100+ Years of Women's Socio-Political Activism in Derbyshire 1866 - Present

RARE  ANTIQUE SOLID BRASS SUFFRAGETTE  Hand bell with Legs, 12.5 cm x 7 cm, Very collectible figurine Suffragette Bell, Solid and a good weight at 660 grams. The hand bell dates from around 1850-1899

​Handwritten and signed letters by Millicent Fawcett.  Millicent Fawcett is, perhaps, best remembered as a women's suffragist and campaigner for votes for women. She spoke at the inaugural London meeting of the London Suffrage Committee in 1869, an organisation which she had joined and was appointed as its secretary at the age of 19. She was president of the National Union of Women's Suffrage from 1907 to 1919 and did much to finally secure enfranchisement for women. She was also a staunch advocate of higher education for women and she founded the all-women college, Newnham College, Cambridge, in 1871. Millicent Fawcett was encouraged in her work by John Stuart Mill and it was he who introduced her to her husband, Henry Fawcett. Her work in other fields included heading the Commission that was sent to South Africa to investigate reports of the atrocious conditions in Boer concentration camps, campaigns to make child marriages illegal and reforms to the laws relating to prostitution and sexual offences.

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The letters on this occasion do not relate or even discuss Millicent Fawcett's suffrage work (indeed although she had already started to campaign on the issue, the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies would not be formed until 1905) but a series of social and personal affairs between D Campbell and Mrs Fawcett. The letters of which there are 4, were written between 1888 and , while she resided with her daughter and her sister Agnes Garrett, at 2 Gower Street, London (and indeed died there in 1929)  after the death of her husband, Liberal MP  Henry Fawcett in 1884. The letter headed paper clearly shows her Gower St address. 

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Provenance: From a  reputable dealer who specialises in antique letters. The signature has also be checked against letters held by various organistions including The Women's Library, and are found to be identical.  Research is ongoing regarding the persons mentioned in the letters, especially Mr D Campbell. 

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Question: Which Derbyshire Woman herself a pioneer of the Suffrage Movement, was cousin to Millicent Fawcett?

Which Derbyshire sisters, one of whom was a hunger striker,  would together with Millicent Fawcett contribute to the cleaning and reinstating of a statue of Queen Elizabeth I statue at St Dunstan's In the West?  

These amazing miniatures, credited to reknown miniature makers,  Al Charles / Cliff Sanderson,  are not antiques but are something of a rare find all the same and with one exception, one figure holding the banner has come adrift of the base, are in great condition. The miniatures are made from unpainted handcast lead, Circa 1980 (1:32 scale), and would normally be painted in the historical suffrage colours. The 1:32 scale is a traditional scale for models and miniatures, in which one unit (such as an inch or a centimetre) on the model represents 32 units on the actual object. Here we suggest, given the subject matter, that the figures are suffragettes, rather than suffragists as they depict engagement in the kinds of activities and outcomes associated with Women's Social and Political Union activism and the women who later became hailed as 'Suffragettes'. 

One figurine bears the Sanderson mark but it is believed that they were made by the Sannderson and Charles together. Despite being unpainted the detail in the figurines is amazing and we clearly see that collectively they depict a suffragette activism towards realising 'Votes For Women'. 

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Question: What was the motto of the, Women's Social and Political Union, the WSPU? How did suffragettes differ from other groups working for women's suffrage?

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1900s SUFFRAGETTE , VOTES FOR WOMEN PIN BADGE.

Around 1908 the WSPU emblazoned themselves with green, white and violet as their emblematic colors. The spectacle of women marching through the streets on London and Manchester bedecked in the banners and badges of the movement was essential to propelling the crusade forward and was encouraged at rallies and marches. Special medals were awarded to women who were jailed for their participation and these were displayed proudly dangling from green, white and violet ribbons, some with additional bars added for each action in which they participated. 

