Woman Suffrage Postcards

One of the most popular forms of suffrage memorabilia was the postcard.  Thousands of varieties throughout the world were issued both commercially and by the suffragists themselves.  In my book, American Woman Suffrage Postcards, I have divided American productions into six different categories, several of which are described on this page.  Those categories are: (1) Official Cards, published either by suffrage organizations themselves or by individuals working on behalf of the cause; (2) Real Photo Cards, a particular form of photographic card that was popular in the early part of the 20th century; (3) Printed Photo Cards, a generally commercialized form of printing photographic images that allowed for more extensive and cheaper production than their Real Photo counterparts; (4) Holiday Cards with suffrage themes; (5) Commercial Cards issued individually with suffrage imagery; and (6) Commercial Cards issued in sets.  This page also lists some English cards.

Official Cards. This first card was illustrated and published in 1914 by Letitia Thompson Maxwell and also exists in the form of a poster.  Maxwell, born in Pottstown, Pennsylvania in 1886, received her artistic training at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women. She married Reuben Ely and moved with her husband to New Hope, Pennsylvania where she painted in both oil and watercolor. This is her only known suffrage card.  The image of an allegorical woman blowing on a trumpet may have been derived from English suffrage iconography where the concept of a woman with a clarion was considered by some to be too militant. A artist’s sample of this card does exist as well as this published variety.,

 

Perhaps one of the most spectacular of all suffrage cards was this example issued from one of the Ohio campaigns that pictures an allegorical figure with the sun in the background holding spears in one hand and sheaves of wheat in the other.  The first campaign in Ohio occurred in 1912 when male voters turned down Amendment 23, which would have extended full rights to the ballot for women, by about 60% of the votes that were cast.  Another attempt to gain votes for women was made two year’s later in 1914, but Amendment 3, the Ohio Women’s Suffrage Amendment, was  also defeated.  Ohio women were not to obtain the vote until 1920 when the Federal Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was finally passed. This image was widely used in the state and appears on posters, campaign stationery, and other forms of memorabilia.

One of the arguments made by opponents of suffrage was that women were “too delicate” to engage in the sordid world of politics and that denying them the right to vote in effect protected them.  This card, drawn by Katherine Milhous and published by the Pennsylvania Limited Equal Suffrage League, takes that argument head on. Through a series of vignettes, it points out male hypocrisy in that women were “allowed” to participate in such arduous tasks as scrubbing, nursing, factory work, waitressing, and tailoring without being “unsexed.” Yet somehow the act of voting de-gendered them as it was far too arduous for their delicate constitutions. Official cards often focussed on pro-suffrage messages such as this while other cards promoted the organization that published them originally.

Various Presidential candidates implied that they favored immediate suffrage for women, but, such as the case with Woodrow Wilson, failed to move on the issue once in office.  When Teddy Roosevelt ran on the Bull Moose ticket in 1912, full voting rights for women became part of his party’s plank.  In this postcard, Roosevelt is pictured as advocating “Let the People Rule,” but suffragists, perhaps suspecting another male betrayal, are holding up a sign asking “We’re What?” alluding to the fact that women were often excluded from the definition of “People.”  This card was published by the New York State Woman Suffrage Association.  The Artist was Clifford K. Berryman (1869-1949), a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist for The Washington Star.  In 1902, he drew a cartoon of Roosevelt refusing to shoot a bear cub on one of his hunting expeditions that led to a national craze in “Teddy Bears.”

In an effort to defuse the animosity that often occurred when the topic of “Votes for Women” was brought up, suffragists could use images of children to emphasize the non-threatening nature of the franchise for women.  This card, illustrated by Emily Hall Chamberlain and printed in 1915 by the Campbell Art Company for the National Woman Suffrage Publishing Company, is part of a set of six. Here a little boy Uncle Sam is giving his imprimatur to a little girl “Miss Columbia” and indicating that “She’s Good Enough for Me.” The image not only suggests equality of the sexes but also indicates that female suffrage is not a radical new concept but rather embedded in traditional American values going back to the foundations of our country.

