Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst Papers
Period
1863-1960 (-1998)
Total size
4.8
m.
Consultation
Not restricted
Biography
Born in Manchester 1882, died in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 1960; suffragette and internationalist socialist; founder of the East London Federation of the Suffragettes/Workers' Suffrage Federation and its paper Woman's Dreadnought/Workers' Dreadnought 1914-1924; launched the Communist Party, British Section of the Third International in June 1920; active in several antifascist and pacifist organizations; founder and editor of The New Times and Ethiopia News 1936-1956 and the Ethiopia Observer 1956-1960.
Content
Personal archive with some papers of relatives and documents of the archives of the East London Federation of the Suffragettes and the Women's Franchise League. Personal papers: personal documents; some personal correspondence with E.C. Wolstenholme Elmy 1907-1910, James Keir Hardie 1905-1915, Dora Russell 1931, 1939-1940, Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence 1929-1932 and others; drafts, handwritten and typed manuscripts of writings (some of them unpublished) on her journeys to Scandinavia, the USA and Soviet Russia, on Rumania, of prose fiction, plays and poetry, etc.; notes and printed material used for publications with some correspondence and printed proofs; correspondence, other documents and printed material on her activities in the suffragette movement, including the East London Federation of the Women's Social and Political Union 1905-1913; on social activities in the First World War, including the East London Toy Factory; on political activities, i.e. antimilitarism, international and Russian communism and the Communist Party, British Section of the Third International; on antifascism, in particular her support of Ethiopia and its emperor and the publication of The New Times and Ethiopia News. East London Federation of the Suffragettes, from 1916 Workers' Suffrage Federation, from 1918 Workers' Socialist Federation: minute books 1913-1920, accountbooks, correspondence, proofs of annual reports and other documents. Women's Franchise League: minute book of the Executive Committee 1896-1897 and some letters, e.g. from Mrs. Jacob Bright to Emmeline Pankhurst 1893-1894. Papers of relatives: of her father Richard M. Pankhurst (died 1898), of her mother Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928), of her sister Christabel H. Pankhurst (1880-1958), of her son Richard K. P. Pankhurst (born 1928); of more distant relatives and of Silvio Corio (father of Richard K.P. Pankhurst).
Processing information
Inventory made by M. Wilhelmina H. Schreuder and Margreet Schrevel
Secondary creator
East London Federation of the Suffragettes. Women's Freedom League (UK)Alternate Form of Material
Security microfilms publication by Research Publications 1991.
37 security microfilms
INTRODUCTION
Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst
was born in Manchester on May
5, 1882, the second daughter of
Dr. Richard Marsden
Pankhurst
(1836-1898) and
Emmeline Goulden
Pankhurst
(1858-1928). Both her father and mother were active in
local politics and in the suffrage movement. They joined the
Independent Labour Party
on its establishment in 1893.
After Christabel Harriette (1880-1958) and Sylvia three more children were
born:
Henry Francis Robert (Frank
, 1884-1888),
Adela Constantia Mary (1885-1961)
and
Henry
Francis (Harry
, 1889-1910). Among the friends and acquaintances of
the Pankhursts were people like
Kropotkin
,
Malatesta
,
William Morris
, Mr. and
Mrs. Jacob Bright
, Sir
Charles Dilke
,
Annie Besant
and
James Keir Hardie
.
From an early age the Pankhurst children were involved in the social and
political activities of their parents. Sylvia's talents both as a journalist
and an illustrator were developed by the publication of a weekly illustrated
Family Bulletin: "The Home News and Universal Mirror".
It was
her ambition to become a painter. In 1900 she won a scholarship to study design
at the Manchester School of Art. Here she was strongly influenced by the
socialist artist
Walter Crane
. She travelled to Venice to
study art (1902). In 1904 she settled down in London and studied at the Royal
College of Art in South Kensington for a number of years. Her best known
monumental work is the decoration of the Pankhurst Hall in Salford, erected by
the Independent Labour Party to commemorate her father. She also designed the
logo, scarves, brooches and the like for the Women's Social and Political Union
(WSPU) and its first organ Votes for Women. Her largest designs probably were
the murals for the WSPU at the Women's Exhibition in 1909.
The WSPU was
established in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst. On the initiative of her daughter
Christabel it assumed a militant attitude in the struggle for women's suffrage.
Though the leadership of the organization rested with Emmeline and Christabel,
Sylvia became more and more involved in its activities, especially when the
organization's headquarters were moved to London in 1906. There the WSPU gained
strength, assisted by the financial and administrative support of Emmeline and
Frederick Pethick-Lawrence and the advice of
Keir Hardie
.
With all three Sylvia remained friends through- out their lives. From the
beginning of the WSPU the relationship between Emmeline and Christabel
Pankhurst on the one hand and Sylvia on the other was uneasy. Emmeline and
Christabel were inclined to accept a limited enfranchisement for women
householders as a first step towards general Adult Suffrage and they thought
that all social legislation should wait until women's suffrage had been
enacted. Sylvia, at that time already a convinced socialist, believed that
Household Suffrage would only benefit the Conservatives and thought it
important that proletarian women were involved in the struggle. This conviction
had been reinforced by her study trip to the industrial North of England in
1909, when she had made sketches and written articles about he conditions of
labouring women. Her choice for the oppressed was strengthened by her stay in
Holloway Prison in 1906 for "obstruction and abusive language". This
was the first of numerous prison episodes, as suffragette militancy and
government repression grew over the years. In prison the suffragettes
introduced the hunger strike, to which the prison authorities responded by
forcible feeding. Of this too, Sylvia had her share. In 1910, after a police
raid on the WSPU headquarters and the arrest of Emmeline Pankhurst and the
Pethick-Lawrences, Christabel fled to Paris. Sylvia's militancy reached its
peak in 1913 during the agitation against the "Cat-and-Mouse" Act.
This was the popular name for the "Prisoners' Temporary Discharge for
Ill-health Act", which enabled the authorities to set hunger-striking pri-
soners free on licence until they recovered and then put them back in prison.
Sylvia's prolonged hunger strike was interrupted by this act, and she started a
"People's Army", formalizing the popular support to protect a freed
"mouse", if necessary by force.