The Tri-colour:

"Purple is the royal colour. It stands for the royal blood that flows in the veins of every suffragette, the instinct of freedom and dignity… white stands for purity in private and public life… green is the colour of hope. – Mrs. Pethick Lawrence WSPU treasurer"

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We have not been able to find an exact match for this badge but it is of the period and the design may simply be an individual one. That is, it was not uncommon for women to embellish and personalize suffrage ribbon and or use the tri-colour in different ways to personalise outfit, hats and jewellery.  Whatever the case, once made/fashioned badges like this one  were worn with honour and pride, displaying their message to all who saw them. 

Question: What  additional secret meanings were ascribed to the suffragette tri colour? Clue is in the first letter of each colour Green, White  and Violet!

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Latest Collection Item:

Author: 'Gwen John' [Gladys Jones], sister of the suffragette Winifred Jones [Harold Frederick Rubinstein (1891-1975), playwright; Victor Gollancz (1893-1967), publisher; Millicent Fawcett]

Publisher: Letters by 'Gwen John' both on letterheads of 2nd Floor South 9 Old Square Lincoln's Inn WC2; 11 January and 1 May 1927. Gollancz's letter on letterhead of Ernest Benn Limited; 24 July 1924. Play published by Basil Blackwell Oxford 1923 Book ID: 14907
Price: GBP 450.0
Description: Chesterfield, Derbyshire born, Gladys Jones ('Gwen John') lived with her sister the suffragette Winifred Jones in Lincoln's Inn. Her play 'The Prince' - three corrected copies of which are in the present collection as Items Three to Five - was retitled 'Gloriana' [= Elizabeth I] when performed at the Adelphi Theatre in London in December 1925, with a youthful John Gielgud in the role of Sir John Harrington.

Items One, Six and Seven below relate to the volume 'Plays of Innocence' by 'Gwen John', published in 1925 by Ernest Benn (by whom Victor Gollancz was then employed). Jones was also author of the biography 'Queen Elizabeth' (1924), and together with her sister and Millicent Fawcett and her sister Agnes Garrett she paid for the restoration of a statue of the monarch now in a niche on the facade of St Dunstan in the West. The present collection consists of eight items, and is in good overall condition, with the letters lightly-aged and worn, and holes to one corner where they were attached to one another. ONE: ALS from Jones to Rubinstein. 11 January 1925. 2pp., 12mo. She begins by asking Rubinstein to return 'the mss. of three very slight sketches' by her, which he did not 'think worth sending on to Mr. Gollancz'. 'Mr Gollancz likes On the Road and A Peakland Wakes - and does not dislike A Tale that is Told very much - so I have sent him a fourth folk play, which would make a volume in all. I wish he would do them, but I have my doubts. He does not think that the other plays blend with the peasant ones - and I don't think he likes those others at all!'

Rubinstein's answer to this letter is Item Eight below.

TWO: ALS from Jones to Rubinstein. 1 May 1927. 1p., 12mo. She has sent him a play, and asks him to read it and 'pass it on to Messrs. Benn. If you don't like it I shall understand. I'm not sure that I should like it.'

