100 Years On, Posters Offer Window Into Struggles of U.K. Suffragists
As for Ms. Pankhurst, who helped found the Women’s Social
and Political Union, was arrested several times and even went on a hunger strike, The New York Times wrote in 1913: "The hysterical women in England who have been followers of Mrs. Pankhurst in her defiance of law and decency are now threatening to institute a reign of terror.
The institution bills the posters as "one of the largest surviving collections of suffrage posters from the early 20th century." "These posters are fantastic examples
of the suffrage publicity machine of the early 20th century," Chris Burgess, the exhibitions officer at the university’s library, says on the exhibition’s website.
But on Saturday, the images illustrating women’s fight for voting rights went on display for the first time at the university to commemorate
the centenary of the Representation of the People Act of 1918, which gave women over the age of 30 the right to vote.
Last year, Prime Minister Theresa May announced that Mrs. Fawcett would be the first woman to be honored by a statue
in Parliament Square in London, where there are 11 statues of men — giants like Churchill, Lincoln and Mandela.
"They were created to be plastered on walls, torn down by weather or political opponents, so it is highly unusual for this material to be safely stored for over a hundred years." Women such as Millicent Garrett Fawcett
and Emmeline Pankhurst campaigned for the right to vote for all.
We have all been saying that if woman suffrage is to survive in Great Britain, these militants, who represent
but a small part of the suffrage movement, would surely delay the hour of triumph." But triumph they did.