While Emmeline and Christabel
gradually turned the suffragette's fight into a war of the sexes -culminating
in the campaign "Votes for Women and Chastity for Men" in 1913-,
Sylvia got more and more involved in the social struggle in the London East
End. At the end of 1913 the break that had been in the air for some time became
a fact. At the request of her sister and her mother Sylvia and her East End
Branch left the WSPU and became the independent East London Federation of the
Suffragettes with its own organ, The
Woman's Dreadnought
.
The outbreak of the First World War widened the breach. Emmeline and Christabel
became strongly patriotic, rechristened their organ The Suffragette into
Britannia, stopped all suffrage activities and helped with the recruiting of
volunteers for the armed forces. Sylvia, on the other hand, took the socialist
stance that the war only furthered capitalism. She agitated for social
facilities for the wives and children of enlisted working-class men, became
more of a pacifist during the war and spoke on anti-conscription platforms when
concription was to be enacted. In the East End she founded a toy factory to
provide work for the women who had become unemployed with the break-down of
luxury manufactories as a result of the war. The former pub "The
Gunmaker's Arms" was reshaped into "The Mother's Arms", a
maternity clinic, day nursery and Montessori nursery school. She opened
cost-price restaurants for working women and continually agitated with local
and central authorities about the provision and prices of food. In 1916 the
organisation was renamed into the "
Workers' Suffrage
Federation
, and The Woman's Dreadnought became The
Workers' Dreadnought
. Partly as a result of the war -and
the large-scale involvement of women in the munitions industry and many other
vital economic activities- the Representation of the People Bill was enacted in
1918, enfranchising about 8½ million women above 30 years of age, women
householders or the wives of householders, occupiers of land and university
graduates.
In 1917 Sylvia had become an enthusiastic adherent of the
Russian Revolution. Her activities largely moved in the direction of propaganda
for socialism. In 1918 the movement's name was changed into
Workers'
Socialist Federation (WSF)
. One of the ideas she put forward very
strongly was the establishment of workers' councils in Great Britain. Her
"Russian People's Information Bureau" (established in September 1918)
published pamphlets about the Russian Revolution, several of them translated
from Russian. She also joined the "Hands Off Russia" movement. For
some time she was an influential English correspondent of the
Communist International
periodical International Communist
(1919), published from Moscow in several languages. The WSF was only one of a
number of groups in Britain that furthered socialism. One of the problems in
the way of the establishment of one large Communist party was that of
affiliation to the
Labour Party
. Pankhurst was strongly
opposed to affiliation. In a letter to Lenin (July 1919) she wrote that the
socialist movement was too full of compromisers. To be one step ahead of these,
in June 1920 she rebaptized the WSF into Communist Party, British Section of
the Third International (CPBSTI). She refused to join the Communist Unity
Convention in July 1920, where the first outline of the
Communist
Party of Great Britain
came into being. Instead, she was present at
the second congress of the Third International in Moscow. Lenin condemned
Sylvia's attitude and he persuaded her to make the CPBSTI join the CPGB. She
did so in January 1921, but in The Dreadnought she continued propagating her
own ideas about affiliation with the Labour Party. For this reason she was
expelled from the CPGB in the late summer of 1921. Later she turned to the
Spartacist school of socialism, but she was not to play an important role in a
political party. During these revolutionary years Sylvia Pankhurst was
continuously watched by the authorities and from October 1920 to May 1921 she
was in prison once again, this time for alleged seditious articles in The
Dreadnought.
She had met
Sylvio Erasmus Corio
, a
libertarian socialist from Italy, in London. In the middle twenties they
settled in Woodford, where they opened a tearoom. In 1924 The Dreadnought was
discontinued. A son was born to them in 1928: Richard Keir Pethick Pankhurst.
While Corio ran the tearoom, Sylvia wrote books and articles, most of them
based on meticulous research, such as: Save the Mothers. A plea for measures to
prevent the annual loss of about 3000 child- bearing mothers and 20,000 infant
lives in England and Wales and a similar grievous wastage in other countries
(1930). Important is her account of The Suffragette Movement (1931) and her
role in it. This is largely autobiographical, as is The Home Front (1932). In
The Life of Emmeline Pankhurst (1935) she portrays her mother, with whom all
contact had been broken off. In Delphos, or the future of International
Language (1928) she advocates Interlingua. In collaboration with I.O.
Stefanovici, she published a translation of poems by Mihail Eminescu, a
romantic Rumanian poet of the nine- teenth century. Throughout her life she
wrote poems herself, scribbled in notebooks or on odd pieces of paper that
happened to be at hand. Many of them appeared in The Dreadnought. In Writ on
cold Slate (1921) her prison poems were collected. She used to write down all
kinds of observations, especially during her long journeys through the United
States (1910, 1912), Europe (1913, 1919) and Russia (1920). Later she would use
these notes as a basis for her books and articles. A study of the international
socialist movement, In the Red Twilight, was not completed and was not
published in its original form, though the first part appeared as a serial in
The
New Times and Ethiopia News
(1936).
Together with
Corio and her son she travelled to Rumania in 1934 to be present at the
unveiling of a statue of Eminescu. The direct confrontation with European
fascism shocked them. As a result of Corio's links with Italy their antifascism
was chiefly concentrated on that country. Pankhurst started the
Society of Friends
of Italian Freedom and the Women's
International Matteotti Committee (1932), which agitated for the release of
Matteotti's widow. Its organ Humanity was issued only once. She joined the
International Women's Peace Crusade and became treasurer of the Women's World
Committee against War and Fascism, British Section. This Popular-Front
organisation had been initiated in Paris in 1934. From Italy to Ethiopia was
only one small step. From the moment of Italy's invasion of Ethiopia the
antifascism of Pankhurst and Corio focussed on Ethiopia. On 5 May 1936 they
started the
New Times and Ethiopia News
, which not only
reported about Ethiopia, but rather about fascism and nazism in general. It
reached a circulation of 40,000.
