100 Years On, Posters Offer Window Into Struggles of U.K. Suffragists<br />As for Ms. Pankhurst, who helped found the Women’s Social<br />and Political Union, was arrested several times and even went on a hunger strike, The New York Times wrote in 1913: "The hysterical women in England who have been followers of Mrs. Pankhurst in her defiance of law and decency are now threatening to institute a reign of terror.<br />The institution bills the posters as "one of the largest surviving collections of suffrage posters from the early 20th century." "These posters are fantastic examples<br />of the suffrage publicity machine of the early 20th century," Chris Burgess, the exhibitions officer at the university’s library, says on the exhibition’s website.<br />But on Saturday, the images illustrating women’s fight for voting rights went on display for the first time at the university to commemorate<br />the centenary of the Representation of the People Act of 1918, which gave women over the age of 30 the right to vote.<br />Last year, Prime Minister Theresa May announced that Mrs. Fawcett would be the first woman to be honored by a statue<br />in Parliament Square in London, where there are 11 statues of men — giants like Churchill, Lincoln and Mandela.<br />"They were created to be plastered on walls, torn down by weather or political opponents, so it is highly unusual for this material to be safely stored for over a hundred years." Women such as Millicent Garrett Fawcett<br />and Emmeline Pankhurst campaigned for the right to vote for all.<br />We have all been saying that if woman suffrage is to survive in Great Britain, these militants, who represent<br />but a small part of the suffrage movement, would surely delay the hour of triumph." But triumph they did.
