Beschreibung:

Women's Suffrage: The Hankinson-Goode CollectionEARLY SUFFRAGE MOVEMENTS and THE MEN'S LEAGUECollection of letters and printed ephemera pertaining to early women's suffrage, the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies and the Men's League for Women's Suffrage, comprising: i) Four autograph letters from Priscilla Bright McLaren signed ("P.B. McLaren") to Ethel Wheeler ("My dear Ethel"), mostly on domestic matters, the last mentioning Balfour and the women's suffrage meeting in the House of Commons; with four envelopes and facsimile letters including a 'Greeting to my Suffrage Friends' dated 1901-1902, c.20 pages, 8vo, Belgrave Square, Newington House and elsewhere, 1897-1906; autograph letter signed ("Lydia Becker") on behalf of the Manchester National Society for Women's Suffrage, to W.F Lawrence Esq., M.P., forwarding a copy of a resolution and an invitation to a meeting, one page, 8vo, Parliament Street, London, 10 June 1887; with another from Annie Besant ii) Material relating to the Men's League for Women's Suffrage, including: portrait postcard of pro-suffrage journalist W.J. Stead in prison uniform, signed and inscribed on the mount "'In Memory of 1885'/ New Year 1912/ W.J. Stead", 170 x 115mm., with a signed postcard inscribed 'To the Wicked One' and dated 1910, and two further postcards; with a typed letter signed ("W.J. Stead") to The Editor of the Morning Post, forwarding an advance copy of the Review of Reviews, one page, 4to (257 x 240mm.), London, W.C., 11 October 1893; with various printed leaflets, handbills and membership cards, including Charles Drysdale's Why Men Should Help Women in Their Claim for Enfranchisement published by The MLWS; three handbills ('Great Demonstration in Support of Women's Suffrage... Dec. 17th 1907'), etc. Footnotes'THE TIME HAS COME WHEN THE GOVERNMENT SHALL BE URGED TO REMOVE THE ELECTORAL DISABILITIES OF WOMEN': pioneers of women's suffrage. Several pioneers of women's suffrage in the late nineteenth-century are represented in this collection including Priscilla Bright McLaren (1815-1906), the sister of Radical MP's John and Jacob Bright (who took on the leadership of the suffragettes in parliament). McLaren was active in a wide-range of radical feminist movements throughout her life, was on the executive committee of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, and instigated the Grand Demonstrations of Women in the 1880's in support of women's enfranchisement (see Crawford, Elizabeth, The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928, 1999, p.400-404). Her letter shows a keen interest in current events into old age when, just before she died, she wrote in support of the more militant WSPU women who had recently been arrested and imprisoned. The Men's League for Women's Suffrage was founded in 1907 as a non-militant, non-party organisation which, however, supported the WSPU and the WFL, aiming to put pressure on parliament by constitutional means. Eminent supporters included Henry Nevinson, Henry Brailsford, Laurence Housman Israel Zangwill and Dr Charles Mansell-Moullin who actively campaigned against force feeding. Known as 'the pioneer of investigative journalism' the highly influential campaigner William Thomas Stead (1844-1912) founded the Review of Reviews in 1889 after several years editing the Pall Mall Gazette. He also produced a spiritualist quarterly, Borderland, and died aboard the Titanic.