Woman Suffrage Association in 1869. In this portrait Stanton is wearing a dress with a pattern of chains, a powerful symbol that was adopted by both the anti-slavery and women’s suffrage movements. -
Rights of Women under the Late Constitutional Amendments
Judge Henry R. Selden advised Susan B. Anthony that she had the right to vote. When she was subsequently arrested for voting, he represented her in court. He later published the text of his argument. This is Judge Selden’s personal copy. -
Letter to Judge Henry R. Selden
Judge Henry R. Selden had advised Susan B. Anthony that she had the right to vote. When she was subsequently arrested for voting, Selden represented her in court. In this letter, Anthony urges him to send the text of his argument so that it could be published in time for the upcoming National Woman Suffrage Association convention. She wrote the postscript to the letter on a flyer for a mass meeting of the New York Woman’s Suffrage Society. The collection includes Judge Selden’s own copy of the final printed version of his argument. -
The Revolution
The Revolution (1868–1872) was the first weekly newspaper devoted to women’s rights. Founded by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton as the official publication of the National Woman Suffrage Association, The Revolution helped bring national attention back to the women’s rights movement in the aftermath of the Civil War. The paper’s circulation was modest, but its impact was broad. It was an important part of the NWSA’s efforts to attract working-class women, using columns on unionization, discrimination against female workers, and other pertinent topics to attract and hold their interest. The collection holds the most complete run of this groundbreaking publication.
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