We have recently acquired several items to add to a growing collection of suffrage objects and ephemera, complementing the Women’s Suffrage Movement Archives. Two of these items attempt to create a light-hearted image of the serious issue of women’s fight for the right to vote. Inexpensive items like these were an accessible way to promote and support the cause.
Elusive Christabel
This metamorphic optical toy alludes to the escape of Christabel Pankhurst to France in 1912 in order to avoid arrest on a charge of conspiracy to commit damage. When the tab at the bottom of the piece is pulled, Christabel magically disappears, and the two policeman who were about to capture her, crash into one another. We have been reluctant to pull the tab except to photograph it as the thin card construction is probably why so few of them have survived. A Manchester-based prop maker has created a prototype which we use for demonstration purposes
Christabel continued to contribute to the Votes For Women newspaper in her exile and many humorous pieces were published regarding her whereabouts.
‘”Oh, where and Oh, where?”‘. Votes for Women. March 29, 1912, p.402.
On September 13 1912 the newspaper revealed that she was safe from arrest in Paris.
‘Miss Christabel Pankhurst’. Votes for Women. September, 1912, p.795.
A photograph in the paper the following week, of her walking past a policeman in Paris, may have been inspiration for the toy.
In September 1914, Christabel returned to London to support the war effort, encouraging women to engage in war work as a way to win their enfranchisement.
Votes For Women Mechanical Card
This mechanical card, when turned using the wheel on the reverse, changes the facial expressions of the Suffragette and policeman five times. It was found by the archivist of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, who felt that it belonged in the UK at a library with a suffrage collection and kindly offered it to the John Rylands Library.
Another example of this card online shows that it was intended as a Christmas card – ours is missing the part with the rhyme below which comically corresponds to the changing faces.
SHE. In country and town,
You can’t keep us down,
We’ll have the suffrage, yet.
HE. If you make such a riot
And will not keep quiet
I’ll have the Suffragette!
SHE. You may, if it please you
But I think I’ll release you
From such a delightful task.
HE. Then I wish you while going
All the good things worth knowing
That you would at this merry time ask.
Here’s wishing you the
Jolliest Christmas-time
of all.