THREE to FIVE: Three copies of the play 'The Prince' by 'Gwen John', published by Blackwell as his 'British Drama League Library of Modern British Drama No. 6'. Each xv + 94 + [4]pp., 12mo, with frontispiece, and in brown printed boards. Each with ownership inscription by Jones, either to the same address in Lincoln's Inn as on the letters, or to Asthall, Burford, Oxford. All three copies are in fair condition, in heavily worn wraps, with taped repair to the spine of one copy. In two of the copies the title is amended in autograph (one on front cover and one on title page) to 'Gloriana'. Each of the three carries autograph emendations. In one copy - marked on cover 'Author's Copy. Corrected & cut.' - these changes are copious, and inserted into that copy are also three typed 12mo pages of additional text, two of them before p.1 and one tipped in onto p.62. In the other two copies the changes are slight, but in one of them Jones writes among the prelims: 'The cast can be cut down considerably doubling & trebling on lesser parts; as was done at the Little Theatre (Adelphi) & also when produced at the Maddermarket, Norwich.' SIX: TLS from Gollancz to Rubinstein ('Dear Harold'). 1p., 4to. He lists ten 'plays by Gwen John' which he is sending to Rubinstein. 'She particularly requested that you should have an opportunity of reading these'. SEVEN and EIGHT: Carbon copies of two letters [from Rubinstein] to 'Miss Gwen John', 31 July 1924 and 12 January 1925. Both 1p., 4to. With slight creasing to extremities. He begins the first letter by stating 'how much I enjoyed reading your little plays which were sent to me from Benn'. He has 'recommended them to publish six or seven', and gives the titles of those he has 'excluded'. 'I don't know how the idea appeals to you. In any case I must warn you that Victor Gollancz and I don't always agree in our opinion of plays. I shall be very angry with him if he does not like at any rate the dialect plays!' In the second letter he informs her that he has 'passed all your Plays on to Mr. Gollancz', and explains how 'the three sketches' which he did not recommend have become 'detached from the others'. 

​Question:Which of the Jones' sisters was imprisoned and force-fed for her WSPU  activism?  

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Our latest acquisition includes, newsclippings, photographs and a signature of  Suffragette actress, Miss Lena Ashwell  OBE 28th September  -13th March 1937. Lena Ashwell was a British Actress, Theatre Manager and producer recognised as the first to organise large-scale entertainment for troops at the front which she did during WW1.

Clear signature Lena Ashwell on colour page from a journal measuring 6"x7" together with 2 black and white picture of her. The file includes details of her career r and a picture of her grave.

In February 1914 Ashwell was one of the founder members of the new United Suffragists group led by Pethick-Lawrences which broke away from the moderate NUWSS and the militant WSPU suffragettes seeking women's rights.

The file also includes newspaper clipping 'Suffragists On Trial' regarding the trial of three Suffragist leaders

Mrs Pankhurst and Mr and Mrs Pethwick Lawrence for damage to property and soliciting members to cause more damage.

In 1908 the Women Writers Suffrage League was formed and later that year the sister organisation the Actresses Franchise League was formed actresses that joined included Lena Ashwell Sybil Thorndike Winifred Mayo and many others.

On the outbreak of WW1 in August 1914 the AFL at the instigation of Lens Ashwell launched the Women's Theatre Camps Entertainments which travelled around camps and hospitals she went to the Western Front with actors singers and entertainers to perform for the troops.by the end of the war there were 25 of them travelling along the Western Front entertaining troops and putting their own lives at risk.

Ashwell herself travelled to the front she organised all-male concert parties to perform shows near to the front line.

Her ashes are buried with her Husband's in Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh.

Question: Name one play that Lena Ashwell performed in.

All housed in a glass clip frame.

Nottingham Debating Society - lecture by Adela Pankhurst, suffragette, Oct. 1911

Programme card (opened) measures 19.0 cm x 12.5 cm.

Programme card is for the Nottingham Cosmopolitan Debating Society which met at 2.30 pm every Sunday afternoon at Burton Buildings, Parliament Street.

Weekly lectures included, on 22nd October 1911, a lecture given by Miss Adela Pankhurst, daughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, entitled 'Sweated Women Workers and how the Women's Votes can help them'.  

Condition: excellent; no significant faults.

Question:Why do we hear so little about Adela Pankhurst in discussions of the Pankhurst family and their fight for women's suffrage?

Newly acquired is this amazing report 1915 -1917 on the work of The Bergman Osterberg College of Physical Education. 

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Martina Bergman-Österberg was a Swedish-born physical education instructor and women's suffrage advocate who set up the first physical education teacher training programme for women in England. She thereby created a new profession for women in the British labour market.