One of the claims of the anti-suffragists was that women did not need the ballot because voting was irrelevant to their traditional roles as mothers and wives.  One of the responses to that argument from activists was that there were political and social issues of especial concern to them, particularly because they were charged with the protection of children and babies.  This  card points out the need to enact pure food and drug laws to ensure safety of the milk supply.  The card features a quotation from Charlotte Perkins Gilman, author of the feminist classic short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” and the utopian novel, Herland. Gilman gave up a promising career as a novelist to edit a feminist paper called The Forerunner.

One design that may be of particular interest to scholars is Marjorie Hamilton‘s illustration of a woman holding a sign or placard.  The sign as originally drawn is blank, allowing space for various organizations to print details of an upcoming meeting or demonstration. Hamilton, who was English, originally developed the design for the June 21, 1911 Women’s Social and Political Union Demonstration in London. It was illustrated in the official WSPU colors of purple, green, and white. American suffragists liked the image so much that they used it on handbills and postcards to advertise their own events, such as the original production of “The Convert,” sponsored by the Just Government League of Maryland, a meeting of the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association at the Hebron Town Hall in 1916, and an appearance by Emmeline Pankhurst at the Symphony Auditorium in Newark under the auspices of the New Jersey Woman Suffrage Association.

The purpose of many official suffrage postcards, in addition to advocating woman suffrage, was also to promote the organizations that issued them.  The card here is headlined by the words “The Woman Suffrage Party of New York City,” formed in 1910. It pictures unflatteringly the class of people who, like women, could not vote, including “Paupers, Lunatics, Criminals, and Idiots.” This was a theme common to pro-suffrage arguments. Sometimes the argument was reversed and pictured those who, unlike women, could vote. These included Black men, immigrants, including representatives of the Italian Black Hand, and laborers, sometimes pictured with their kettles of beer. Such depictions, while unfortunate, did reflect common cultural attitudes of the day, although some critics have used them to discredit early suffrage leaders such as Anthony and Stanton as well as the movement itself,

Pictured below are examples of other official cards

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are far fewer examples of official anti-suffrage postcards than there are official pro pieces.  In part, the anti-forces lacked the funding that was available to suffrage associations. On the other hand, there was very little need for the opposition to issue cards as the majority of commercial cards reflected a derisive attitude towards the franchise for women.  This particular card, copyrighted by Life Publications, was issued by the New York State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, one of the country’s largest anti groups.  The “deluded” woman, clutching a ballot instead of a baby, is wearing men’s clothing, indicating that her desire to vote involves her shedding gender identity.  She is imaged here, however, as an attractive woman otherwise, a departure from the harsh satires of suffragists that often appeared in anti-suffrage propaganda.

Real Photo Postcards is a term given to those postcards that were developed from a negative right on to photo paper with a pre-printed postcard backing. They were especially popular with amateur hobbyists, itinerant photographers, and small local photographic studios because they allowed for quick reproductions that did not call for the expensive equipment demanded with large scale runs.  Often they captured small marches and events that were unprofitable subjects for large, commercial card manufacturers.  Many of these cards are quite rare as only a few of them were possibly produced.  Sometimes large printing houses did experiment with the process resulting in greater production. The card to the immediate left of this text pictures Mrs. Josephine Bennet of the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association and was probably taken around 1916.  Bennet was a close friend of Katharine Hepburn, the mother of the actress, who was President of the CWSA before she resigned to join forces with Alice Paul.  This image was also used by the Association for posters, demonstration programs, as well as for other material..

The next image is that of Maude Ballington Booth in 1914 addressing a crowd at Alva Belmont’s  Marble House at her Newport, Rhode Island Estate. The occasion in part celebrated the return of Belmont’s daughter, Consuelo, from England and it also provided a venue for the first annual convention of Alice Paul’s Congressional Union.  Booth was the wife of Ballington Booth, the son of the founder of the Salvation Army, William Booth. Similar cards were also published featuring other speakers at this event, including Consuelo.