On the outbreak of the Second World War
Pankhurst once again took practical action. She started the Women's War
Emergency Council (October 1939), which agitated for a rise of war separation
allowances and control of food prices. She arranged for permits for European
refugees and began fund- raising for a hospital to be erected in Ethiopia. She
kept in close touch with the Emperor Haile Selassie, who had settled down in
Bath with his retinue. From 1945 she worked for the surrender of the former
Italian colonies Somalia and Eritrea to Ethiopia. In 1952, under the auspices
of the United Nations Eritrea was brought into a federation with Ethiopia.
After Corio's death Pankhurst settled in Addis Ababa with her son. She did much
social work and was very well known, not only in Ethiopia but also in the
Pan-Africa movement and the League of Coloured Peoples. Together with her son
she edited the
Ethiopia Observer
. On 25 September 1960 she
died during her afternoon nap from coronary thrombosis. She was buried in a
place reserved for the heroes of Ethiopia, the Emperor attending the
ceremony.
Sources:
Barbara Castle, Sylvia and Christabel Pankhurst (Harmondsworth 1987); Silvia Franchini, Sylvia Pankhurst, 1912-1924: dal suffragismo alla rivoluzione sociale (Pisa 1980); Lenin on Britain (London 1934); David Mitchell, The fighting Pankhursts. A study in tenacity (London 1967); Richard Pankhurst, Sylvia Pankhurst, artist and crusader (New York 1970); Henry Pelling, The British Communist Party. A historical profile (London 1958); Patricia Romero, E. Sylvia Pankhurst, portrait of a Radical (New Haven 1987). See also Rita Pankhurst, "Sylvia Pankhurst in perspective. Some comments on Patricia Romero's biography" in Women's Studies International Forum, vol. 11 no. 3, pp. 245-262.
THE ARCHIVE
The collection was given to
the IISH by Dr.
Richard K.P. Pankhurst
, through the
intermediary of Dr.
Julius Braunthal
. The bulk of it
arrived in Amsterdam in 1961, a smaller addition was sent in 1976. It measures
four running meters.
It is a rich collection, covering roughly one-hundred
years and consisting of a wide variety of documents: the papers of Sylvia
Pankhurst, documents of her relatives, of the
Workers' Suffrage
Federation
, newspaper cuttings and other printed material.
Quantitatively, it contains little correspondence and hardly any family
letters; most of the letters are concerned with women's suffrage: from those
Lydia Becker
wrote to Dr.
Richard M.
Pankhurst
, via those Ursula (Mrs. Jacob) Bright addressed to
Emmeline Pankhurst
, to those written by Mrs.
Wolstenholme Elmy
to Sylvia to inform her about the early
women's movement, when she was writing The Suffragette (1911). Traces of
correspondence are to be found also in the notebooks that form the bulk of the
archive; they are drafts or maybe copies of letters, interspersed with notes
for and drafts of articles of books. Another category that is amply represented
are typescripts of books and articles. For the period when Sylvia Pankhurst did
not run a periodical of her own (from about 1924 to 1936) it is very difficult
to ascertain whether or not these writings were published. The fact that the
typescripts of The Suffragette Movement and The Home Front have not been
preserved seems to justify the assumption that the typescripts in the archive
were not published in the form they have here. The best known and most
frequently used part of the collection are the minutebooks of the East London
Federation/
Workers' Suffrage Federation
from the end of
1913 to 1924. They present an interesting picture of the running of the
movement -not only members' meetings, but also the finance committee, the
general committee- and the way in which work was apportioned to various
members.
Originally the collection contained a large number of photographs
and some other items of pictorial nature, but these have been incorporated in
the IISH audiovisual depart- ment and classified according to the subjects
dealt with: suffragette activities, social circumstances in the London East End
and Sylvia's activities there, women in men's jobs during the First World War,
portraits of persons, etc. A list of this material is appended to the
inventory. The collection also contains a certain amount of printed documents:
a number of proofs for annual reports of the East End movement, especially
interesting because of the large number of manuscript additions in the margin;
a large collection of newspaper clippings about Manchester and political and
social events from about 1865 to 1897, clearly originating from Sylvia's
father; a variety of printed sources, probably used for articles about subjects
as Ireland, Soviet-Russia, women's work, aspects of fascism.
When the
arranging of the collection was begun by a first assessment, it appeared to
have no consistent inner classification, though some bunches of material had
been kept together. Quite often, however, heterogeneous items turned up among
them: for example a few letters from an early period among typescripts from the
1930s. In consequence, it was decided to change the order to make it more
consistent. Material of Sylvia's relatives was grouped together. Separate
categories were made for Sylvia's personal documents and correspondence,
sketches, writings and political activities. The activities were grouped
chronologically under four headings: the suffragette movement, World War I,
socialism, antifascism and Ethiopia. For the group of notebooks and typescripts
an attempt was made to put them in a chronological order, in addition to a
classification by subject matter and form. The latter was impossible for the
notebooks, as a result of Sylvia's habit of jotting down ideas whenever they
occurred, so that draft poems are inserted among notes about health care for
women, while a draft play about suffragette activities is interrupted by notes
on a different subject. The fact that more often than not the notebooks were
used in two directions: front to back for one thing, back to front for another,
both often interrupted by notes about something completely different, made
classification a difficult job. The most important subjects have been listed in
the index (page 42).
Select bibliography of E.S. Pankhurst:
The suffragette. The history of the women's militant suffrage movement (London 1911); Soviet Russia as I saw it (London 1921); India and the earthly Paradise (Bombay 1926); Delphos, or the future of international language (London 1928); Save the Mothers.....(London 1930); The Suffragette Movement (London 1931, reprint London 1977); The Home Front (London 1932); The Life of Emmeline Pankhurst (London 1935); Eritrea on the eve (Woodford Green 1952); Ethiopia and Eritrea; the last phase of the reunion struggle (Woodford Green 1953); Ethiopia: a cultural history (Woodford Green 1955).
INVENTORY
PERSONAL DOCUMENTS AND CORRESPONDENCE
- 7 - 15
-
General Correspondence.
1898 - 1959.
8 folders & 1 portfolio.