Martina Bergman-Österberg is uniformly described as somewhat of an iron lady who left a major impact on her surroundings. She was a strict perfectionist who was extremely demanding of her students. Not just anyone was accepted into Dartford. The selection process was taxing and many did not succeed. Martina Bergman-Österberg was reputedly even known as “Napoleon”. According to her niece, Anna Broman, who was also a teacher at Dartford College, Martina Bergman-Österberg once said to her students that “no student of mine ever says ‘I cannot’.

 Martina Bergman-Österberg became a very wealthy woman and also donated large sums of money and properties to the Landsförening för kvinnans politiska rösträtt (LKPR, Swedish national association for women’s suffrage) and the Fredrika Bremer association.

Martina Bergman-Österberg died of cancer in 1915.

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Question: Which Swedish Suffrage figurehead who also lived with Martina in England and is said to have been influenced her politics, was Martina Bergman-Österberg related to? 

Newly acquired is this amazing 16 page original copy of the  New Leader Incorporating 'The Labour Leader'

April 20th 1923

By Arthur Ponsonby / H.N. Brailsford (Ed.) F.W. Pethick Lawrence

London:
The New Leader
1923 (1st Edition)

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Includes the following articles: The Budget - Shameless Class Legislation (F.W. Pethick Lawrence); Sound Finance (Arthur Ponsonby); Turkish Railways and Russian Bishops (H.N. Brailsford). Frederick William Pethick-Lawrence, 1st Baron Pethick-Lawrence, PC (28 December 1871 – 10 September 1961) was a British Labour politician, and was a vocal and visible campaigner for women's suffrage.

Question: What was the collective contribution of the Pethick-Lawrence's to Women's Suffrage? 

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We have recently acquired 6 amazing Jackdaw publications, which includes number 16, the 1968 publication on the Vote, 1832-1928. This folder is complied by  J Langdon-Davies

Published by Jonathan Cape /Jackdaw Publications (1965)

Collection of reproduced documents on the campaign for the vote from 1832 to 1928. 

• Includes: One introductory sheet, 4 reproductions of contemporary documents, one sheet of text, 4 sheets of illus. and 6 broadsheets. Includes a bibliography.

Question: When did most all men win the right to vote.

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Seven letters from Neville Bulwer-Lytton [1879-1951] Olympian [winner of a bronze medal at Real Tennis at the 1908 Olympics], tennis champion and artist. The letters are to 'M. Fleury', French flautist. The most poignant, and perhaps the most relevant letter for this blog, is the letter in which he conveys the news that his sister (a famous/infamous suffragette) had been paralysed [she had suffered a stroke years before, possibly as a result of being force fed in prison while on hunger strike] and perhaps her death had been a 'deliverance'. This 'infamous' suffragette, had an alter ego Jane Warton, the pseudonym she used when she joined the WSPU. This suffragette was also has a link to a Derbyshire suffragette, Winifred Jones, in that they were both imprisoned together.

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Question: Who was his famous sister? What key role did she play in the WSPU and in the British suffrage movement in general?

In celebration of Black History Month UK 2019 we have chosen a figure from our archive which highlights an element of History.

Mammy, which rooted in slavery and the hierarchy of the races,  is perhaps the most well known and enduring racial caricature of African American women. A mammy, also spelled mammie, is a  well known American stereotype, especially in the Southern United States, of a black woman who worked  (first in in enslavement, then in servitude) in a white family and nursed the family's children. Indeed, during slavery black women would give birth only to see their own children sold off  while the mother's milk would be used to feed the babies of the white family they belonged to. The mammy represents both women and girls who had their identities restricted and distorted in ways that made slavery palatable, acceptable and even necessary. .During slavery, the mammy caricature was posited as proof that blacks -- in this case, black women -- were contented, even happy, as slaves. Her wide grin, hearty laughter, and loyal servitude were offered as evidence of the supposed humanity of the institution of slavery.This was the mammy caricature, and, like all caricatures, it contained a little truth surrounded by a larger lie. The caricature portrayed an obese, coarse, maternal figure. She had great love for her white "family," but often treated her own family with disdain. Although she had children, sometimes many, she was completely desexualized. She "belonged" to the white family, though it was rarely stated. Unlike Sambo, she was a faithful worker. She had no black friends; the white family was her entire world. Obviously, the mammy caricature was more myth than accurate portrayal. 