The card here pictures the Homemakers, part of the extremely large contingent of various groups that took part in the famous March 3, 1913 Suffrage March in Washington, D. C. that preceded President-Elect Woodrow Wilson’s Inaugural Ceremonies the next day.  The march became an object of controversy when the police protection that the suffragists had been promised never showed up and the National Guard had to be called in to provide space for the marchers to proceed through the thick crowd that had come to view them.  Some of the marchers were beaten by ruffians who had come to the event to jeer, and police inaction became such a scandal that a special Congressional Committee had to be formed to look into the matter.  Some of the local studios in the area issued both Real Photo and Printed Photo cards picturing various scenes from the event, although most ignored the violence and focused instead on the various contingents that made up the marchers.

One of the more interesting Real Photo Cards of the March 3, 1913 demonstration is that picturing May Walker Burleson.  A socialite and accomplished equestrian, she was divorced by her husband, Richard Coke Burleson, in 1936.  He had alleged cruelty on her part as well as interference with this military activities. In 1940 May Burleson in revenge shot and killed her ex-husband’s current wife, Isabel Reise Knowlton, whom she had felt was responsible for the breakup of her marriage. The murder and the subsequent trial gained national attention, and the jury, convinced that May Burleson was insane, sentenced her to only twelve years in prison for the murder, of which she served eight prior to her release.

The next card pictures the recast Liberty Bell that travelled Pennsylvania throughout the unsuccessful referendum campaign i in 1915.  The idea to make another Liberty Bell and take it around all 67 counties of the State originated with Katharine Wentworth Ruschenberger, who arranged to have the replica cast at the Menely Bell Foundry in Troy, New York. The Bell was then brought back to Pennsylvania, placed on a specially outfitted truck that traversed the State. The Bell was often taken to  rural parts of Pennsylvania to bring news of the campaign to people who were otherwise isolated.  A note on the back of this card identifies the locale of the photo as Sligo, Pennsylvania just outside of Butch’s Butcher Shop.  Other Real Photo Cards were produced at various locations along the Bell’s journey.

Despite the notoriety achieved by Alice Paul’s Silent Sentinels who picketed the White House on behalf of suffrage, very few images of their demonstration appear on postcards. Because their picketing occurred during WWI, they were denounced as “traitors,” their banners ripped from their hands, and they suffered beatings at the hands of both by-standers and the police. Some of the mainstream suffrage organizations also condemned their efforts, fearing that their actions during wartime would reflect poorly on the cause.  The card below pictures an activist holding a banner from the 1915 effort in Massachusetts, which was part of the Eastern States campaign in that year, involving three other states, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.  Unfortunately, the referendums in all four states went down to defeat despite intense effort on the part of the suffrage activists. There was not a single Eastern state at this time that had provided full voting rights to women.  If women were to be successful in their ultimate attempt to pass a Constitutional Amendment, they needed support from the East. Because the publisher of this card is unidentified, the image may be the product of an amateur activist photographer and not distributed to the general public. Woman suffrage journals encouraged women to make their own postcards and sell them to their friends to help fundraise for the cause.

 

Printed Photo Postcards, those cards whose images had been printed from plates or screens and not directly from negatives as were their Real Photo counterparts, were also used to capture suffrage events.  However, in general they were less popular than their Real Photo counterparts.  Several sets of cards were issued by the firms of Leet Brothers and M. Ottenheimer depicting the March 3, 1913 suffrage parade in Washington that preceded Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration.  One of the more desirable cards is this picturing Inez Milhollend, who later became the only martyr of the movement when, despite being in ill health, she went on a tour of the West and collapsed while giving a speech. Some scholars today, although not all, blame Alice Paul for Milhollend’s death, claiming that Paul forced her to go on this campaign trip knowing full well that she suffered from pernicious anemia. The only other suffragist who “died for the cause” was the English activist, Emily Wilding Davison.

