Reform, nonconformists and the press: the role of women’s suffrage networks in the early sculpture commissions of Frances Darlington

Abstract

Research for this article was developed from core findings previously made in the West Yorkshire Archive on the 1902 commission for Frances Darlington to produce a statue of Queen Victoria for Morley Town Hall. The online database at the British Newspaper Archive provides contemporary reportage that lends a different dimension to the minimal descriptions in the Town Council minutes, and demonstrates crucial links with the women’s movement. Furthermore, in the contemporary representation of Frances Darlington, the papers tell a very different story to that available in institutional catalogues of the era. Pivotal to the article are the reports of the unveiling of the commission, which the deputy mayoress of Morley, Alice Cliff Scatcherd, a prominent suffragist with close ties to Emmeline Pankhurst, utilized as a vehicle for feminist protest. The article extends the study of the press to women editors such as Ada Sarah Ballin (Womanhood magazine) and Amy Hurlston (The Sheffield Telegraph), who emerge as advocates in the women’s movement, driving reform in their representation and employment of women. The article further highlights the importance of new online genealogy databases in identifying connections previously hidden by the loss of maiden names in marriage.