Question: This particular doll is made into a bell. Why might the latter add insult to injury

Task:Look carefully at the image of the black Mammie Doll. What imagine does it convey to you about black women?

The Listener was a weekly magazine established by the BBC in January 1929 which ceased publication in 1991. The magazines are a wonderful resource of news and contemporary thought - giving insight to the news, politics and current affairs of the world - a truly fascinating look back at history as it was actually happening!  However, although all the articles are  well written and illustrated, the one of most interest is the article on The Future of Domestic Service by Violet Markham.

Question:So who was Violet Markham? What were her challenges and achievements?

Pamphlet of poetry by Derbyshire miners wives' published by Derbyshire Women's Action Group. This copy is signed with a dedication by one of the authors, Betty Heathfield. In January 2012 the thirty strong group of in Chesterfield's (a collective of former miner's wives and their supporters)  made international headlines after protesting against the favourable portrayal of former Conservative Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher in the film, The Iron Lady. They protested outside Chesterfield's Cineworld Cinema at the first screening of the film in the town. The group contend that the real iron ladies are the women of the coalfields who defied government policy during the 1984-5 miner's strike.

Question: Who was Betty Heathfield and which  organisation did she lead?

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JACKDAW No. 49 - Women In Revolt : The Fight for Emancipation

A compiled portfolio which includes original copies of important documents chronicling the fight for emancipation/women's rights. 

Included are the following original document copies:

Minutes of a meeting of the medical school committee of the Middlesex Hospital, June 1861 "Women's Rights, 1881" : A Victorian cotton-print (note: "1881 is misprinted as "1981" in the bibliography) Letter from a Newnham College student, Helene Stoer, to her sister, 1890 Leaflet advocating votes for women issued by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies Note smuggled from Holloway Prison by a hunger striker Pages from The Daily Sketch, November 19th, 1910 Notice issued by Scotland Yard concerning wanted suffragettes "PANKO", or suffragists versus anti-suffragists: a card game Four photographs from the catalogue of the Sweated Industries Exhibition, 1906 Chart : Women in Revolt 1743-1967 Seven Broadsheets: The prison house of home The petticoat rebellion The Right to learn Votes in the drawing room Votes for women Women & work Husbands and other problems. An invaluable documentation of the women's rights movement. 

Question: What year was this Jackdaw compiled? 

Question: Who compiled the portfolio?

A collection of 12 complete French Language Newspapers between 1890 and 1916, using images and words to tell the story of suffrage movements around the world. The imagery speaks volumes about a movement of 'Votes For Women' which started with small seemingly isolated actions and words and gathered momentum as it caught fire and grew into a worldwide movement. This is a truly wonderful and unique find...

"How woman fought for the vote. A full illustrated guide to the new series" published by the BBC, is 63 pages filled with countless colour and b/w photos from the series with lots of information on the history of the Suffragette movement with period photos, illustrations, etc. The magazine is broken down into chapters like the TV series. This month’s question is twofold – 1) When was the magazine published and the TV series broadcast? And, 2) how many episodes made up this iconic series illustrated in the magazine? When did women in France win the right to vote and stand in general elections?

April 2019: We are chuffed to share our copy of this groundbreaking first edition study of, The Makers of Our Clothes; A Case For Trade Boards, by Mrs. Carl Meyer; Clementina Black, 1909.

But who was Mrs. Carl Meyer and who was Clementina Black? Why was this study and the work of the latter, in particular, considered pioneering?

