Artefacts

NOTE: The suffrage movement, notably the WSPU, raised funds and promoted their cause by selling a vast range of merchandise, from badges to brooches to bicycles. The best reference source for identifying suffrage-related items of memorabilia is The Purple, White and Green: Suffragettes in London 1906-1914, by Diane Atkinson, a catalogue published for the exhibition of the same name at the Museum of London in 1992-93. This book charts and examines the women’s largely unrecognised merchandising and image building skills, and the way they turned consumerism to brilliant political advantage. It lists around 700 items, mostly concerned with the WSPU, and now held by the Suffrage Fellowship Collection, Museum of London. For a description of the WSPU shops which stocked and sold the merchandise, including those in Glasgow and Edinburgh, see: Mercer, John, Commercial Places, public spaces: suffragette shops and the public sphere, University of Sussex Journal of Contemporary History, 7, 2004.

Badges

A number of suffrage and anti-suffrage badges have survived from the Edwardian period. Many modern reproductions also exist. Institutions holding examples include the People’s Palace, Glasgow, Perth Museum & Art Galleries, Dundee Museum & Art Galleries, Aberdeen Art Gallery, the People's Story Museum, Edinburgh and the National Museums of Scotland.

Ballot Box

A black tin with contemporary lettering ‘Ballot Box’ understood to have been used in Dundee during the ‘Churchill’ by-election in 1908. (Dundee Archives Centre)

Banners

Embroidered processional banner of Northern Men’s Federation for Women’s Suffrage, with lion rampant as central motive on a black background and the motto ‘Now’s The Day and Now’s The Hour’. (People’s Palace)

Embroidered processional banner for the Glasgow and West of Scotland Association for Women’s Suffrage, with Glasgow coat of arms 1911. (People’s Palace)

Embroidered processional banner for the Partick branch of the NUWSS, with Partick coat of arms, c1913. (People’s Palace)

Embroidered processional banner for the WFL, Burgh of Partick. (National Museums of Scotland, A1991.66)

Embroidered processional banner bearing the name Agnes of Dunbar, painted in black on yellow velvet, designed by Mary Lowndes, 1908. (National Museums of Scotland A1991.67)

Embroidered processional banner for the Edinburgh branch of the Northern Men’s Federation, by Maude Arncliffe Sennet of the Suffrage Atelier, 1914. (National Museum of Antiquities, Edinburgh A1991.68)

Embroidered processional banner of the Women’s Freedom League, showing a blindfolded woman holding scales of justice and carrying yellow banner with the words 'Votes for Women' sewn on to it, 1914. (People’s Palace, replica with People’s Story Museum, Edinburgh)

Embroidered processional banner of Perth Suffrage Society, designed by a Miss Fleming and society president Mrs Scott Murray, showing Perth coat of arms as central motif. (Perth Museum & Libraries, Archive CNN 218)

Embroidered processional banner of the Aberdeen branch of the NUWSS, bearing the coat of arms of Aberdeen. (James Dunn's House, Schoolhill, Aberdeen)

Bannerette, embroidered white lettering on black with 'Women Tortured in Prison' and said to have been made in protest at the forcible feeding of suffrage prisoners in Perth in 1914. (People's Palace)

Board Games

Anti-suffrage Jack-in-the-box game. Toy with ugly face-woman holding 'Votes for Women' flag. (People's Palace)

‘Panko,’ a 'Votes for Women' board game known from 1909, pitting suffragists against anti-suffragists. It was sold for two shillings (20p), and comprised 50 playing cards, 100mm x 80mm. (Copies or part-copies in People’s Palace, Museum, Glasgow, Newton Stewart Museum, and People’s Story Museum, Edinburgh) A copy of the rules of "Pank" - probably from the same satirical card game - is held in the National Library of Scotland.

Pank-a-Squith. This board game was apparently issued around 1909. Two standing lead figures of suffragists in the People’s Story Museum, Edinburgh, may come from it. (HH4808/1/89)

Ceramics

Bust of woman. Bearing Dundee city crest on obverse, and printed inscription, ‘Vote for Women’ on her headdress. (Private collection, photographs in WC)

Inkwell. Produced by Royal Doulton, bearing printed inscription in black, ‘Votes for Women’. (People’s Palace)