N.B. From letters received by E.S. Pankhurst only the names of the correspondents are given.- 7
- Akerman. 1927 ; Bellinghurst, E.S. Pankhurst to. 1925 ; Carford. 1926 ; Chandhary. 1927 ; Doughty. 1910 ; Drake. 1933 ; Eastman . N.d. Elmy, E. Wolstenholme . 1907-1910
- 9
- Hardie, James Keir from and to E.S. Pankhurst ; with a draft article on the occasion of his death. 1905-1915
- 10
- Head. 1936 ; Henderson . 1930 ; Internationaal Archief voor de Vrouwenbeweging, E.S. Pankhurst to; with autobiographical notes. 1937 ; King . 1937 ; MacDonald , Ramsay. 1930-1931 ; MacKenzie. 1937 ; Metropolitan Water Board. 1933 ; Moren. 1924 ; Pankhurst , Christabel. 1898
WRITINGS
Manuscripts
Non-fiction
- 27
- "Women's work in the Black country"; "The chain makers of Cradley Heath"; "The women who make chain". N.d. 1 folder.
- 28
- Notebooks, with drafts:; "Chainmakers Cradley Heath"; "Prison Hospital"; "Agricultural workers". N.d. 1 folder.
- 35
- "Prof. Iorga and his Free university". N.d. N.B. Verso: "Mother was eager to get on to Brussels". N.d. 1 folder.
- 38
- Exercise-book with notes on Rumania. N.d. N.B. Back to front: notes on maternity and preparatory notes for the Suffragette movement. N.d. 1 folder.
- 39
-
Exercise-book and loose
leaves with notes on Rumania. N.d.
N.B. Back to front: draft for a play and various notes. N.d. 1 folder
- 43
- Exercise-book with various notes, i.a.: "The militant Women's Social and Political Union". N.d. 1 folder.
- 51
- Copybook with draft "The Suffragette Movement". N.d. N.B. Back to front: notes on Ethiopia. N.d. 1 folder.
- 53
- "Bromley Public Hall"; "Forcibly Fed"; "Exhibition" ; "The progress of the Militant Movement". N.d. 1 folder.
- 57
- Exercise-book marked "Questionnaire for Indian women", with various notes on women in history. N.d. 1 folder.
- 61
- Copybook with draft play on the life of Emmeline Pankhurst . N.d. N.B. Back to front: draft poems and notes on Ethiopia. N.d. 1 folder.
- 62
- Exercise-book with notes on German socialists, a draft poem to " Rosa and Karl" and "In the first week of the War". N.d. 1 folder.
- 65
- Copybook with draft Home Front and notes on Italian labour movement. N.B. Back to front: notes on fascism. N.d. 1 folder.
- 70
- "De Bono records that he said to Mussolini " ; "The Italian delegates walked out". N.d. 1 folder.
- 75
- Copybook with notes on Italian fascism, maternity care, Tom Mann , A. Rothstein etc. N.d. 1 folder.
- 78
- Exercise-book with draft "Red Twilight". N.d. N.B. Back to front: draft autobiography. N.d. 1 folder.
- 79
- Copybook with notes on "Red Twilight", socialists in Britain, Russia. N.d. N.B. Back to front: notes on social legislation. N.d. 1 folder.
- 80
- Copybook with draft "Red Twilight", draft letters. N.d. N.B. Back to front: notes on maternity care. N.d. 1 folder.
- 81
- Copybook with draft article on the surroundings of London, draft letters to Mme. Levinskaya and Norah Smyth, notes on Italy. N.d. 1 folder.
- 82
- Copybook with notes on British socialists and radicals in the 18th - 19th century. N.d. 1 folder.
- 84
- Copybook with draft article "Dogland", notes on suffrage, Rumania, fascism. N.d. N.B. Back to front: draft "Red Twilight".N.d. 1 folder.
- 85
- Copybook with notes on the Labour Party in war time, addresses, and draft letters. N.d. 1 folder.
- 88
- Copybook with draft "Red Twilight". N.d. N.B. Back to front: notes on the women's movement. N.d. 1 folder.
- 89
- Exercise-book with notes on Italian fascists, Lydia Becker , the suffrage movement. N.d. 1 folder.
- 96
- Exercise-books with notes on Ethiopia, draft letters, "talk with Jilma Renessa in her end". N.d. 1 portfolio.
Typescripts
Non-fiction
- 116
- "Women's work in the fields and farmsteads" and various fragments re. the subject. N.d. [ca. 1908] 1 folder.
- 117
- Chronicle of two visits to Canada and the United states, based on letters to J. Keir Hardie. N.d. 1 portfolio.
- 119
- "To Soviet Russia across the sea"; "Across the Arctic Sea"; "Soviet Russia"; "Moscow" and various fragments. N.d. 1 folder.
- 120
- "Poor Dionis" by M. Eminescu, translated by E.S. Pankhurst in different versions. N.d. 1 portfolio.
- 121
- "Rumania, her people, institutions and prospects"; "Notable Rumanian women: the Princess Cantacuzino"; "Professor Iorga and his Free University"; and other capita on Rumania. N.d. 1 portfolio.
- 124
- "Working women of East London"; "Prisoners I have known"; "My six months sentence"; "A handsome woman"; "The brushmaker..."; "Dorothy". N.d. 1 folder.
- 125
- "The English Suffragette movement created"; "Emily Wilding Davison"; "The citizenship of women"; "Suffragette soldiers". N.d. 1 folder.
- 126
- "Between 1905 and 1914 there was..."; "Heroines of the Suffrage Movement"; "The women's movement and what it did..."; "The women's movement in England"; "Young English women of today...". N.d. 1 folder.
- 128
- " Emmeline Pankhurst "; "On the unveiling of Mrs. Pankhurst's; statue"; "Harriet Stanton Blatch"; "Ethel Smyth and Elizabeth Kuyper"; "The emancipation of woman"; "What I think this future holds for women"; "What do the politicians propose". N.d. 1 folder.
- 129
- "What are the aims of feminism"; "Public testimonial to Mrs. Wolstenholme; Elmy" ; "Women's rule in Britain"; "That women should take an equal share...". N.d. 1 folder.
- 130
- "Mothers and the election"; "Save the mothers"; "An Englishwoman to American friends"; "The new government". N.d. 1 folder.
