The suffrage banners of Mary Lowndes

Take a look at the banners which featured in the procession organised by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies on 13 June 1908.

Millicent Garrett Fawcett's Scrapbook Suffrage March Poster (1908)Original Source: LSE Library

13 June 1908

The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) chose 13 June 1908 for its second major London demonstration (the first was in February 1907), ending with a rally in the Royal Albert Hall. This poster publicised the procession. It used the image of the bugler girl, calling its comrades to the banner. This image was later used on badges and sent to local suffrage groups. 

Mary Lowndes Album Brighton Banner Design and SwatchesOriginal Source: LSE Library

The Artists’ Suffrage League, founded by Mary Lowndes in 1907, was commissioned by the NUWSS to design and produce banners for this June procession.

Many of these designs are contained in Mary Lowndes’s album, with watercolours and swatches of fabric to be used.

Millicent Garrett Fawcett's Scrapbook Great Procession (1908-06-13)Original Source: LSE Library

The organisers also wanted the procession to be representative of suffrage societies from around the country. This leaflet shows the order of the procession.

Mary Lowndes Album Suffragists at NUWSS DemonstrationOriginal Source: LSE Library

Regional banners

The procession began with banners and bannerettes from the provinces, in alphabetical order.

Mary Lowndes Album Leeds for Liberty Banner DesignOriginal Source: LSE Library

Many local banners have not survived but we have many of the designs for them in Mary Lowndes’s album.

This is the design for Leeds. The fleece, three stars and owls are used on the Leeds coat of arms. Rather than using the Latin motto of the city of Leeds, a new motto was created, ‘Leeds for Liberty’.

Lucy Stone suffrage banner (1908)Original Source: LSE Library

The local societies were followed by a group of colonial and foreign representatives, many of whom were passing through London on their way to an international conference in Amsterdam.

There are banners for Lucy Stone and Susan B Anthony, two American suffragists.

Susan B Anthony suffrage banner (1908)Original Source: LSE Library

International Delegates suffrage banner (1908)Original Source: LSE Library

Behind the International Delegates banner were representatives from Russia, Hungary and South Africa.

Millicent Garrett Fawcett's Scrapbook Great Procession (1908-06)Original Source: LSE Library

Medical women

The next section was followed by medical women and university graduates. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, Elizabeth Wilks, Flora Murray and Elizabeth Knight would have walked with this banner. 

Mary Lowndes Album Marie Curie Banner DesignOriginal Source: LSE Library

Also represented were female medical pioneers. Marie Curie discovered radium in 1898. She usually withheld her name from petitions but she did sign a petition against suffragette imprisonment.

Elizabeth Blackwell suffrage banner (1908)Original Source: LSE Library

Elizabeth Blackwell was the first British woman to qualify as a doctor.

Instead of the Rod of Asclepius (a snake entwined around a rod – the symbol associated with medicine) the snake is around a lamp, and associated with knowledge and life.

Edith Pechey Phipson suffrage banner (1908)Original Source: LSE Library

Edith Pechy Phipson was one of the first women to qualify as a doctor after Elizabeth Garrett.

She had been one of the leaders of the Mud March in February 1907.

She had died on 14 April 1908, so this banner must have been a tribute to her.

Mary Lowndes Album Graduates of London University Banner DesignOriginal Source: LSE Library

University graduates

Female graduates from UK universities followed next wearing their academic gowns. Here is Mary Lowndes’s design for London graduates.

Mary Lowndes Album Cambridge Alumnae Banner Design and SwatchesOriginal Source: LSE Library

This is the design for the Cambridge alumnae.

Press reports noted that these women did not wear academic gowns because the university still refused to grant degrees to women, a position that remained until 1948.

Mrs Christiana Herringham provided pale blue silk for this banner from her travels in India.

Shorthand Writers suffrage banner (1908)Original Source: LSE Library

Writers' banners

Business women were next. The Shorthand Writers’ banner used a quote ‘Speed - Fight on!’, which comes from the epilogue to Robert Browning’s Asolando.

Mary Lowndes Album Scriveners Banner DesignOriginal Source: LSE Library

Mary Lowndes designed a banner for the Women Writers’ Suffrage League. It was worked by Mrs Christiana Herringham and the word ‘Writers’ was substituted for ‘Scriveners’.

Among the women behind this banner were Cicely Hamilton, Evelyn Sharp, Beatrice Harraden and Elizabeth Robins.

Mary Lowndes Album Writers' BannerOriginal Source: LSE Library

Jane Austen suffrage banner (1908)Original Source: LSE Library

Other banners celebrating women writers were ones for Jane Austen, Maria Edgeworth, Fanny Burney, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and George Eliot.

Joan of Arc suffrage banner (1908)Original Source: LSE Library

Famous women from history

Banners commemorating famous women of the past followed. Joan of Arc was a heroine of both the constitutionalists and militant societies. This banner was designed by Barbara Forbes, secretary of the Artists’ Suffrage League. Millicent Garrett Fawcett later wrote a short essay on Joan of Arc and reproduced the crown and crossed swords, emblems used on the banner, in her publication. 

St Catherine of Siena suffrage banner (1908)Original Source: LSE Library

St Catherine of Siena was another woman visionary who combined piety with politics.

The banner was probably designed by Mary Lowndes. Siena’s colours are black and white, and the lily is a symbol associated with St Catherine.

