Graphical version

Women's Library

ROBERTS, M E


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 106 7MER

Held at: Women's Library

Title: ROBERTS, M E

Date(s): 1909-1938

Level of description: Collection

Extent: 0.5 A box (2 folders)

Name of creator(s): Roberts | ME | fl 1881-1968 | suffragette

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

ME Roberts (fl 1881-1968) was born around 1881. She became a member of the Sheffield branch of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) around 1906 before leaving this to join the local branch of the Women's Freedom League which came into being around Dec 1908 after Charlotte Despard and her associates followers broke away from the Pankhursts and other WSPU's leaders. Roberts seems to have taken part in the Pageant of Women that was held in Sheffield in 1910. She would later become the local secretary of the Sheffield WFL. In 1909 she took part in a deputation to 10 Downing Street to hand in a petition to the Prime Minister. She kept an interest in the militant suffrage movement throughout the 1930s, keeping in correspondence with the Record Room of the Suffragette Fellowship. In 1940 she moved to Liverpool where she lived for the rest of her life. She retired to a home around 1968.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

The archive consists of leaflets and press cuttings concerning the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), the Women's Freedom League and other suffrage organisations (c 1907-1918); postcard portrait of Mrs Despard (undated); WSPU postcard (undated); notebook of visit to Downing Street to present petition (1919); correspondence with the Suffragette Fellowship Reading Room (1937-1938).

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

This collection is available for research. Readers are advised to contact The Women's Library in advance of their first visit.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

Fawcett Library Catalogue

Detailed catalogue

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

In 1968 Mrs Roberts, then aged 87, donated these papers to the Fawcett through her niece, Mrs Winifred Fisher.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related material:

The papers of are also held by the Women's Library (2WFL). The Women's Library holds the records the Women's Freedom League (2WFL), as well as the records of a number of militant, Women's Social & Political Union members, including Emily Wilding Davison (7EWD) and Louisa Garrett Anderson (7LGA). The records of the Women's Social & Political Union are held at The Museum of London. The Women's Library Printed Collections also holds a number of publications by the Women's Freedom League and the Women's Social & Political Union.

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Archivist's note: Finding aid created by export from CALM v7.2.14 Archives Hub EAD2002. Edited for AIM25 by Sarah Drewery.

Rules or conventions: In compliance with ISAD (G): General International Standard Archival Description - 2nd Edition (1999); UNESCO Thesaurus, December 2001; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: 05/03/2008


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Associations | Organizations
Women | Sex | Sex distribution
Womens rights | Rights of special groups
Womens suffrage | Electoral systems | Internal politics

Personal names
Asquith | Herbert Henry | 1852-1928 | 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith | statesman x Oxford and Asquith | 1st Earl of
Despard | Charlotte | 1844-1939 | nee French | feminist and socialist reformer
Roberts | M E | fl 1881 | suffragette

Corporate names
Suffragette Fellowship
Women's Freedom League
Women's Social and Political Union

Places