- 131
- "What the suffragettes should do"; "Women's citizenship"; "Wanted, an Englishman"; "The women's movement of yesterday and tomorrow". N.d. 1 folder.
- 133
- "A suffragette year"; "Mary Wollstonecraft"; "A storm in a tea cup and the urgency of the vote". N.d. 1 folder.
- 135
- "The womanhood of tomorrow"; "The common service versus domestic slavery"; "Presented...to E. Wolstenholme Elmy" N.d. 1 folder.
- 137
- "Save the mothers"; "Women and National Insurance"; "Keep the promise to mothers"; "The national maternity service"; "An SOS for mothers"; "The mother's death rate"; "A mother's charter" with some correspondence and documentation concerning maternity. ca. 1930. 1 portfolio.
- 138
- "The socialisation of the health services"; "Outline of socialist scheme for the National Health...service". 1932. 1 folder.
- 139
- "Why? not a goat"; "Disease in the milk"; "Impure milk..."; "Among the dangers arising from impure milk"; "Pure milk". ca. 1930. 1 folder.
- 140
- "No tears in the nursery school"; "The education of the modern child"; "Margaret Macmillan and her camp school"; "What I would teach your children"; "The raising of the school leaving age..."; "Going to school". N.d. 1 folder.
- 141
- "The day of the Child"; "On parents, children and matrimony"; "What I am aiming at. A chance for the children of tomorrow". N.d. 1 folder.
- 144
- "Holloway gaol to a prisoner in the third class"; "Ex-prisoners"; "The remand hospital". N.d. 1 folder.
- 145
- "The benevolent mrs. X"; "Prison babies"; "The girl with the golden hair"; "Children in prison". N.d. 1 folder.
- 146-150
- "In the Red Twilight. Fascism as it is". Outlines, tables of contents, chapters ; I-XLV. N.d. 5 port's.
- 152
- "New Italy"; "Women and Dictatorship"; "Under the Black Shirt Terror"; "...Velia Mateotti..."; "Fascism today..."; "The opposition in Italy"; "Mussolini's women soldiers". N.d. 1 folder.
- 153
- "A desperate act of German combatants in ; the Spanish war". N.d. "The French concentration camps, by Francesco Nitti". 1939. 1 folder.
- 154
- "The threat of war"; "Was Abyssinia tricked over the Reckitt Concession"; "A call for Justice"; "Light requires to be thrown on the international situation". N.d. 1 folder.
- 155
- "Fascism and its apologists under stress of war"; "The big why in Soho: fascists at large";; with extracts from "Why? Fascism" by E. Wilkinson and E. Conze . N.d. 1 folder.
- 156
- "Bearing it bravely"; "Britain in wartime"; "New Times Evacuated Children's Supply". N.d. 1 folder.
- 157
- "Civil servants in Italy, censorship and; espionage"; "There has been...amnesty granted by the Fascist government"; "...the Conference of the National Federation of women" ; [ca. 1936]. 1 folder.
- 158
- "What would I wish to be known and thought of me when I am gone ?"; "Sylvia Pankhurst never cared much"; "I always loathed Mrs. Grundy". N.d. 1 folder.
- 160
- "When I sat with the present Prime Minister"; [Workers' and Soldiers' Council of GB]; different versions. ca. 1930. 1 folder.
- 161
- "For some time I have been engaged in writing history"; "North country women have much to demand"; "The new government"; "One of the most miserable things about the war"; "Lest we forget". N.d. 1 folder.
- 163
- "An open letter to G.B. Shaw"; "G.B. Shaw...communist or fascist"; "Shaw and I..."; "Flexionless Latin"; "Another milestone in the knowledge of the universe". ca. 1934-1935. 1 folder.
- 166
- "The world I want"; "Homes must replace the slums"; "Save one of London's beauty spots"; "Britain, polling"; "The electric home" N.d. 1 cover.
Fiction
- 169
- "The rights of an English girl"; "The case of Dr. Harold Burt-White"; "To the women of the empire"; "Love versus law". N.d. 1 folder.
- 170
- "Evangeline Robson"; "His lawful wife"; "Noah Adamson"; "Escape"; "The doctor's case"; "A group of people, mostly women..."; "The golden age". N.d. 1 folder.
- 171
- "Why? the dead do not return"; "Conventionalities"; "A dream of the devil's tempting". N.d. 1 folder.
ACTIVITIES
Women's Social and Political Union, East London Federation 1906 -1913
Correspondence
Other documents
- 200
- Brochure: "Treatment of the women's deputations by the police...". N.d. Pamphlet: "Treatment of the suffragettes in prison". 1910. 1 cover.
East London Federation of the Suffragettes (ELFS)/ Workers Suffrage Federation (WSF)/ Workers Socialist Federation (WSF), 1913 - 1924
Minutes
Annual Reports, resolutions, account books
Correspondence
N.B. From letters received by E.S. Pankhurst only the names of the correspondents are given.
- 225
- Atheneum Press. 1914. 1 cover; Bonwick. 1913.1 cover; Bouvier. 1920.1 cover; British Socialist Party to ? 1920.1 cover; Corio, Smyth to, 1924. 1 cover; Dalglish. 1914.1 cover; Debnam. 1914. 1 cover; "Disgusted". 1914.1 cover; Duncan. 1914.1 cover
- 226
- Field, E.S. Pankhurst to, 1914. 1 cover; Forbes Robertson to East London Federation, 1914. 1 cover; Forwood, to and from Smyth, 1914. 1 cover; Haddock to Smyth, 1918. 1 cover; Hancock. 1914. 1 cover; Harben. N.d. 1 cover; Haverfield. 1914. 1 cover; Hercbergova, E.S. Pankhurst to, 1921. 1 cover; Jales. 1913. 1 cover; Jenson to WSF, n.d. 1 cover
- 227
- Lloyd George, East London Federation to, 1913. 1 cover; London United Socialist Council to WSF, 1919. 1 cover; "LS" to Smyth, n.d. 1 cover; National League for Health, Maternity and Child Welfare to WSF, 1919. 1 cover; Nevinson. 1914. 1 cover; New York Times to Smyth, 1913. 1 cover; Pankhurst, Emmeline, 1914. 1 cover; Park. 1914. 1 cover; Petersen to East London Federation, 1914. 1 cover; Seymour to Smyth, n.d. 1 cover; Sharp. 1914. 1 cover; Smyth. 1926. 1 cover; Socialist Labour Party and Cardiff Branch. 1920 ; annexe: "Manifesto on the Freedom of the Press". 1918. 1 cover; "SS". N.d. 1 cover
Other documents
- 230
- Text of a speech by E.S. Pankhurst about free speech in Bow, Bromley and Poplar. With some pamphlets and a circular letter. 1913-1914. 1 cover.