This card depicts “General” Rosalie Jones, a Long Island Socialite, who led two famous lengthy hikes on behalf of suffrage, the first  was a march from New York City to Albany, New York in December of 1912 and the second from New York to Washington in 1913 to participate in the suffrage demonstration that preceded Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration.  Jones also traveled in a cart with her friend, Elizabeth Freeman, to several states on behalf of the movement.  Interestingly enough, Jones’ mother was an ardent anti-suffragist who did not approve of her activities.

This card, published by Leet Brothers of Washington, is part of a set picturing the suffrage demonstration of March 3, 1913.  Its seemingly innocuous title of “Police Protection for Women’s Suffrage Procession March 3, 1913” is probably intentionally ironic.  If you look carefully at the card, there are no police present, which was a significant issue at the time. When Alice Paul originally scheduled the demonstration, she had been assured of police protection.  However, when the suffragists began their march, no police were present, and the procession could not move because large crowds blocked their way. There were also reports of suffragists being physically assaulted by unruly elements hostile to the suffragists   Finally the National Guard was called in and the marchers were able to proceed without further incident.

Holiday Postcards with a suffrage theme were issued by both official and commercial sources. The most popular holiday to be so recognized was that of Valentine’s Day. Here the suffrage twist generally involved the idea that love depended on the receiver’s attitude towards “Votes for Women,” with anti-suffrage cards indicating that the male sender wanted an “Old Fashioned Girl,” one who preferred the kitchen to the polling station. Often pro and anti suffrage cards did use children to soften the animosity involved in the debate as seen here in the cards pictured above drawn by the noted postcard illustrator, the equinely named Ellen Clapsaddle. She illustrated two suffrage cards to appeal to both sides. The second depicts another little girl who asserts “Woman’s Sphere is in the Home.” The image of a rocking chair is meant to suggest traditional values presumably undermined by suffrage activism.

Some anti-suffrage Valentines were sent by women to men to assure them that they were not a modern suffragette and preferred a traditional relationship. Such can be seen in the card pictured here that was published by the A. Raymond Howe Company of Chicago. The sentiment that somehow a woman must prove herself “worthy” of a man flies in the face of traditional Romantic ideas that go back to the Courtly Love Tradition of the Middle Ages where a lover had to prove himself worthy of a woman whom he placed above himself in terms of both purity and moral value. Sometimes anti-suffrage Valentine’s Day postcards could be characterized as “Vinegar Valentines,” with the suffragist depicted as a hag, totally unattractive to men, her suffrage sympathies seen as the result of her being rejected as a possible mate. Of the cards below, two little girls express the sentiment that modern heroism is dependent not on physical prowess but on male acknowledgement of female equality and male willingness to support the franchise for women.  A third card, probably issued by the Woman Suffrage Party for the successful suffrage referendum in New York in 1917, reminds the recipient that while the sender considers him to be her Valentine, she still yearns for his support for the ballot initiative.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Postcards with suffrage themes were issued by both official and commercial sources for other holidays such as Easter, Thanksgiving, and New Years, but not, interestingly enough, for Mother’s Day.  Perhaps the most popular of all Christmas designs was this one picturing Santa with “Votes for Women” in his sack.  It was issued by the Just Government League of Maryland in 1914 and comes in several design variations.  The image was also used for a Cinderella or poster stamp. Suffragists also created a special version of a Christmas stocking with “Votes for Women” printed on its side.

