Posts Tagged suffragist
The British Women’s Suffrage Movement in 100 Objects: a material history – FORTHCOMING IN JULY
Posted by womanandhersphere in British Women's Suffrage Campaign in 100 Objects on February 9, 2026
I had no thought of producing another book when, one day in October 2023, I opened up my laptop, ready to watch an online auction mounted by Bonhams. This Votes for Women sale was devoted to suffrage memorabilia from the collection put together by a couple I’ve known ever since I began dealing in books and ephemera in the mid-1980s. I had no intention of bidding for anything in the auction as by 2023 the prices reached for suffrage material at such auctions had soared into the stratosphere. But, naturally, I took a professional interest in seeing what was up for sale – and the prices they would achieve. And I had a personal interest in that some of the items were ones I had myself sold to the vendors many years ago.
Watching the bidding was absorbing, but as the sale progressed I realised I was experiencing a niggling conflict between what might be termed my instinct as a trader and my instinct as an historian. Bonhams had organised the lots in the sale in a way as to appeal to bidders, grouping together items of a similar type, such as textile rosettes or china or badges or books – but this arrangement by no means coincided with what I knew to be the dates of their production. In my mind I was itching to reorder the lots into an historically coherent order. Well, there lay the germ of an idea …and it slowly gained traction..and, in due course, a publishing contract with Bloomsbury Academic. The result of my labours will be published in July.
For the book tells the story of the British ‘votes for women’ campaign in a sequence of 100 objects. From the beginning of the campaign in 1866 until all women were granted the vote on the same terms as men in 1928, women used every means in their power to persuade the government to allow them the right to elect members of parliament. Through the analysis of an astonishing array of objects – including books, bags, petitions, posters, plays, photographs, china, leaflets, newspapers, games, jewellery, sashes, films, and figurines – all of which are illustrated – The British Women’s Suffrage Movement in 100 Objects explores the role that material culture played in this vital struggle. Each of the 100 objects is illustrated, the accompanying text setting it in its context to explain the campaign’s politics and the part played by key personalities.
I must say that when I began work on the book it had not occurred to me that the suggestion could be voiced in any western democracy that women should be relieved of the right to the vote. But, that day having come, although not yet here, there is all the more reason for understanding why and how British women won that right.
The book will be published in July in paperback at £24.99. To discover more details – as set out on the Bloomsbury website – including a special pre-order price and some most heart-warming reviews from readers who have viewed the text of the book in advance – see here.
My cup overflows – in that Bloomsbury will only accommodate six endorsements on their webpage – and nine readers were kind enough to give feedback on the book. I, as blushingly as self-promotion permits, set out below the final three to arrive. As you may imagine, I am immensely heartened – and hopeful that the 100 Objects will give a new clarity to the chronology, politics and personalities of the women’s suffrage campaign.
‘Drawing on a lifetime of groundbreaking scholarship on the British Suffrage movement and its materiality, Crawford’s new book is an essential read for anyone interested in the history of women’s campaigns for the vote. The British Women’s Suffrage Movement in 100 Objects brings to life in unprecedented detail the material world in which campaigners strove for social and political change, conveying this to new audiences with a lightness of erudition and a treasure trove of vivid detail. The extraordinary creativity and complexity of women’s activism during this era is made tangible through Crawford’s expert guidance.’ Dr Zoë Thomas, Associate Professor of Modern History, University of Birmingham
‘Beautifully illustrated and exceptionally curated, Crawford’s The British Women’s Suffrage Movement in 100 Objects is an essential and defining resource for the ways technological advances, community building, and popular culture played in the British campaign for “Votes for Women.” In clearly written and focused essays on everything from the intersection of the automobile and women’s rights to the ubiquity of comic suffragette ceramics, Crawford’s book will be of interest to scholars and general public alike.’ Heidi Herr Librarian for English, Philosophy, The Writing Seminars, & Student Engagement for Special Collections The Johns Hopkins University
‘The British Women’s Suffrage Movement in 100 Objects powerfully demonstrates the richness that material culture brings to the study of women’s histories. By centring objects, it reveals the political struggle as something lived, worn, exchanged, and displayed, rather than simply written or spoken. Together, the 100 objects offer an engaging, vivid and very human perspective on the suffrage movement, recovering voices and experiences that often remain muted in conventional narratives.’ Dr Miranda Garrett
For International Women’s Day: ‘Shout, Shout, Up with your Song’
Posted by womanandhersphere in Books And Ephemera For Sale on March 8, 2023
A few rousing items for sale to mark International Women’s Day 2023
- MEMENTO OF WOMEN’S CORONATION PROCESSION TO DEMAND VOTES FOR WOMEN: Order of March and Descriptive Programme The Women’s Press 1911
This is the official programme for the spectacular march that was held in London on Saturday June 17 1911. ‘From the Introduction: ‘The March through London of 40,000 women has been arranged to show the strength of the deman to win Votes for Women in Coronaton year. The Procession will form up on Westminster Embankment, starting at 5.30pm and marching seven abreast in a line some five miles long, through Trafalgar Square, Pall Mall, Piccadilly, Knightsbridge, to Kensington. At the close of the march a great meeting will be held by the Women’s Social and Political Union in the Albert Hall…’ The programme lists all the suffrage societies taking part and describes in detail the different sections – such as the Prisoners’ Pageant and the Historical Pageant. The ‘Order of March’ is inset. The decorative cover is printed in greeen on good quality thick paper, In good condition – with a little rusting at the staples- a very scarce item.