- 231
- Circular letters and leaflets to newspaper editors, i.a. about the No Rent Strike, Hunger and Thirst Strike. 1913-1916. 1 folder.
World War I, 1914 - 1917
N.B. See also inv. no. 233
- 235
- Brochure about the 'Mothers' Arms', children's nursery, mother and infant clinic and milk house, with a circular letter to the press. 1914. 1 folder.
- 236
- File on the East London Toy Factory, relief work room for women, unemployed in consequence of the war. With illustrated catalogue, rules, report and balance sheet 1929, 1931 and correspondence re. the lawsuit Hercbergova/Pankhurst. 1915, 1920 - 1934. 1 portfolio.
Socialism, communism, 1917-ca. 1924
Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB)
Ireland
Soviet-Russia
- 247
- Invitation and Resolutions of the Great Labour, Socialist and Democratic Convention to hail the Russian Revolution, 23.05. 1917. With a pamphlet "Remember Ramsay MacDonald's appeal...". N.d. 1 folder.
- 248
- Proofs and typescripts for publications on Soviet-Russia by the Workers Socialist Federation. ca. 1917-1919. 1 folder.
- 250
- Resolution on Soviet-Russia, to prepare an international demonstration strike against intervention; with a draft and a pamphlet "Soldiers-Comrades; Where are you going to ?" N.d. 1 folder.
Workers' Dreadnought
- 254
- "Appeal of Miss Sylvia Pankhurst against sentence of six months imprisonment [.....] for articles in the Workers' Dreadnought ". October 1920. 1 folder.
- 256
- Letters of W. Gallacher , 1920, A. Park, 1919, W. Prat, n.d., offering articles to Workers' Dreadnought . 1 folder.
- 258
- Translations of articles on international socialism from foreign newspapers and journals. ca. 1919-1920. 1 portfolio.
- 259
- Translation of the "Juniusbrochure" by Rosa Luxemburg , with an introduction by Clara Zetkin . N.d. 1 portfolio.
- 260-265
-
Copy or documentation
for articles in
Workers' Dreadnought
.
1917-1924.
6 folders.
- 263
- Housing question, WSF pamphlet. N.d. Hungary, press release from Vienna. N.d. Independent Labour Party, pamphlets. ca. 1917 ; Industrial Committee of the South Wales Society, brochure. 1919.
Anti-fascism, Ethiopia, ca. 1930 - 1952
General
- 268
- Confidential circulars from Downing Street about "undesirable British subjects" and "undesirable literature", dispatched by The League of Coloured Peoples. 1938-1939. 1 folder.
Ethiopia
- 276
- Programme of the "Fête and Bazaar" organised by the New Times and Ethiopia News . 1938. 1 cover.
- 277
- Carbon copies of E.S. Pankhurst 's letters to Winston Churchill concerning Ethiopia. 1940-1942. 1 folder.
- 280
- Letters from dr. R. Taylor and miss Garrard about sexual assault by an Ethiopian boy. 1948. 1 cover.
- 281
- Copy for the New Times and Ethiopia News , ca. 1939 ; with a letter from Elaine Kidd. N.d. 1 folder.
Germany
- 284
- Letter of P. Jolibois and A. Prudhommeaux suggesting the formation of a British Van der Lubbe Committee. 1933. 1 folder.
Italy
- 288
- Circular letters to editors, i.a. concerning Italian internees and treatment of women under fascist rule. 1935, 1940 and n.d. 1 folder.
Women's World Committee against War and Fascism (WWC)
- 291
- Correspondence, delegates' report and other documents re. the Women's International Congress agianst war and Fascism and the British organising committee. 1934. 1 folder.
MISCELLANEOUS
E. Sylvia Pankhurst
- 301
- Photocopies of letters from E.S. Pankhurst to James Marchant and to 'unknown' about communism. 1921, 1928. 1 folder.
- 305-306
- Reviews of "The Suffragette movement" and presscuttings about activities of E.S. Pankhurst . 1931, 1935, 1936. 1 folder.
Other Documents
- 311
- Pamphlets re. the International Council of Women , suffrage in the United States (Interurban Suffrage Series) and in New Zealand. 1888, 1896, 1907, 1908, 1914 and n.d. 1 folder.
- 312
- Fabian Tract on women and prisons, publication by the National Political Reform League and handbill "To the electors of St. John's ward". 1912 and n.d. 1 folder.
DOCUMENTS CONCERNING RELATIVES AND OTHERS
Silvio Corio
- 315
- Correspondence. 1921-1938 and n.d. 8 covers; N.B. From letters received by S. Corio only the names of the correspondents are given. - Bernardini. 1925 ; - Covo. 1922 ; - Corio R., to "Dada" and E.S. Pankhurst. 1921 ; - Daily Herald . 1934 ; - Pankhurst , Corio to. N.d. - Peano. 1927 ; - Salvadori. 1934 ; - Unknown. 1938
Emmeline Pankhurst
- 320
- Annual report 1885 and Quarterly Statement 1890 of the National Society for Women's Suffrage. With a memorandum re. the Married Women's Property Bill. N.d. 1 cover.
- 321
- Letter from M. Backhouse, Manchester Society for Women's Suffrage, to E. Pankhurst . 01.09.1885. 1 cover.
- 322
- Minutebook of the Executive Committee of the Women's Franchise League . 20.01.1896 - 08.04. 1897. 1 folder.
Richard Keir Pethick Pankhurst
Richard Marsden Pankhurst
- 339
- Address presented by the Rotherhithe Liberal Association to R.M. Pankhurst and presscuttings re. the Rotherhithe election. 1885-1886. 1 cover.
