As we women make our way to the polling stations to cast our votes in the various elections being held today – Thursday 7 May 2026 – spare a thought for the efforts made by women 120 years ago to get into Parliament – by hook or by crook.
For c. 1907 it was definitely by subterfuge that the suffragettes depicted in ‘The Suffragettes’ Ruse & How Bobby Peeler Foiled Them’ – a set of ten lantern slides – sought to infiltrate the Palace of Westminster.
Their nefarious plan was to hide in barrels onboard Thames barges and when they reached Westminster to be unloaded onto the Terrace and storm the House of Commons.
But, alas, their plan was foiled by two burly policemen who, alert to the inability of women to resist the joys of a ‘fashion paper’, entice them out of hiding and haul them off to Cannon Row police station. But, as we all know, these women and their kind lived to fight another day.
This set of slides once passed through my hands – and my catalogue. My research – via The Lucerna Magic Lantern Web Resource (University of Exeter) – revealed that the set was manufactured no later than 1907 by York & Son, based in Bayswater, London. One of the partners, William York, was a ‘photographic artist’ and may possibly have been responsible for this topical number. I had never before or since seen this set -or, indeed, any other suffragette lantern-slide story. In fact, ‘The Suffragettes’ Ruse’ is the only suffrage-related item on the Lucerna website.
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In The British Women’s Suffrage Movement in 100 Objects: a material history – to be published in July – you can discover how all manner of objects were caused to be created in the furtherance of the campaign for ‘Votes for Women’. You can pre-order the book – at an enticing reduced price – here .
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