Name/TitleBrooch: "WSPU 1913"
About this objectOval-shaped brooch with ornate frame featuring the image of a woman in Edwardian hat and dress, overlaid with the initials and date 'W.S.P.U. 1913'. This brooch, sold on eBay, has been identified as a fake rather than an authentic item of women's suffrage jewellery. The identity of the woman remains unknown and it’s likely she had no connection to women’s suffrage.
Period1910s
Medium and MaterialsInorganic, metal
Inscription and MarksOn face of brooch, in ink [?]: W.S.P.U. 1913
Subject and Association Keywordswomen's suffrage, right to vote
Subject and Association KeywordsSuffragettes
Subject and Association Descriptionhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_Social_and_Political_Union:
The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom from 1903 to 1918. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership and policies were tightly controlled by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia; Sylvia was eventually expelled.
The WSPU membership became known for civil disobedience and direct action. Emmeline Pankhurst described them as engaging in a "reign of terror". Group members heckled politicians, held demonstrations and marches, broke the law to force arrests, broke windows in prominent buildings, set fire to or introduced chemicals into postboxes thus injuring several postal workers, and committed a series of arsons that killed at least five people and injured at least 24. When imprisoned, the group's members engaged in hunger strikes and were subject to force-feeding. Emmeline Pankhurst said the group's goal was "to make England and every department of English life insecure and unsafe"
Named CollectionGlasgow Women's Library
Object TypeJewellery
Object numberGWL-2023-8
Copyright Licence
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