Commercial sources issued many more postcards containing suffrage themes than did their official suffrage counterparts.  These cards typically involved comic images, often of children and sometimes of animals. Their messages were generally reactive to the events of the day and seldom promotional and they often involved an attempt on the part of the publisher or artist to infuse a “common sense” perspective on what was often an extremely contentious issue. If they reflected any particular bias, it was generally anti-suffrage. Many of these cards show a topsy-turvy world with women dominating men and often exchanging gender roles with them. Sometimes women are seen beating men up with rolling pins, their strength seemingly coming from the women’s movement.  Many of these anti-cards show men forced into household chores such as minding the baby while their wives are off to a suffrage meeting or demonstration. Still, for all of their negativity, these cards seldom reflect the extremes found in many English cards where hunger strikers are ridiculed, where women’s tongues are nailed to a board to keep them silent, and where Satan himself is seen running away in terror from a suffragist. Although on occasion the suffragist could be depicted as an attractive but naive ingenue, she was generally portrayed as ugly and destructive as seen in the card below where she, in Carrie Nation-like manner, is wielding an ax in a ranting tirade. The accompanying verse involves a prophecy that a man is doomed to marry a suffragette.  When he dies, he finds that Hell is a nice change from the torments that he faced on earth.

 

 

 

 

In the cards below, a beleaguered George Washington is beset by a group of suffragists and wonders why he saved the country if this is the result of his efforts.  Suffragists and anti-suffragists often engaged in an imagistic battle over what constituted true patriotism. In a second card below, mother is dressed in man’s clothes and is smoking as she heads off for the club. This image is reflective of a larger aspect of anti-suffrage propaganda, that somehow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

women who wanted the vote were all attempting to be men and assume their habits. A third card shows the development of the modern suffragette.  She grows up from a cute little girl to an ugly, ax-wielding activist, whose horrifying appearance appears to be a natural development of the ideology that she is now espousing. The theme here is a slight departure from the argument portrayed in other cards, that the natural “ugliness” of the suffragist is congenital, and that her appearance makes her unsuitable as a mate so she joins the movement to compensate.

Publishers often issued cards containing suffrage themes in sets rather than as individual items. Sets benefited both customers and merchants.  Individual cards from sets could be sent out one at a time to friends and relatives, who might eagerly await the next card in the series.  The sets obviously appealed to merchants, who always appreciated the opportunity to sell 6, 10, or 12 cards rather than a single item. One of the most famous sets, that of 30, however, was not a commercial product but issued as a joint venture between the National American Woman Suffrage Association and the Cargill Company of Michigan. Most of the cards in the set were slogan cards, refuting anti-suffrage arguments and offering suffrage responses. The card depicted here is numbered 111 (actually card 11in the set), and is considered to be the rarest card of the 30.

The five most popular sets of commercial cards dealing with suffrage themes were those issued by the Dunston-Weiler Lithograph Company, the artist Walter Wellman, Bernhardt Wall, labeled by some as “The Postcard King,” the firm of Barton and Spooner, generally known more for its Halloween cards than its suffrage material, and the T. P. and Co. of New York, who commissioned the Indiana artist Cobb Shinn to illustrate its cards. The Dunston-Weiler set of twelve, perhaps the most popular of the five mentioned, generally portrayed a topsy-turvy world in which women took on men’s roles, and men were often made to stay at home and mind the children. Even a disgruntled Uncle Sam appears on one card, arrayed in women’s dress. The company, however, avoided the ugly caricatures of the English tradition, focusing more on the attractive but naive ingenue and her indulging husband.

The Walter Wellman suffrage set is one of the larger ones known, consisting of 16 different cards.  In general, they featured dominating but not necessarily unattractive women along with their smaller mates.  Many of these women take on the roles of men as judges and members of the police and fire departments.  In one, Teddy Roosevelt is depicted in woman’s dress wielding a broomstick instead of the famous “big stick” that is associated with his foreign policies, In another, a woman takes on the role of a man, getting down on her knees to plead for her effeminate lover’s hand in a Leap Year proposal. What often goes unnoticed in this set because of its soft colors is the fact that the illustrations are done in purple, green, and white, the colors of the English militant movement.  Wellman drew other cards in the same style picturing the emerging women, but these are not truly suffrage.