- 340
- Documents concerning the Manchester National Society for Women's Suffrage. With letters from Lydia Becker to dr. Pankhurst , rules and an invitation for the meeting of the Manchester Committee for the Enfranchisement of Women. 1868, 1874, 1888-1889 and n.d. 1 folder.
- 341
- Documents concerning the Women's Franchise League . With letters from Mary Cozens to Mrs. Bright and R.M. Pankhurst concerning Rollitt's Bill (1892), printed announcements and reports. 1889-1892. 1 folder.
- 342
- Notebook: "Religio Laici" and manuscript notes for speeches, addresses on various subjects. N.d. 1 folder.
Accrual 2008
- 363
-
Letter from
unidentified person 1920, order form 1896 and some notes n.d.
1896,
1920 and n.d.
1 folder.
NB. Found in the book Capital by Karl Marx from the library of Silvia Pankhurst (IISH call number 2008/4757). With some correspondence on the transfer of some books of this library to the IISH 2004.
APPENDIX: LIST OF PICTURES DEPOSITED AT THE AUDIOVISUAL DEPARTMENT
Photographs-persons
V. Alecsandri
Teresa Billington Greig
Ms. Balchin
Constantin Brancovani
Herbert Brown
Francisco
Caminero
Carol II
José Cazorla
James Connolly
Cornelia
Cornesch-Achimesu
Emily Wilding Davison
Charlotte Despard
Isidoro Diéguez
Maximo de Dios
Doughton
Dragu
Flora
Drummond, son Keir and mother(?)
Flora Drummond and Annie Kenney
Ms.
Edmunds (?) and Sylvia 1934
Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy
Zelie Emerson
in Brussels, april 1914
M. Eminescu
José Carreño España
Filotti
G. Ghica
William Ewart Gladstone
Oliver Goldsmith Gramsci, c.
1934
Haile Selassie
Keir Hardie
Evelina Haverfield
Vera
Holme
Edith How-Martin Lorenzo Iñigo
Prof. Iorga
Enrique Jiménez
Annie Kenney
Betzy Kjelsberg
George Lansbury
Jessie
Lansbury Ledru-Rollin
Ms. Mantle
Marie, reine de la Roumanie
Manuel González Marín
Dr. Marlin
Azaj Warqneh C. Martin
Gen. Miaja
Michael Weywodt aus des Walachei
Mihail, le Grand
Voevode
Semakula Mulumba
Theresa Nantale
Luis Nieto
F.
Nitti
Rhoda Palmer (?)
Adela Pankhurst
Christabel Pankhurst
Emmeline Pankhurst and Christabel Pankhurst in prison garb, 1908
Emmeline
Pankhurst (some with Harry, sister Pine, Christabel; - some unveiling her
memorial)
Sylvia, Adela and Christabel Pankhurst ca. 1890
Sylvia
Pankhurst (some with Johanne Munter, Greta Carlberg, - Frederikka
Mörck,
Zelie Emerson, Richard, Ethel Archer, Haile Selassie)
Ms. Pacoe
F.
and E. Pethick-Lawrence
E. Pethick-Lawrence
Savel Radulescu
David Ramsay
Carlo Rosselli
Ft. Sheehy Skeffington
Norah L.
Smyth
Marie Sukloff
John Syme
G. Tatarescu
Barbara
Tchaykovsky
Titulescu
Trotsky speaking on the Red Square
Princess Tsahai of Ethiopia
Mabel Tuke (?)
Fam. Walsh (Adela
Pankhurst)
Photographs-countries
International
Second
International, Congress 1896
Third International, meeting with A.
Kollontai and C. Zetkin
International Labour Organization Geneva
First World War
2nd congress of the Third International, Petrograd
18.7.1920
Austria
"Badeanstalten in Wien", c. 1929
Belgium
"Laitière flamande" First World War
England
Women's Social and Political Union
Suffrage Atelier
Women's
Freedom League
Women Writers' Suffrage League
Actresses' Franchise
League
East London Federation of the Suffragettes
Workers' Suffrage
Federation
E.l.F.S. - East London Toy Factory
E.L.F.S. - Child
Welfare
First World War
First World War; women' labour
Independent Labour Party
Labour Party (?) meeting Trafalgar Square
Queen Charlotte's Maternity Hospital
Conscientious Objection; E.
Chappelow
East End, London; social conditions
Strikes
Women'
Labour
2 postcards "Workless and hungry vote for the bill"
Socialist Party of Great Britain
Fishers
Morris Dancers
Meeting Free Trade Hall, Manchester, 1905
Wedgwood Pottery industry
Ethiopia
Schools, 1946
France
Front Populaire
Demonstration, Paris
First World War
Germany
German prisoners of
war in England
Italy
Secours rouge Italien: 5 postcards
Norway
Women
Rumania
Country life
Asociatia surorilor de caritate
de Rasboi din Rumania
Soviet-Russia
Prison
Journey in
Soviet-Russia
Youth
Spain
Spanish Civil War
Spanish
Rpublican Youth in London
Republicans
Junta Delegada de Defensa de
Madrid
Cartoons
"Christmas cards for celebrities", Punch
Almanack for 1908
"Whom War threatens"
"Peace or
famine - which?" (from Woman's Dreadnought 16.6.1917)
"Hands off
the ring" (from Woman's Dreadnought, Christmas 1916)
6 cartoons about
the women's movement (from Workers' Dreadnought 25.8.1917)
"Aren't
they worth defending?" (from Workers' Dreadnought 23.2.1918)
Posters
"To his Imperial Majesty, Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia"
from "Editor, Contributors and Staff of the New Times and Ethiopia
News" 3.9.1938
Scarves, brooches, medals and calendar
Women's
Social and Political Union
Women, Suffrage and Politics
The papers of Sylvia Pankhursy, 1882-1960 From the International Institute for Social History, Amsterdam
