The Suffragette 1d Weekly

'The Suffragette 1d Weekly'. Colour lithograph poster advertising the periodical edited by Christabel Pankhurst for the W.S.P.U. (Women’s Social and Political Union). Design by Hilda Dallas. Great Britain. c.1914. "‘The Suffragette’ was the weekly newspaper of the Woman's Social and Political Union (WSPU), the leading militant organisation campaigning for women’s suffrage in the United Kingdom. This wood block printed advertisement was designed by Hilda Dallas and features the patron saint of the Suffragettes, Joan of Arc carrying the banner of the WSPU."V&A

‘The Suffragette’ was the weekly newspaper of the Woman's Social and Political Union (WSPU), the leading militant organisation campaigning for women’s suffrage in the United Kingdom. This wood block printed advertisement was designed by Hilda Dallas and features the patron saint of the Suffragettes, Joan of Arc carrying the banner of the WSPU.

Dallas was a member of the Suffrage Atelier, which was formed in 1909 to encourage artists to promote 'the enfranchisement of women, by means of pictorial publication'. Its activities also included training non-professional artists in printing techniques. The low cost, low tech method of wood block printing, as used in this poster, was cheap, quick and easy to learn.

The image of Joan of Arc reflects the increasingly violent strategies used by the WSPU just before the outbreak of the First World War. The newspaper was previously called 'Votes for Women' but was renamed 'The Suffragette' after Christabel Pankhurst, a leading member of the WSPU expelled the paper's editors and financier's Frederick and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence because of their objection to the WSPU’s violent tactics.