Art and Suffrage: a biographical dictionary of suffrage artists discusses the lives and work of over 100 artists, each of whom made a positive contribution to the women’s suffrage campaign. Most, but not all, the artists were women, many belonging to the two suffrage artists’ societies – the Artists’ Suffrage League and the Suffrage Atelier. Working in a variety of media – producing cartoons, posters, banners, postcards, china, and jewellery – the artists promoted the suffrage message in such a way as to make the campaign the most visual of all those conducted by contemporary pressure groups.
In the hundred plus years since it was created, the artwork of the suffrage movement has never been so widely disseminated and accessible as it is today, the designs as appealing as they were during the years before the First World War when the suffrage campaign was at its height. Yet hitherto little has been known about most of the artists who produced such popular images. Art and Suffrage remedies this lack and sets their artistic contribution to the suffrage cause within the context of their reanimated lives, giving biographical details, including addresses, together with information on where their work may be seen.
The book contains over 100 illustrations, in black-and-white and in colour.
About the author
Elizabeth Crawford is the author of The Women’s Suffrage Movement: a reference guide 1866–1928 (Routledge), The Women’s Suffrage Movement: a regional survey (Routledge), Enterprising Women: the Garretts and their circle (Francis Boutle), Campaigning for the Vote: Kate Parry Frye’s suffrage diary (Francis Boutle), and The Great War: The People’s Story – Kate Parry Frye: The Long Life of an Edwardian Actress and Suffragette (ITV Ventures). She is the owner of Women and Her Sphere, a business in selling antiquarian books, postcards, pamphlets and ephemera by and about women, and of the website womanandhersphere.com
