Suffragette Branding

Local WSPU branches organised garden parties, afternoon teas, bazaars, and fairs that relied on members’ established skills of baking, sewing and embroidery, and their experience of charity fund-raising.

From WSPU headquarters a range of merchandise - including games, badges, ribbons and postcards - was produced and sold, via mail order and at WSPU high street shops. In London alone there were 19 such shops, staffed by willing volunteers.

This was one of several symbolic designs and logos Sylvia created for the WSPU, all part of the Suffragette movement’s unique visual identity.

This was one of several symbolic designs and logos Sylvia created for the WSPU, all part of the Suffragette movement’s unique visual identity.

Over fifty stalls, decorated in purple, white and green, sold items made and donated by Suffragettes or local businesses, keen to appeal to the female consumer.

Stalls were organised and manned by local WSPU branches, including the Millinery Stall, run by the Kensington branch, with donations of hats from leading London stores including the department store Liberty.

To capitalise on the fund raising potential of the event, every stall was expected to display goods with a value of at least £100 (worth almost £10,000 by 2018 values).

The tea service was designed for use in the refreshment stall. Staffed by young volunteers, dressed in green dresses and white muslin aprons with a purple ribbon, this was the most successful and popular of the 50 stalls, taking a total of £600 over the two weeks.

As the Votes for Women newspaper noted: ‘a good idea is to make up parties for tea...One must have tea somewhere – why not at Prince’s? Invite your friends to meet you there for tea’.

At the close of the exhibition, additional funds were raised by selling the tea services - either as individual pieces or whole sets.

Hence many have survived beyond the exhibition, and are still to be found in museums and private collections.

At the Museum of London we hold a sugar bowl, teapot, and cup and saucer.

Many visitors to the exhibition were, according to Votes for Women, previously ‘strangers to the militant cause’.

Many were encouraged to pay the entrance fee after seeing the promotional processions that took place in the days leading up to the event, including the street performances by the newly formed Women’s Drum and Fife Band.

Regarded as a huge triumph by the organisers, the Women’s Exhibition raised in total over £5,000 for the Suffragette 'war chest', and recruited over 250 new members.

Similar large fund-raising bazaars followed, in Glasgow in 1910, and London in 1911, but none quite matched the scale, spectacle, innovation and success of the Women’s Exhibition of 1909.