The set illustrated by Bernhardt Wall consists of 12 cards but with only 6 designs.  Each card has a pro and anti counterpart.  The card illustrated on the left supports suffrage as the little girl proclaims “I want to speak for myself at the polls.”  Its counterpart, headlined “Votes for Men” has the same girl in the same pose, but now noting “I’ve a dandy hubby, who works and votes for me.  I SHOULD WORRY!” Using children to express adult ideas was a common device to reduce the tension regarding the subject and perhaps to sell more cards.  The Barton and Spooner set again shows little boys and girls interacting with one another and satirizing many period encounters between pro and anti forces without necessarily taking a consistent stance.  In one card, not pictured here, the little girl tells the little boy “I may be your leader someday.”  This card was reprinted during the 2016 presidential race when Hillary Clinton ran as the standard bearer for the Democratic Party. The card illustrated here with the caption,”We Want You Men To Be With Us,” shows us a world in which the dynamic between men and women over the topic of suffrage is not confrontational but rather one of cooperation.

 

 

 

 

There are other sets worth mentioning here.  One consists of 23 cards done in a charcoal grey. Published in 1912 by the firm of C. Wolf, it portrays attractive women in roles that were typically associated with men such as police officer chauffeur, traveling salesperson, sailor, soldier, and statesman.  The men who interact with these professional women do so quite willingly because of their beauty.  One could question the intent of this series in that the women are held up as paragons, although there is more than a touch of innocence in their depictions as they carry out their various duties.  The artist was a woman, Edith Parsons Williams, about whom little is known beyond the fact that she illustrated other, non-suffrage cards. The number of cards in the set is also curious as sets were generally issued in even numbers, but so far a 24th card here has not been uncovered.  Individual cards here do turn up, but no complete set is known at this pointb

Perhaps the most attractive of all commercial card sets is the series of six labelled the “Suffragette Ticket.”  Beautiful women appear as Fire Chief, Health Officer, Mayor, Sheriff, Judge, and Mailman, all asking “Would You Vote for Me?”  Below each figure is a leering man making lewd comments.  The set doesn’t really appear to be a comment on the suffrage movement one way or the other, even though it depicts a topsy-turvy world; rather it may be an attempt on the part of the anonymous artist to show off his ability to portray beautiful women, a period fascination that can be observed outside of the movement in cartoons, illustrations, buttons, and beer trays, Perhaps the most famous example of “beautiful women illustrations are those of Charles Dana Gibson’s “Gibson Girls.”wih

Despite the heavy volume of suffrage cards produced in the United States, their numbers were eclipsed by the quantities that appeared in England.  While there were similarities between these cards, and the manufacturers in one country felt free to borrow themes and images from the other, there were differences.  The English produced a number of cards both commercially and from official sources picturing leaders of the movement, which were often autographed.  American suffragists focussed more on message than personality. The only “leader” to appear with some frequency on American cards was Susan B. Anthony, and the majority of those cards were issued as memorial tributes to her after her death. English cards, however, showed a variety of photos not only of their major activists such as Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst, Emmeline Pethick Lawrence, Charlotte Despard, Edith Howe Martyn, and Teresa Billington Grieg, but also of others less familiar to Americans if not to the English themselves, including Caroline Hodgsen, Gladice Keevil, Dorothy Molony, Countess Russell, Sarah Bennet, and Bessie Semple.

Charlotte Despard, pictured here on the left,  led the breakaway group, the Women’s Freedom League, which, while militant in its own way, eschewed violence in favor of passive resistance and found fault with the autocratic way in which Emmeline Pankhurst’s Women’s Social and Political Union was run.  Other members of the WFL included Margaret Milne Farquharson, Lilian Hicks, the Australian Muriel Matters, Alice Schofield and Madame Aino Mahlberg, all of whom are represented on postcards. Despard was an Anglo-Irish suffragist and novelist as well as a Sinn Fein activist. She was also a committed vegetarian and anti-vivisectionist. When some women were able to attain voting rights in 1918, Despard ran for Parliament and at least one poster is still extant from that campaign.

