Whitworth Work of the Week

Work #54

Miss Burton and Miss Gosling

Suffrage Banner for Women’s Freedom League: ‘Dare to be free’ 1911

Embroidered banner, loan courtesy of The Women’s Library, The London School of Economics and Political Science

The Suffragette banner within the Art_Textiles exhibition at the Whitworth - on display until 31 January 2016 - declares ‘Dare to be free’ in beautiful silk thread satin stitch with couched detail.  There is a strong connection between the text and what the image below implies: we see a rich copper embroidered heart with open wings, all painstakingly hand-stitched in shimmering silk threads on a brown cotton sateen edged with silk and cotton velvet. The image emphasises the statement ‘Dare to be Free’, which is the elected motto of the Women’s Freedom League (WFL). Surrounding the ‘heart with wings’ is a circle of flowers that appear to be jasmines. In the Victorian language of flowers, jasmine symbolises faithfulness and white in banners suggests purity. The colour green is also used, reinforcing the ‘militant’ allusion. ‘Militancy’ to the WFL implied resistance to government and equal treatment at work and at home through less violent actions, by targeting areas of male control. The banner shows some signs of wear. As Ann French, Textile Conservator at the Whitworth discusses with me, the colour bleeding around the embroidered heart and creases in the fabric suggest that the banner has been folded up while still damp after a march. And the silk passementerie fringing at the bottom is worn away in the middle where the single carrying pole would have been situated.

‘Daring to be free’ marked the separation of The Women’s Freedom League from The Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1907, when its members Charlotte Despard, Teresa Billington-Grieg, Elizabeth How-Martyn, Dora Marsden, Helena Normanton, Anne Cobden Sanderson, Margaret Nevinson and seventy other members of the WSPU challenged the leadership of Emmeline Pankhurst, who, they argued, was making decisions without consulting members. Pankhurst challenged all who did not accept her leadership to form their own leagues. The WFL’s president, Charlotte Despard, believed in unity and alliances between members, and wanted the League to represent all classes. The group operated from 1907 to 1930 and in this time showed many different interests and concerns in addition to securing the vote. The League believed their influence would bring an end to poverty and sexual violence, as well as demanding female doctors for women. They challenged male control over women and believed that unequal power in relationships between men and women was ‘unnatural’ and ‘damaging’ to society.  

Both the WFL and WSPU made spectacular use of embroidered and appliquéd banners for their own political ends. Inspired by the previous success of Trades Union banners, women saw that they could do the same and use their own talents and skills to create a change in society. Unlike TU banners, which were predominantly painted and influenced by fairground and other vernacular motifs, the suffragette banners were rooted in the Arts and Crafts Movement, and inspired by William Morris, church procession banners and the work of celebrated artists like Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The suffragettes made three types of banners: one to identify local branches of the main suffragette organisations, another to represent occupational groups such as civil servants or shorthand typists, and a third to honour the achievements of famous women in history, such as Joan of Arc and Florence Nightingale.  

‘Occupational banners’ ranged from the Home Makers’ ‘remember their homeless sisters’ to new professions for women like medicine and secretarial work: ‘Speed! Fight on!’ These banners were intended to consolidate women’s achievements and spur them to further goals including that of full citizenship. They helped to express women’s demand for expanding the limited field of middle-class women’s employment and the opportunities for women to earn their own income. They showed that women could and did operate successfully within the workplace and society as a whole. They celebrated diversity, against a single notion of what femininity was and against a widespread fear that women would vote ‘all one way’.

Making beautiful banners and carrying them on parades were an important part of the suffragettes’ argument, since women campaigning for the vote were being targeted in the press as unwomanly and ‘lacking femininity’. Women had never made or carried banners for their own political ends before and the public still held the strong opinion that women’s place was in the home; therefore, the use of embroidery helped to counteract this anti-suffragette propaganda that branded them as unfeminine.

This particular suffrage banner fills me with pride, strength and motivation every time I see it – in Gallery 8. Alongside all the other quietly strong, political and predominantly ‘feminine’ textile artworks, it is a very empowering space for a female to be in. I just love it! In many of the demonstration banners we see today, messages are often quickly scribbled in permanent marker on to either a cotton bed sheet or scrap of cardboard. However, we do catch sight of poorly made banners created in 1910 too. As Mary Lowndes, a member of WSPU and passionate about the possibilities of women’s political needlework notes: ‘avoid any tendency to think favourably of bedclothes; a sheet between two poles is a poor idea… after all we do not make banners for our convenience – it is undisputedly more convenient to walk without them.’ (English Women, Sept 2010. p.4). There is a sense of urgency in the making of a hurried banner, perhaps needed to get the point across quickly and make the most of an ephemeral situation, but for me, Lowndes puts the art of banner making perfectly:

‘A banner is not a literary affair, it is not a placard: leave such to boards and sandwichmen. A Banner is a thing to float in the wind, to flicker in the breeze, to flirt its colours for your pleasure, to half show and half conceal, a device you long to unravel: you do not want to read it, you want to worship it.’  

~ Mary Lowndes – Banner Making, English Women, September 1910

 Words by Emma Blackburn (Visitor Team Assistant)

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Art_Textiles Exhibition 10 October-January 31 2016

FURTHER READING

CAMPBELL, T. (1995) 100 Years of Women’s Banners, Women for Life on Earth, Art and Publicity and Arts for Labour Wales (Thalia Campbell)

Catalogue: The Women’s Library: Museum Collection: Banner Collection

CHEVALIER, T. (2001) Falling Angels (London, HarperCollins)

EUSTANCE, C. L. (1993) “Daring To Be Free”: The Evolution of Women’s Political Identities In the Women’s Freedom League 1907 – 1930 (University of York, Centre for Women’s Studies)

GORMAN, J. (1973) Banner Bright - An Illustrated History of the Trade Union Movement (London, Penguin Books)  

JEFFERIES, J. (2001) Reinventing Textiles, Vol.2, Gender and Identity (Winchester, Telos)

PARRY, L. (1988) Textiles and the Arts and Craft Movement (London, Thames & Hudson)

TICKNER, L. (1987) The Spectacle of Women: Imagery of the Suffrage Campaign 1907-14 (London, Chatto & Windus)

 THE WHITWORTH STUDY CENTRE

Textile Gallery Fact File (2010) Case 7: Political Messages

• 12 November 2015
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