Artists Suffrage League

The Artists Suffrage League was established in January 1907 to assist with the preparations for the 'Mud March' organised by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies in February of that year. However, it continued with the creation of suffrage propaganda specifically for the use of the society. The body of artists involved was responsible for the creation of a large number of banners, illustrated pamphlets, playing cards, posters and even Christmas cards, tea cups, badges, buckles and postcards all aimed at the visual strengthening of their campaign. The artists involved included Emily Ford, May H Barker, Clara Billing, Dora Meeson Coates, Violet Garrard, Bertha Newcombe and Emily J Harding Andrews. The ASL was responsible for the decoration of the Queen's Hall in 1918 which had been organised by the NUWSS.

In 1909 the Suffrage Atelier was formed to encourage submissions from non-professional artists. This 'organisation' was closely involved with the Women’s Freedom League and the Women’s Social and Political Union. An exhibition entitled 'Art for Votes' Sake: Visual Culture and the Women's Suffrage Campaign' was held at the Women's Library, located in East London in 2003.

There also existed the Women's Social and Political Union(WSPU) which was the leading militant organisation campaigning for Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, 1903–1917. Its membership and policies were tightly controlled by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia (although Sylvia was eventually expelled). It was best known for hunger strikes which led to forced feeding, for breaking windows in prominent buildings, and for night-time arson of unoccupied houses and churches.

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