Cecily Hamilton, pictured on the card on the far left below, was an English actress, writer, journalist, and suffragist. She is  best known for the play “How the Vote was Won.” The woman to her immediate right is Flora Drummond, who was nicknamed “The General” for her habit of dressing up as a military officer with cap and epaulettes, as seen here. She was an organizer for Emmeline Pankhurst’s WSPU, and was imprisoned several times for her activities on behalf of suffrage. She was also known for her oratorical skills, especially needed when there were hostile men in the crowd.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patricia Woodlock, whose portrait appears above on the left, was, despite her activism, one of the lesser known figures of the movement.  She was the daughter of the Irish artist, David Woodlock, who had settled in Liverpool.  Woodlock was one of the founding members of the Liverpool branch of the WSPU and was arrested several times for her work for the movement.  The woman to her right, Elsie Howey, was also a WSPU organizer, and was arrested six times between 1908 and 1912 for her militant actions.  She received national attention in April of 1910 when she dressed as Joan of Arc, complete with a full set of armor, and led a demonstration through London. Pictured on the left, Mrs. Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy, who was born in 1833, was one of the earliest of the English activists, and joined with Richard and Emmeline Pankhurst and Ursula Bright to form the Women’s Franchise League in 1889. She later was one of the first members of Pankhurst’s WSPU, but advancing age prevented her from joining in any of the activities that might have led her to her imprisonment.

Even more numerous than postcards picturing leaders of the movement were Real Photo cards, often with the glossy fronts and the more technologically advanced rotary photo process favored by the larger commercial firms. In their totality, these cards provide us with a comprehensive view of the English movement as they depicted suffrage events such as demonstrations, carnivals, marches, and exhibitions.  Independent merchants produced most of these cards, although several photographers appear to have had some sort of working relationship with suffrage associations, and many of their cards were probably available through suffrage shops. Some of the producers of these cards were Mrs. Albert Broom, who came to publish postcards after her husband had become a semi-invalid and could not work, Ferdinand Kehrhahn, the semi-official photographer of the WSPU, and H. Searjeant.  The above cards picture first the Land’s End demonstration/walk across England sponsored by that National Union of Women Suffrage Societies, the non-militant, “law abiding” suffrage group, and second, a poster demonstration organized to protest the force feeding of WSPU suffragettes.

One of the largest and most organized of all of the English demonstrations was that pictured below of the procession of June 17, 1911 that preceded the Coronation of King George V, The procession involved considerable pageantry and was headed by Marjorie Annan Bryce, dressed as Joan of Arc, the patron saint of the suffrage movement. Bryce led a procession of at least twenty-eight different suffrage organizations and a group of 700 released suffrage prisoners. One other event that was well photographed was the WSPU’s exhibition and sale of work at the Prince’s Skating rink in Knightsbridge from May 13 to 26, 1909.  The exhibition featured over 50 stalls decorated in purple, green, and white where merchandise was sold, many pieces of which were suffrage related.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two other photo cards of some note.  The first is by Mrs. Albert Broom that is part of a set of cards that pictures a demonstration to Hyde Park led by Sylvia Pankhurst, the artist-daughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, the founder of the Women’s Social and Political Union.  Pankhurst is seen wearing a model of the portcullis cell gate from Holloway Prison.  She was later to refashion this design, adding a prisoner’s arrow in purple, green, and white, into a brooch, which was given to all WSPU prisoner’s upon their release, whether they had engaged in a hunger strike or not.  Sylvia, the artist of the WSPU whose designs were used on banners, posters, tea sets, etc., was not as close to her mother as was her sister, Christabel.  The second card pictures part of the funeral procession of Emily Wilding Davison. Davison was arrested nine times for her suffrage activities, engaged in seven hunger strikes and was force-fed on forty-nine occasions  She became the English movement’s first and only martyr when she died after being struck by King George’s horse Anmer at the 1913 Epsom Derby when she ran onto the track during the race.  At first it was thought that she intentionally attempted suicide, but recent analysis of photographic footage of the incident appears to suggest that she was merely attempting to hand something to the horse’s rider, who turned out not to be the King.