[15320] £700
2. THAT RAGTIME SUFFRAGETTE SHEET MUSIC B. Feldman & Co c 1913
written by Harry Williams and Nat D. Ayer and originally heard in the 1913 Ziegfeld Follies. It was recorded c 1913/14 by Warwick Green – a British comic singer – to very great effect, although I think he omits the second verse, which is printed in this sheet music. You can hear Warwick Green singing ‘That Ragtime Suffragette’ on youtube. I think it’s wonderful – so evocative- ‘Ragging with bombshells and ragging with bricks/ Hagging and nagging in politics’. The 4-pp of sheet music is printed ‘Professional Copy’ – in good condition, a little rubbed and scuffed; I’m sure it has been well played. Very scarce.
[15319] £120
3. THE MARCH OF THE WOMEN
‘Dedicated to the Women’s Social and Political Union’ by its composer, Ethel Smyth. This is an example of the ‘Popular Edition in F. (For meetings and processions, to be sung in unison)’. The 4-page song sheet, containing both music and the words, the latter written by Cicely Hamilton, was published by Breitkopf & Hartel of 54 Great Marlborough Stree, London W and was ‘To be had of The Woman’s Press, 156 Charing Cross Road, London, W.C.’ Price Threepence. ‘The March of the Women’ was premiered at a WSPU meeting, held on 21 Jan 1911 to celebrate the release from prison of WSPU militants. The back cover lists ‘Works by Ethel Smyth, Mus. Doc.’. The song-sheet has been folded and is a little rubbed and marked, having presumably been put to its intended use at some WSPU rally, but is in generally good condition. Very scarce £250
4. ‘THE WOMEN’S MARSEILLAISE’
Written by Florence Macaulay (1862-1945), one-time student at Somerville College, Oxford, and an organiser for the WSPU. ‘The Women’s Marseillaise’, a marching song, was written in 1909 and begins ‘Arise, ye daughters of a land/That vaunts its liberty’. This single sheet is headed ‘The National Women’s Social & Political Union 4 Clement’s Inn, Strand, W.C.’ and was printed by ‘Geo. Barber,The Furnival Press, E.C.’ The sheet was clearly used for the purpose intended, has been folded, with a slight split at the edges of the fold. In good condition – very scarce
[15314] £120
5. ‘VOTES FOR WOMEN’ to be sung to the tune of ‘Bonnie Dundee’
Songsheet, – the words of a song adapted from a poem by Sir Walter Scott, to be sung to the tune of ‘Bonnie Dundee’. It begins ‘To the Lords of Westminster ’twas the suffragette spoke:-/Put us in the King’s Speech, and give us the Vote,/Let each mother’s son who loves freedom to see,/Cry ‘Votes for the Women’ let Britons be free!’. No publisher or society is credited as issuing of the songsheet, which was in circulation by April 1908.(because Campbell-Bannerman is cited, still prime minister). So quite an early example of a suffrage songsheet. Good -single sheet – some foxing
[15309] £120
6. WOMEN’S SOCIAL AND POLITICAL UNION ‘VOTES FOR WOMEN’ LEAFLET NO. 61
This double-sided leaflet is devoted to publishing Laurence Housman’s ditty ‘Woman This, and Woman That’, an ‘Echo of a ‘Barrack-room Ballad, with acknowledgments to Mr Rudyard Kipling’. It begins ‘We went up to Saint Stephens, with petitions year by year;/’Get out!’ the politicians cried, ‘we want no women here!’/ and was avery popular party-piece at WSPU gatherings. Perhaps its most famous rendition was by actress Decima Moore on the night of the 1911 census, when her audience comprised c 500 suffragettes evading the enumerator in the Aldwych Skating Rink. This leaflet is headed with full details of the WSPU office and leading personnel and was printed by the St Clement’s Press, Portugal Street (now the site of the LSE Library). Like many such ephemeral pieces, it has been folded – presumably in use at a WSPU gathering – with a slight split along a fold – but no loss of text. Although fragile, it is actually in quite good condition, considering its age and purpose
[15317] £150
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If interested in buying any of these ephemeral items – do email me – elizabeth.crawford2017@outlook.com . You can pay me by bank transfer (preferred method), cheque or (if from overseas) at www.Paypal.com, using my email address as the payee account.
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Suffrage Stories: Suffrage in South Devon – Watch My Zoom Talk
Posted by womanandhersphere in Suffrage Stories on September 29, 2021
Here is a link to the Zoom talk on the women’s suffrage campaign in South Devon that I gave on 25 September as part of Torbay’s Heritage Lecture Day. The fully-illustrated talk traces suffrage activity in the area from its beginnings in 1866 – through the 19th and 20th centuries.