The Book by itself is an amazing acquisition, then we saw that it was a Presentation Copy! A presentation copy is a copy of a book that is dedicated, illustrated, or signed (without request) by the author/s, or a book that was a gift from the author/s to a particular person or organisation. This copy was gifted to the President of The Board of Trade in 1909. So we then did a bit of research (it really did not take much!) to find out who the President of the Board of Trade was when the book was published and gifted in 1909. We figured that whoever it was would have at least held the book in their hands, and given the subsequent reforms introduced under their tenure in post, read and understood the contents. Alongside the questions, who was Mrs Carl Meyer?  Who was Clementina Black?...we will leave you to find out who the President of the Board of Trade was between 1908 and 1910. Important, though the recipient is to many, the real star for us it is the woman who consistently fought for women's right to vote, to unionise and as workers, this is and always will be Cementina Black. We also have a number of Clementina's handwritten/signed letters in our collection...

March 2019: We have recently acquired this amazing publication by leading Suffrage artists using words and images to illustrate the irony of the some Anti-Suffrage rhetoric. This rare, original pamphlet is 14 pages in length filled with illustrations and tongue-in-cheek poems

But what are the names of the artists? Who published this pamphlet?

We have recently acquired a set of eight original postcards which feature events which put women in the West at the centre of peace movements and demonstrated the power of non-violent action in the 1980s. 

But what was the name of the protest? how long did it last for? and how many women were directly involved? Too see the postcards and other memorabilia depicting the place and role of women in 'Peace Movements' then do look out for our upcoming exhibition and event 'Disarming Women on September 21st 2019. More information will follow closer to the time.

The Suffragette movement produced toys and games to popularise its ideas and activities. This board game was distributed and sold through a network of high-street shops run by the Women’s Social and Political Union, was first advertised in Votes for Women on October 22, 1909.  

The game takes its name from Emmeline Pankhurst and Herbert Asquith. Asquith advocated denying women the right to vote. As a result, his house became a target of the British suffragette movement’s mass window-breaking campaign in the early 20th century. 

 A copy of the board game complete with 6 lead figures, board and original rules figures  was sold in 2009 for £4080 (see www.bonhams.com/auction/16862/lot/129/. 

Another copy, consisting of six lead figures, dice and rules (but no board) sold for  £620 – six times its original estimate of £80-£120­– at the Derbyshire’s Hansons' Auctioneer’s saleroom in Etwall, near Derby, on March 27, 2018. Sadly we have only 2 of the figures in our possession, but we cherish them all the same.

We have acquired a 1925 hardback copy of Gwen John’s Plays of Innocence. Gwen John', real name Gladys Jones, was a dramatist, philanthropist and suffrage campaigner alongside her sister imprisoned suffragette Winifred Jones.   As well as writing and directing many plays Gwen John also famously restored a statue of a famous woman figurehead. Whose statue did Gwen help to restore?  Which other women contributed to the restoration? Clues lie in the heart of London, with her sister Winifred and with a famous suffragist leader.

 November 2018: What do you know about Women’s contribution to WW II?

To help you in your journey of learning more, we are showcasing items from our Women's Land Army Collection. These items belonged to a Miss Dora Taylor, born in Berlin in 1924. Miss Taylor settled in Bakewell, Derbyshire some time before the war and returned to live there after 2 years’ service in the Women's Land Army. Dora later moved to Chester where she died in 2007. The items which were obtained from an online auction house includes; a photocopy of Dora's ration book (the only photocopied item in the collection which lists her residence in 1947 at 2 Castle Street Bakewell); a biographical summary of Dora's life (obtained from the relatives who sold the items) also makes for very interesting reading. All the other items, we are told, including, photographs, letters, badges etc (from Dora's service and involvement in two hostels at Wilden, Worcestershire and Rockingham near Corby) are genuine and original.  We hope you enjoy learning about these items and, if you are eager to find out more about women's contribution to the 'War Effort' and the WLA specifically please go to https://www.womenslandarmy.co.uk/tag/derbyshire/

October 2018: This 1970 article from LIFE Magazine '1970 Women Arise' profiles women from the Women's protesters Liberation Movement.