One of the most collectible of all English suffrage cards are those black and white artist cards, produced primarily by two female artists’ groups, the Artists’ Suffrage League and the Suffrage Atelier.  The ASL  was founded in 1907 by Mary Lowndes, who, along with other professional women artists, helped promote the first large-scale demonstration held by the National Union of Women Suffrage Societies, the infamous Mud March, It had no formal structure, but its members hoped to further the cause by denoting artistic productions to the movement in the form of posters, postcards, and Christmas cards. All of this was done without compensation although occasionally monetary prizes were awarded during competitions,  The League was responsible for at least 25 postcards, all of which sold for one penny at various suffrage shops throughout the country.  Many of the cards were signed by the artists producing the design, and included C. Headley Charlton, Joan Harvey Drew (“JHD”), K. F. Powell, and Dora Mason Coates. The cards, with their intricate line drawings, resembled editorial cartoons.  Much of their work was done in support of the NUWSS but theoretically it was available to any group that requested their services.

The other artists’ organization, the Suffrage Atelier, was formed in 1909 by Laurence and Clemence Housman as an unaffiliated organization whose products would be available to all suffrage associations, although they did have loose ties with the Women’s Freedom League. Sharing many similar aims with the ASL it, nevertheless, differed in that it had its own hand press, allowing the Atelier to publish its own work, much of which was done in block printing and linocuts. It allowed amateurs into the organization, helping burgeoning female artists to attain some form of recognition for their careers, and it provided some compensation for finished products.  About 50 different postcards produced by the Atelier survive today, not all of which bear its name. Three broadsheets are known, picturing approximately 29 different cards, from which potential customers could make a selection.  Because many of these cards use block printing, they are often cruder in design than their ASL counterparts.  At other times, there is very little to differentiate in design between the two organizations,  One of their famous sets was that of a group of four cards that depicted the anti-suffragist as an ass,

Occasionally the Women’s Social and Political Union would publish a few artists’ cards on its own, generally using the illustrations of “A Patriot” (Alfred Pearse), whose drawings were featured weekly on the front cover of its journal “Votes for Women.” The WFL and the NUWSS likewise produced a few cards but generally relied on the services of either the Suffrage Atelier or the Artists’ Suffrage League. Several independent producers also printed cards.  An example of some of the variety of cards available can be seen below,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were numerous commercial English cartoon cards that have recently drawn the attention of scholars, who have analyzed them from cultural, historic, and feminist perspectives.  Unlike many American cards, they are often brutal and harsh, condoning violence against suffragists (albeit in a “comic” way), making fun of the hunger strikers, and associating suffragists with the Devil himself.  One of the less flattering explanations given for this hostility is that suffragists were themselves to blame, causing a general outcry because of their violent activities such as window smashing, burning buildings, and destroying letter boxes.  Still, there seems to be on the part of various artists more than a latent hostility to the demands of the suffragists which undoubtedly would have flourished even if these activists had refrained from militant activities.  If one were to compare commercial English with American suffrage related cards, one would find more of a focus on grotesque women, unruly behavior on the part of the suffragists, allusion to specific events, and satire of actual suffragists including Christabel and Emmeline Pankhurst (Mrs. Otobespankfirst), Muriel Matters, and Lydia Becker.  The card pictured at the top of this section shows determined suffragists rushing the House of Commons. The card below it makes fun of the force feeding of WSPU hunger strikers, where the focus of the artist’s sympathy is not with the suffragist but with the beleaguered police who have more than their hands full dealing with the situation, With their caricatures, the artists attempted to portray suffragists as “outliers,” somehow set apart from the normal female gender, grotesques whose ideology reflected their appearance. The ability of artists to somehow make brutality “comic” is extraordinary and rather unfortunate.

In the cards pictured below, we see a sympathetic Satan running away from a suffragist, an attack not by police on suffragists but by activists on police, and a picture of a woman whose jaw is forced into a vise to keep her mouth shut,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you are interested in American Woman Suffrage postcards, please see my book on the subject available either through my publisher, McFarland, or from Amazon.