Part One: Inventory
Numbers 1-224
Contents of reels
REEL ONE
Inventory of the
E. Pamkhurst papers 1863-1960.
Personal documents (1-6)
General
Correspondence, 1898-1959 (7-15)
Correspondence Files on specific
subjects, 1905-1936 (16-21)
REEL TWO
Sketches and Drawings
(22-26)
Writings: Manuscript Notebooks and Essays, including Journey to
the United
States, Women's Work, The first World War and Buddhism (27-35)
REEL THREE
Writings: Manuscript Notebooks mainly concerning
Rumania (36-43)
REEL FOUR
Writings : Manuscript Notebooks,
Essays, Songs, Poems and Translations mainly concerning Rumania (44-51)
REEL FIVE
Writings: Manuscript Notebooks and Essays, including
the Suffragette Movement, Women prisoners and German Socialists (52-63)
REEL SIX
Writings: Manuscript Notebooks and Essays mainly
concerning the Home Front (64-70)
REEL SEVEN
Writings:
Manuscript Notebooks, including Fascism, the general Strike and Maternity Care
(71-76)
REEL EIGHT
Writings: Manuscript Notebooks mainly
converning "Red Twilight" (77-80)
REEL NINE
Writings:
Manuscripts Notebooks, including British Socialists and Radicals,
"Dogland", Suffrage, The Labour Party, the Women's Party and
"Red Twilight" (81-86)
REEL TEN
Writings: Manuscripts
Notebooks, including "Red Twilight", Lydia Becker, Italian Fascists
and the Bolsheviks (87-92)
REEL ELEVEN
Writings: Manuscripts
Notebooks concerning Ethiopia (93-94)
REEL TWELVE
Writings:
Manuscripts Notebooks concerning Ethiopia, draft letters, "talk with Jilma
Renessa in her end"
REEL THIRTEEN
Writings: Manuscripts
Notebooks and Loose Papers mainly concerning Ethiopia, Albania and Somalia
(97-98)
REEL FOURTEEN
Writings: Manuscripts Notebooks and Loose
Papers, including draft letters, draft poems and a draft play (99-101)
REEL FIFTEEN
Writings: Manuscripts Notebooks concerning draft
plays and a novel, notes on India and on the Irish Civil War (102-109)
REEL SIXTEEN
Writings: Manuscript and Typescript Papers
concerning Women's Work and Foreign Travel (110-119)
REEL SEVENTEEN
Writings: Typescript Papers including "Poor Dionis" by M.
Eminescu, translated by E.S. Pankhurst (120-122)
REEL EIGHTEEN
Writings: Typescript Papers, including " The Suffragette
Movement", " The Citizenship of Women", " The Womanhood of
tomorrow" (123-137)
REEL NINETEEN
Writings: Typescript
Papers, including " The Socialisation of the health services",
"The prison problem", "children in prison" (138-146)
REEL TWENTY
Writings: "In the Red Twilight. Fascism as it
is". (147-148)
REEL TWENTY-ONE
Writings: "In the Red
Twilight. Fascism as it is" and "The Russian Riddle"; different
versions (149-151)
REEL TWENTY-TWO
Writings: Typescript Papers,
including "Women and Dictatorship", " G.B. Shaw....comunnist or
fascist" and some fiction works (152-172)
REEL TWENTY-THREE
Writings: Typescript Fiction Works
Women's Social and Political
Union,
East London Federation, 1906-1913 (178-200)
REEL
TWENTY-FOUR
Women's Social and Political Union,
East london
Federation 1906-1913 (201-205),
East London Federation of the Suffragettes
(ELFS)/
Workers Suffrage Federation (WFS)/ Workers
Socialist
Federation (WSF), 1913-1924 (206-211)
REEL TWENTY-FIVE
East
London Federation of the Suffragettes (ELFS)/
Workers Suffrage Federation
(WSF)/Workers
Socialist Federation (WSF), 1913-1924 (212-224)
Women,
Suffrage and Politics
The papers of Sylvia Pankhursy, 1882-1960
From
the International Institute for Social History, Amsterdam
Part Two:
Inventory Numbers 225-362 and Photographs and Pictures deposited in the
Audio-Visual Department.
CONTENTS OF REELS
REEL TWENTY SIX
East London Federation of the Suffragettes (ELFS)/ Workers Suffrage
Federation (WSF)/Workers Socialist Federation (WSF), 1913-1924 (225-234)
World War I, 1914-1917 (235-238)
Communist Party, British Section of
the Third International (239-240)
Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB)
(241-243) Ireland (244-245)
REEL TWENTY-SEVEN
Ireland (246)
Soviet Russia (247-252)
Workers' Dreadnought (247-252)
Workers'
Dreadnought (253-258)
folios 1-56 and folios 1-200 (259)
REEL
TWENTY-EIGHT
Workers' Dreadnought (259) folios 201-483 (259)
Workers'
dreadnought (260-266)
Anti-fascism, Europe and the Far East, c. 1930-1939
(267-268)
REEL TWENTY-NINE
Anti-fascism, Europe and the Far
East, c. 1930-1939 (269-272)
Ethiopia, c. 1930-1952 (273-283)
Germany, 1933-1938 (284-287)
Italy, c. 1930-1940 (288-290)
Women's World Committee against War and Fascism (WWC) (291-293)
REEL THIRTY
World War II (294-296)
Press Cuttings and Other
Documents (297-303)
REEL THIRTY-ONE
Press Cuttings and other
Documents (304-312)
REEL THIRTY-TWO
Press Cuttings and other
Documents (313-314)
Silvio Corio (315-316)
Christabel Pankhurst
(317-319)
Emmeline Pankhurst (320-324)
Richard Keir Pethick Pankhurst
(325-328)
REEL THIRTY-THREE
Richard Marsden Pankhurst (329-347)
REEL THIRTY-FOUR
Richard Marsden Pankhurst (348-351)
Documents concerning Other Relatives (352-358)
Pictures and
Photographs (359-360)
REEL THIRTY-FIVE
Pictures and Photographs
(361-362)
REEL THIRTY-SIX
Pictures and Photographs (Collection
deposited in the Audiovisual Department listed on pages 44-47 of the inventory)
REEL THIRTY-SEVEN
Pictures and Photographs (Collection
deposited in the Audiovisual Department listed on pages 44-47 of the
inventory)