Collecting Suffrage: ‘Votes For Women’ Hooks And Eyes
Posted by womanandhersphere in Collecting Suffrage on January 16, 2015
In over 30 years spent hunting for and selling objects related to the women’s suffrage campaign, this little box is the only example I have ever found of ‘Votes for Women’ Hooks and Eyes. Although I had it photographed in black and white back in the 1990s, the box in reality is tricked out in the WSPU colours of purple, white and green.
The manufacturer registering ‘Votes for Women’ as its trademark was not the only maker of hooks and eyes to discern a market for its goods among the supporters of the suffrage cause. Votes for Women (eg issue for 23 April 1909, p 26) carried advertisements for ‘Smart’s invisible hooks and eyes ‘ which were the’ patented invention and property of two members and supporters of the Women’s Social and Political Union.’
These items might well have been found amongst the stock of the suffrage shops opened by the various suffrage societies.
As well as being campaigners, the majority of suffragettes and suffragists were, of necessity, also needlewomen. So here was an opportunity to back the Cause while sewing fastenings onto their skirt plackets or bodices.
Copyright
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).
26 The Strand, Topsham. Photo courtesy of Derek Harper (geograph.co.uk)
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: Radio 4 ‘Document’: Votes For Victorian Women
Posted by womanandhersphere in Suffrage Stories on March 19, 2013
On Monday, 18 March 2013 Radio 4 broadcast, in the series ‘Document, an interesting programme to which I made a small contribution. Below is the description of the programme that appears on the BBC website. The programme is available on iPlayer for a year – that is until March 2014 – click here to listen.
‘Votes for Victorian Women
- Duration:
- 28 minutes
- First broadcast:
Monday 18 March 2013
Popular history tells us that women did not get the vote until 1918.
Though they could technically vote in local elections before that, many historians have argued that in practice they had no vote until the 1860s at the earliest. And evidence that they ever did vote has proved almost impossible to find.
But now a poll book, discovered in a box of papers in a local record office, clearly shows 25 women voting in elections for important local posts in Lichfield in 1843.
In this week’s Document, the historian Sarah Richardson follows the trail of these women, to reveal a picture of Victorian women’s involvement in politics which challenges many of our assumptions.
She discovers that they represented a surprising cross-section of society – old and young, poor and prosperous – and attempts to trace their descendants today.
She finds out how, when even universal manhood suffrage was seen as a radical, dangerous idea, these women may have been just a few of many more who could vote at a local level.
Coronation Procession 1911: The Historical Pageant
And she explores how, decades later, campaigners for Votes for Women at the Westminster level had to contend with this complex legacy.’
[Left – the photograph that Sarah and I are looking at when discussing the way in which 20th-century suffrage campaigners were keen to legitimise their claim to the franchise by looking to the power, occasionally electoral, exercised by women in the past.]
Kate Frye’s Suffrage Diary: first canvassing
Posted by womanandhersphere in Kate Frye's suffrage diary on August 9, 2012
Kate lived in Arundel Gardens, North Kensington
Another extract from Kate Parry Frye’s manuscript diary. These entries dates from the period two years before Campaigning for the Vote – the edited version of her diary published by Francis Boutle Publishers – begins. This episode marks the first time Kate is involved in active doorstep – or, at least, letterbox – campaigning. She was to do a great deal more of it over the next few years.
Gladys Wright was a university-educated young woman, a fellow Kensington resident, and already an active suffragist, working for the London NUWSS – non-militant – society.
‘The Grove’ was Westbourne Grove, the local shopping mecca, home of Whiteleys, the Universal Provider.
Kate preserved mementoes of Whiteley’s funeral
The Fryes were – or had been – very friendly with William Whiteley, who had been gunned down in his own store just two months earlier.
Monday 19 March 1907 [25 ArundelGardens, Notting Hill]
Up to breakfast and found a letter from Gladys Wright asking me to do some work with them for the Suffrage. A Motor Bus to Strakers in the Edgware Road where I bought 500 envelopes. Changed my things and wrote letters till dinner time – then after dinner started addressing my envelopes and did about half until 11.30 when I went to bed very tired.
Thursday March 19th 1907
Changed my dress after lunch then wrote some letters till tea time. Our At Home day but no visitors arrived. After tea I sat and finished directing my envelopes.
Thursday March 20th 1907
Up at 11.30. The notices had come for the envelopes so I filled Lansdowne Road and Lansdowne Crescent. Sent Agnes [her sister] out with them. I took out ArundelGardens and Powis Square – a most awful place – high flats – and Powis something else. After lunch Agnes and I went out again delivering – more Powis and Colvilles. Colville Mansions nearly killed us the stairs were awful. We got in about 4 o’clock feeling very tired.
Thursday March 21st 1907
Mother went to Committee [Liberal] meeting in the afternoon. Agnes and I went out at 3 o’clock and delivered the last two streets of the meeting notices – then went to the Grove and did a little shopping.
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.
ISBN 978 1903427 75 0
Copies available from Francis Boutle Publishers, or from Elizabeth Crawford – e.crawford@sphere20.freeserve.co.uk (£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.
- ‘Campaigning for the Vote’ – Front and back cover of wrappers
Woman and her Sphere 