Collections
The museums have collections spanning a wide variety of disciplines, which as a whole have been collected through a variety of ways. This section explores specific collections within those disciplines, that have been collected by a collector with a specific motivation and then donated to the museum, or consist of a collection of objects that are related but have been collected over a period of time.
Hull & Women's Rights
Today we consider the right to vote as one of the fundamental principles of human rights. Yet in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century women were denied the chance to take part in the democratic process and were unable to vote. The campaign for women's political rights was a long uphill struggle and it was not until 1928 that all women in Britain could vote. Hull women played an active role in these campaigns. #SUBHEADING#Suffragettes and Suffragists#SUBHEADINGEND# Millicent Fawcett formed the National Union of Women's Suffrage Society (NUWSS) in 1897 to unite most of the existing suffrage societies after the defeat of the first women's Suffrage Bill in Parliament. The movement was divided on how to achieve their aims as the suffragists believed in peaceful protests and embedded themselves within the existing political structures to persuade and educate the public about women's suffrage. The suffragists compiled petitions, met politicians, and during elections they supported candidates who were in favour of votes for women and encouraged women themselves to become public speakers. Millicent Fawcett believed in non-violent action as any aggression would indicate to men that women could not be trusted with the vote. The suffragettes believed in more militant action and broke away from the suffragists. The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was formed in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst who was frustrated by the lack of progress achieved by the Suffragist group, National Union of Women's Suffrage Society (NUWSS). Their tactics were militant and involved public disorder; burning property and chaining themselves to rails in protest. They frequently disrupted public meetings using megaphones. Emmeline Pankhurst's daughter; Christabel Pankhurst was sent to prison in 1905 for spitting and hitting a policeman at a liberal meeting. However at the beginning the two groups worked together as a united front but the violent methods of the WSPU led Mrs Fawcett to withdraw her support for the group as she felt this went against the cause. #SUBHEADING#Hull's Campaign for Women's Rights#SUBHEADINGEND# The suffragists were more prominent in Hull than suffragettes. One of the most well-known suffragists in Hull was Dr Mary Murdoch who promoted women's rights whilst being the first female GP in the city. Yet there were occasions when women chained themselves to railings in the city of Hull and Emmeline Pankhurst, a notable suffragette visited Hull during her political campaigning. #SUBHEADING#Mary Murdoch Hull's first female GP and Suffragist#SUBHEADINGEND# Dr Mary Murdoch was born in Scotland but was most famous for her pioneering work in Hull as the first female GP and her campaign to promote the Suffrage movement across the city. When Mary graduated from the London School of Medicine for Women in 1893, she was one of only a handful of women who were slowly being allowed to practice in a more senior role than nursing. Her first appointment after graduating was as House Surgeon at the Victoria Hospital for Sick Children in Park Street, Hull. In 1900 Mary appointed Dr Louisa Martindale as her assistant at the hospital and they lived together in a house on Beverley Road. Both women shared a crusade to improve women's lives in Hull and started a women's suffrage society, holding committee meetings in their house. In 1904 Mary became founding president of Hull's NUWSS (National Union of Women's Suffrage Society), attracting hundreds of members and forming branches in nearby towns. Mary often acted as NUWSS branch delegate during out of town trips, such as when they visited London to present a petition to the House of Commons. Louisa eventually returned to her home in Brighton, but Mary continued to be an inspiration to local women, even driving voters to the polls in her open top carriage during the local by-election of 1907, decorated with the red, white and green colours of the suffrage movement. In 1910 Mary became the first female GP in Hull which was a remarkable achievement. She also became involved in several public campaigns including working to improve the appalling living conditions in the city. When war broke out in 1914 she dedicated herself to helping the sick and injured, but sadly died in 1916 after a short illness. #SUBHEADING#Emmeline Pankhurst and Hull#SUBHEADINGEND# Emmeline Pankhurst visited Hull in 1907 to help set up a suffragette group in the city and the 6th November edition of the Hull Daily Mail reported that she had given a public speech near the Fishermen's Memorial on Hessle Road, South Boulevard, Hull. The newspaper report stated that she had spoken for nearly an hour to several hundred people, mostly working men and she had a clear and easy speaking style. Suffragettes and Art The suffragette movement used art as propaganda for their cause. Paintings, embroidered banners, posters, photographs and enamels were created and sold to help finance their campaign. Emmeline's daughter, Sylvia Pankhurst was a trained artist. However they also destroyed art as part of their cause. In 1914, the painting, Rokeby Venus by Velasquez was attacked by the suffragette Mary Richardson (1889-1961) who was known as Slasher Mary. She had damaged the painting as a protest against the government attacks on Emmeline Pankhurst. This caused great concern to many art galleries up and down the country with photographs of militant suffragette being circulated to gallery attendants, ready to stop any potential attack. #SUBHEADING#Art Attack in Hull#SUBHEADINGEND# The attacks on works of art in London and Manchester prompted Ferens Art Gallery to withdrawal from public display in 1914 the painting, Farewell by Lord Frederick Leighton. The artist was a well known critic of the Suffrage movement which made the painting more vulnerable to potential attack. It is unclear if a specific threat had been made against this piece of art work, but the concern was so great that the then curator, A.H. Proctor, considered placing plain clothed policemen on duty in the gallery. It was placed back on public display in the Ferens Art Gallery in September 1914 after the suffragettes called a truce due to the outbreak of the First World War. The women's suffrage movement as a whole was a highly organized political movement that utilized the national daily newspapers to create maximum publicity. As well as processions and demonstrations, badges and regalia were created to spread the message. Even playing cards and postcards were published to ensure the widest possible publicity. The collections held by Hull Museums contain political material relating to the campaign for women's political rights.