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What is the link between the Suffrage and Women Liberation Movements in the USA and the UK and Why is it so very important to look beyond movements in the West to look at developing economies and countries like China, South Africa, Brazil, India and Japan?

To read more and discuss the link between women across intersections of race, class, disability, sexual orientation and location..join us at one of our archive evening events coming soon. 

What does Purvis' article add to the discussion on women's History and what remains a gap in the ways those HERstories are written, who writes them and the content of what is written, read and valued?

To read more and discuss who is missing and why?...join us at one of our archive evening events coming soon. 

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"...in the making of women’s history in the twentieth century, both in Britain and the United States, it was ‘second wave’ feminist historians, influenced by the new approaches advocated by social history, who forged the path. As activists in the women’s liberation, discussing and analysing the oppression and inequalities they experienced as women, they inevitably sought to find out about the lives of their foremothers – and found very little. History was written mainly by men and about men’s activities in the public sphere – war, politics, diplomacy and administration. Women were largely excluded and, when mentioned, were usually portrayed in sex-stereotypical roles, such as wives, mothers, daughters and mistresses. History was value laden in regard to what was considered historically ‘worthy’. Generalisations about humanity in the past had been based on what men had done". 

Source: June Purvis | Published in History Today Volume 54 Issue 11 November 2004  

August  2018: 11 back copies of History today 1985 including a fantastic article from June 1985. ...but which article is it and why is it so relevant 33 years later? 

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September 2018: In August 2018 we showcased 11 back copies of History Today from 1985 including a fantastic article from June 1985....We asked you to do some research to identify the article and to think why it was so relevant 33 years later.

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To read more and discuss who is missing and why, come and visit one of our archives evening events coming soon. 

What's this item about? What makes it interesting? Write a catchy description to grab your audience's attention...

Essentially Processions is a Project led by art organisation Artichoke. The Procession, from the perspective of the organisers, was in fact not a protest at all, but an art installation. However, the women who participated made the event their own. The women who spent hours in thought, planning, stitching, painting and drawing…made the event a celebration, an act of remembrance and gratitude, a call to action and a protest and whatever else they conceived it to be! For Deeds Not Words Towards Liberation the main aim was to address the seeming ‘invisibility’ of Derby and Derbyshire women at Suffrage marches and processions of the past. In the process of undertaking research for the Project, we found no image or words to suggest that the women of Derby and Derbyshire were present at key suffrage gatherings, marches or processions (for example in 1905, 1907 or 1915). If mentioned at all, local women were subsumed under the umbrella of ‘East Midlands’ and or as ‘Nottingham’. Yet from that research also uncovered the contribution and activism of some amazing women from our County and City. So we feel it fair enough to conclude that some of these amazing women must have had a presence at some of these events. Processions gave us the opportunity to 'right' this lack of a specific mention of Derby and or Derbyshire women in the records and to provide evidence for future historical records – that we were there!

Which Chesterfield born, former Member of Parliament,  who later became the Member of the European Parliament for Greater Manchester from 1979 to 1989. Who is described as being one of the most significant Labour Party politicians of the 20th century, served in the Cabinet under Prime Minister Harold Wilson in a number of roles, including as Secretary of State for Employment, Secretary of State for Health and Social Services, and First Secretary of State has signed and made notations in this 12 page pamphlet, 'Reorganisation of the Cotton Industry', 1959?

May 2018: Check out this March 29, 1980 copy of  NME Women in Rock.   

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The article gives an interesting insight into women led bands at the time. In some ways the article suggests we have retrograde steps in relation to  women musicians. Indeed in many ways women musicians have been written out of music history.

Do you recognise any of the bands featured. Are there other bands which you think should have been included. One additional note of potential interest is the mention of Derby in the Classified Ads, a band playing at the Blue Note....Where you there? 

