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Women's Library

Suffrage and Women in Industry: (Autograph Letter Collection)


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 106 9/09

Held at: Women's Library

Title: Suffrage and Women in Industry: (Autograph Letter Collection)

Date(s): 1902-1916

Level of description: Collection

Extent: 1 A box (1 volume)

Name of creator(s): Various

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

In the 1860s, a number of individuals such as Bessie Rayner Parkes and Barbara Bodichon, who were involved in creating employment agencies for women and opening up a variety of professions, became involved in the campaign for women's suffrage. The two movements came to be closely connected through shared membership. Many saw votes for women as the only means by which the professions could be opened up to both sexes and the conditions of working women improved through appropriate legislation. The connection between the two campaigns continued into the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Individual members of suffrage societies were involved in the work of the Women's Industrial Council, which was established in 1886 to campaign for 'equal pay for equal work'. The London Society for Women's Suffrage established a Women's Service department and a bee toymakers' scheme during the First World War, which later became the Women's Employment Department in the post-war period.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

The collection contains correspondence of Edith Palliser, Pippa Strachey, Eva Gore-Booth, Eileen Hughes and Edith Dimmock amongst others, notes on various professions such as journalism, bookbinding and fashion designing, and materials issued by the Women's Industrial Council, the Women's Labour League and the London Society for Women's Suffrage.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

Chronological

Conditions governing access:

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

Conditions governing reproduction:

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

Abstracts of individual letters in the autograph letters collection were written and held alongside the letters. This work was done from the 1960s by volunteers including Nan Taylor. In 2004 Jean Holder completed a 3 year project to list the letters, copy-type the abstracts, and repackage the letters to meet preservation needs. In 2005 Vicky Wylde and Teresa Doherty proof read and imported the entries to the Special Collections Catalogue.

The original card index of all correspondents, including date of letter & volume reference, is available on the microfiche.

Detailed catalogue

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

A copy of this archive is available on microfilm held at The Women's Library.

Related material:

All collections within The Women's Library Strand 2 relate to women's suffrage; collections within Strand 6 relate to women's employment organisations. Also held at The Women's Library are the personal papers of Philippa Strachey (7PHS). Other Collections within Strand 9 which may be of interest include 9/01 Women's Suffrage, 9/02 General Women's Movement, 9/03 Emancipation of Women, 9/20 Militant Suffragettes.

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: 25/03/2008


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Bookbinding | Book industry | Publishing industry
Fashion designers | People by occupation | People
Women | Sex | Sex distribution
Womens employment | Employment
Womens suffrage | Electoral systems | Internal politics
Journalism

Personal names
Booth | Eva Selina | Gore- | 1870-1926 | suffragist and poet
Strachey | Philippa | 1872-1968 | feminist activist and organiser

Corporate names
London National Society for Women's Suffrage
Women's Industrial Council
Women's Labour League

Places