Katharine Bar-Lass suffrage banner (1908)Original Source: LSE Library

Katharine Bar-lass (Katharine Douglas) tried to save King James I by putting her arm in place of a missing locking bar in a door.

This event took place in Perth and perhaps women from there walked behind this banner.

Mary Wollstonecraft suffrage banner (1908)Original Source: LSE Library

Millicent Garrett Fawcett endorsed the work of Mary Wollstonecraft by writing a preface to an edition of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, published in 1891, the first for 40 years.

Caroline Herschel suffrage banner (1908)Original Source: LSE Library

Women scientists

Female scientists were recognised too. Caroline Herschel was an astronomer who discovered five new comets.

Mary Somerville suffrage banner (1908)Original Source: LSE Library

Mary Somerville was a scientist and mathematician. She had signed the 1866 women’s suffrage petition.

Caroline and Mary were jointly elected as the first female members of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1835.

Mary Kingsley suffrage banner (1908)Original Source: LSE Library

Mary Kingsley was a traveller and explorer, although no supporter of women’s suffrage.

Beddoe, Carpenter, Cobbe, Hallett, Manning, Martineau suffrage banner (1908)Original Source: LSE Library

19th-century suffrage campaigners

This banner recognised some of the 19th-century suffrage campaigners, with the exception of Mary Carpenter who was an educationalist.

Josephine Butler suffrage banner (1908)Original Source: LSE Library

Josephine Butler had signed the 1866 women’s suffrage petition, but then decided to concentrate her efforts on the campaign to repeal the Contagious Diseases Acts from the 1860s to 1880s.

She died in 1906, and Millicent Garrett Fawcett hailed her as “the most distinguished Englishwoman of the nineteenth century" in the biography she later wrote on Josephine.

Mary Lowndes Album Lydia Becker Banner DesignOriginal Source: LSE Library

Lydia Becker, a 19th-century suffragist, was represented by the pick and shovel of the pioneer.

She had worked for over 20 years for the cause and founded the Women's Suffrage Journal</>.

Oldham Society for Women's Suffrage (1912)Original Source: LSE Library

This photograph from 1912 shows the Lydia Becker banner in procession in Oldham, worked slightly differently to the design.

Unfortunately, the banner no longer exists.

Mary Lowndes Album Elizabeth Fry Banner DesignOriginal Source: LSE Library

Prison reformer Elizabeth Fry.

Mary Lowndes Album Music Banner DesignOriginal Source: LSE Library

Women's professions

The professions continued with the artists, the musicians and the actors. This is the banner for ‘Music’.

Jenny Lind suffrage banner (1908)Original Source: LSE Library

Jenny Lind was a Swedish opera singer.

Mary Moser suffrage banner (1908)Original Source: LSE Library

Mary Moser and Angelica Kaufmann were among the founding members of the Royal Academy.

Both had banners, although the one for Angelica has disappeared.

Mary Moser was a famous flower painter, as depicted on her banner.

Florence Nightingale suffrage banner (1908)Original Source: LSE Library

Nurses walked behind this banner to Florence Nightingale - a heroine in her own lifetime. The banner received much press attention.

Millicent Garrett Fawcett's Scrapbook Press Cuttings and LeafletsOriginal Source: LSE Library

Women Farmers and Gymnasts were next, followed by the Homemakers, and then Working Women.

NUWSS Procession (1908)Original Source: LSE Library

Mary Lowndes Album Liberal Women of MaryleboneOriginal Source: LSE Library

Female members of political parties followed. This is the design for the Liberal Women of Marylebone.

Suffrage parade (c. 1908)Original Source: LSE Library

May Morris, daughter of William Morris, was a member of the Fabian Society and she designed this banner for the Fabian Women’s Group on 13 June 1908.

Women's Freedom League (Miniature) suffrage banner (1909)Original Source: LSE Library

The Women’s Freedom League (WFL) processed next. It had been in existence for less than year and its banner depicted Holloway where many of its members had been imprisoned. That banner has not survived, but we have a miniature version of it.

Mary Lowndes Album London Society Banner DesignOriginal Source: LSE Library

The hosts of the procession, the London Society of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, closed the procession, with the banners of its many constituencies.

Royal Albert Hall 1908 (1908-06)Original Source: LSE Library

The procession ended at the Royal Albert Hall. Here are crowds outside, with the banner for Doncaster clearly visible, and one for Fanny Burney behind.

Royal Albert Hall 1908 (1908-06-15)Original Source: LSE Library

Miss Philippa Strachey to Millicent Garrett Fawcett (1908-06-22)Original Source: LSE Library

In a letter to Millicent Garrett Fawcett on 22 June 1908, Philippa Strachey praised Mary Lowndes: “She really is splendid. Besides being responsible for the plan of making the procession into a pageant, she actually designed nearly all of the banners herself which I think is a wonderful achievement. Her organising capacities are just as remarkable...."

Mary Lowndes Album Banners and Banner MakingOriginal Source: LSE Library

Mary Lowndes’s ideas for making banners were published in September 1909. She saw it as a skill: “It is not a placard…a banner is a thing to float in the wind, to flicker in the breeze, to flirt its colours for your pleasure, to half show and half conceal a device you long to unravel: you do not want to read it, you want to worship it.”

Credits: Story

Based on research by Elizabeth Crawford @womanandsphere
https://womanandhersphere.com

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