Check out this 1978 copy of  an article of an interview with the original members of the Slits - Britain's first all female punk band. 

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The interview gives an interesting insight into the bands raison d'etre and perspective. 

A film about the history of the Slits, Here to be Heard,  is currently on tour and will come to Derby again (they were here in January) on 18th April, 2018 Don't forget to book your tickets! ....Alongside the film Here to Be Heard being screened - 2 members of the band will also visit Derby for an after show Q&A...exciting stuff! Do you know which members will be present at he Q&A?

Check out: https://www.facebook.com/events/1671322822914461/

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The Programme is packed full of workshops, taster sessions and celebratory activities.

But also Includes a bullet point list of the 1971 Charter of Women's Rights....Can you list the 6 main demands/points highlighted by the Charter?

In addition to being a pioneering interior designer this amazing woman was also an author, sat on the first executive board of the NUWSS (for she which gave many early speeches and campsigned tirelessly before her untimely death from Typhoid in 1882).

Which Derby suffragist, Communist anti-war campaigner was born in Derby on January 27th? She, along with several members of her family were infamously tried and convicted of conspiracy to commit murder based on very questionable evidence and a less than fair trial. Find out more about this Derby Woman of Valour in our Derbyshire100 Women List. 

This is postcard is one from a collection of around 20 postcards of the  Diocesan Teacher Training College in Derby at which hundreds, if not thousands of women trained to become educators in the County and much further afield.   But where is this building today? 

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This is an image of the original 1930's Derby Bus Station prior to its redevelopment....Why did Derby Bus Station hit the headlines in 2006? Which of our 100+ Derbyshire Women are responsible for the activism which led to national and even international coverage of Derby Bus Station?

The Month we are featuring a letter written by a famous 19th Century Derbyshire born actress and Theatre Director with the initials M.L. Question: Name at least one West End Theatre amd one play which she performed in? 

The Month we are featuring a panel made for our Deeds Not Words 100+ Years of Women's Social and Political Activism in Derbyshire wall hanging. This panel  depicts the 11 women in Derbyshire who signed the 1866 Votes for Women Petition. Question: What were the Names of the 11 signatories to the Petition? We are hosting more workshops this time in Derby for people to come along and help to create more panels starting Sept 20th 11.30am to 1pm. Everyone is welcome. 

The item being signed will feature in our exhibitions in 2017. But who is signing it and which script is it? A clue is in the visible part of the photograph.

The Month we haven't quite gone for an item associated with Derby or Derbyshire but have chosen to focus on an item of HERitage which has permeated the Women's Movement over the last 100 years or so....The colours depicted in the Flag have long been associated with the The Women's Movement in its various forms....When was it first used? What do the colours symbolise?

Which 48 playing card game, named after Emmeline Pankhurst and sold to ensure the campaign for universal women’s votes remained in the the media limelight, featured cartoons by E.T. Reed of Punch magazine and was coloured purple and white on one side and on the reverse? 

Badges are an interesting and easy way of spreading campaign slogans and messages. This one was used by a reknown suffragist organisation some 100+ years ago to create a sense of comraderie and corporate identity. Can you identify the organisation in question?

What is the link between two Derby Women, who went on to fight on a platform of consumer based issues, and the founding of a national organisation in 1974?

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Image courtesy of Derby Telegraph: 

An interesting and iconic image and one that was used again and again throughout various suffrage campaigns...but what is the link between this image and a Derby born artist?

Question: Which Chesterfield born sisters  together with Millicent Fawcett and her sister Agnes Garrett financed the restoration of the Statue of Queen Elizabeth I at St Dunstan’s in the West in 1828?

Question: Which former JP and Mayor of Derby authorised her stamp on hundreds (perhaps thousands) of  King George's Coronation mugs? It is believed that she then gave these mugs away to children and young people who had achieved various goals.