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Overview
This crepe paper napkin is a souvenir of a major suffrage rally held in London in 1910, at which a number of New Zealand campaigners were present. As a form of material culture it is an interesting example of a low-cost decorative souvenir which also serves an informative function.
New Zealanders and the British Suffrage Movement
This napkin was created for a ‘Votes for Women’ procession held in London on 23 July 1910, one of nine major suffrage processions held between 1907 and 1913. Campaigners hoped to achieve suffrage by parliamentary means, and both ‘constitutional suffragists’ and the more militant WSPU were involved in the rally (MoAD). Thousands of suffragettes and sympathisers, forty bands and a Prisoners’ Pageant of 617 women representing suffragette imprisonments all marched to Hyde Park, where forty platforms had been set up for speakers. A resolution in support of the Conciliation Bill, which would have given some women the right to vote, was passed almost unanimously at the conclusion of the rally.
Women from countries all over the world marched in the rally, and according to the Evenings Star’s Lady Correspondent the representatives from New Zealand, Australia, and Norway were ‘of special importance as possessors of a vote.’ The New Zealand representatives, led by Lady Stout, included Dr Alice Burn, Mr and Mrs Braddon, Mrs R. Deacon, The Misses Feldwick (3), Mrs Blair, Dr Eva Meredith, Miss George, Mrs Dransfield, Miss Fosbery, Mr and Mrs Gray, Mrs Palmer, Miss MacLean, Miss Batkin, Miss Balan, Miss Vaughan [and] Mrs Cooper. They all marched behind a banner reading ‘New Zealand’ and the New Zealand flag (see Evening Star, 9 September 1910).
New Zealanders such as Lady Anna Stout were important supporters of the suffrage cause in Britain. Stout used her experiences to counter the arguments of anti-suffrage campaigners, and worked hard ‘to assure anti-suffragists that the women’s vote in New Zealand had not led to the collapse of society’ (Te Papa). Other New Zealanders aligned with the WSPU were involved in more militant activities such as window-smashing and arson. Waimate-born Frances Parker, for example, was imprisoned in Scotland in 1914 for attempting to blow up the cottage in which poet Robbie Burns was born.
Souvenir napkins
Souvenir napkins first appeared in Britain in 1887 when John Dickinson Ltd printed napkins for their annual dinner. The novelty took off and napkins were soon printed for many major events and commemorations. As well as providing helpful information on the day the napkins were affordable souvenirs, and many were framed and used as decoration. Napkins pre-printed with decorative borders were imported from Japan in quantity and overprinted in London by local firms. The napkins were produced quickly so were often printed with mistakes or grammatical errors, and with the woodcut misaligned. Here the purple and green used for the border is very appropriate for the procession (they are suffrage colours), but because they were pre-printed the same borders were used for unrelated events such as a pageant of the new Lord Mayor in 1908.
Sarah Burgess of the Strand, London, was one of the main producers of souvenir napkins. Known as ‘Auntie’, Burgess had a swag shop in London for almost fifty years and supplied local street vendors with all manner of novelties (see Good Morning, 20 June 1945). Burgess created souvenir napkins for a number of demonstrations as well as coronations, shows and exhibitions. Her suffrage souvenirs were not officially sanctioned by the WSPU, but they cited the popularity of the napkins as evidence of the movement’s public interest (Florey 2013, 108).
References
- Crawford, Elizabeth, 2019. Ephemera: Mrs Sarah Burgess, Printer. Woman and her Sphere blog. https://womanandhersphere.com/2019/09/12/ephemera-mrs-sarah-burgess-printer/
- Florey, Kenneth, 2013. Women’s Suffrage Memorabilia: An Illustrated Historical Study. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company.
- Mellby, Julie L. 2009. Souvenir serviettes. Exhibitions, acquisitions, and other highlights from the Graphic Arts Collection, Princeton University Library. https://www.princeton.edu/~graphicarts/2009/08/souvenir_serviettes.html
- Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 2018. Anna Stout. NZ History website. https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/anna-stout-2
- Museum of Australian Democracy (MoAD), n.d. Souvenir Programme for Women’s Suffrage Demonstration. Collections Online, ID #2011-0038. https://collection.moadoph.gov.au/objects/2011-0038/
- Museum of London, 2020. Napkin. Collections Online, ID63.104/18. https://collections.museumoflondon.org.uk/online/object/493061.html
- Te Papa, n.d. New Zealanders and the British Suffrage Movement. https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/discover-collections/read-watch-play/history/new-zealanders-and-british-suffrage-movement