Votes for Women! Inspiration in words and pictures.

Alongside other notable suffrage purchases, the University of Manchester Library has recently acquired two very visual examples of suffrage memorabilia. The first [fig.1] is an Illuminated printed address signed by the doyenne of women’s suffrage and Manchester native, Emmeline Pankhurst.

Presented to one Alice Roberts, it reads:

 “On behalf of all women who will win freedom by the bondage which you have endured for their sake…We, the Members of the Women’s Social and Political Union, herewith express our deep sense of admiration for your courage…in enduring a long period of privation and solitary confinement in prison for the ‘Votes for Women’ Cause…”

fig. 1. VFA.101, Illuminated printed address signed by Emmeline Pankhurst, [September 1908 onwards].

These printed addresses were presented by the WSPU (Women’s Social and Political Union) to women who had endured imprisonment in Holloway; at that time a female-only prison.  Bestowed on them at their release, the certificates were a testament to the bravery they had shown for the suffrage cause. The certificates date from September 1908 onwards and from 1909 they were usually accompanied by the ‘Holloway Brooch’ [fig.2]. The silver brooch incorporated the stark and spiked portcullis along with the broad arrow, which was a symbol of government property used on prison uniforms, in the suffragette colours of purple, white, and green. The historic use of the portcullis as an emblem of the Houses of Parliament means that this deceptively simple design cleverly references both the imprisonment of women and the continued political fight to change the law in Westminster.

fig. 2. Holloway Prison brooch designed by Sylvia Pankhurst in 1909. Image © National Museums Scotland.

The powerful designs of both the brooch and the address are of course the work of Sylvia Pankhurst, daughter of Emmeline and sister of Christabel. Sylvia was an outstanding artist who trained at the Manchester School of Art, and Pankhurst’s works are now in the collections of both the National Portrait Gallery and the Tate.  The certificate proudly bears the ‘Angel of Freedom’ device which is clearly recognisable on many other WSPU products such as pamphlets, jewellery, and even on tea-sets. A related blog about the WSPU as masters of their own branding can be found here.

The address has clearly suffered some damage over the years, with pieces missing most notably from the head of the certificate. The gold has been somewhat dulled, but again, a gilded portcullis and a broad arrow are clearly visible in the decorative margins. The only colours alongside the gold are purple and green on the white background, ensuring that the suffragette colours are woven sympathetically into the design.

Sylvia parted ways with the WSPU in 1914 as her activism leant towards equality for all, rather than a commitment to the suffrage cause [1], but her contribution to the movement will always remain visible.

Our second item is a bleakly humorous publication. A collaboration between members of the Women Writers’ Suffrage League and the Artists’ Suffrage League (ASL) from c.1910 titled ‘Beware! A Warning to Suffragists…’ It is rhyme by Cicely Hamilton, one of the founders of the Women Writers’ Suffrage League with illustrations to the text by members of the ASL; Mary Lowndes, Dora Meeson Coates, and Charlotte Hedley Charlton.

fig.3, R243501, HAMILTON (CICELY) Beware! A Warning to Suffragists, FIRST EDITION, Artists’ Suffrage League, c.1910

The illustration on the front wrapper [fig.3] is by Charlotte Hedley Charlton, an artist and illustrator who commonly used just her first initial (as many other working professional women did) to make her working name more gender neutral [2].  The image almost mimics the glorious commercial posters designed by Alphonse Mucha. Mucha’s graphic art featured beautiful women in exquisite dresses, bathed in swirling colour along with bold modern text. Charlton’s monochrome woman stands in prison dress, a stark empty space around her, in which sits only the warning text. A chain wrapped around the woman provides a nod to the swirling shape favoured by the Art Nouveau designers. It is another striking image that has quiet impact on the viewer.

Cicely Hamilton, the author of the work was also an activist and an actress. Her most notable work as a writer is the feminist play ‘How the Vote was Won’ (1909), which sees a male anti-suffragist change his mind when the women around him go on strike. Hamilton also composed the lyrics for ‘The March of the Women’, a song composed by Ethel Smyth in 1910, [3] which became the official anthem of the Women’s Social and Political Union and then the general anthem of the British suffrage movement. It was sung in prisons by women on hunger strike to raise their spirits and at suffrage rallies across the United Kingdom.

fig.4. R243501, HAMILTON (CICELY) Beware! A Warning to Suffragists, FIRST EDITION, Artists’ Suffrage League, c.1910.

The simple rhyming verse in ‘Beware! A Warning to Suffragists…’ gives a mocking nursery quality to the text, highlighting the infantilised nature of women in the eyes of patriarchal society.  The text and image above [fig.4] combining Hamilton and Charlton’s efforts show how suffragists who had been imprisoned for a political cause were considered petulant, childish and demanding.

Both these new works add further depth to our collections here and help us understand how women bringing their creative talents together helped to inspire, provoke and galvanise women to the suffrage cause.

All images unless otherwise stated are copyright of the University of Manchester and can be used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike Licence.

[1] https://www.pankhurstmuseum.com/the-pankhurst-family 

[2] https://map.mappingwomenssuffrage.org.uk/items/show/350

[3] Hamilton [née Hammill], (Mary) Cicely at the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography https://shorturl.at/BYmZb