Project aim

Please help the People’s History Museum raise £5,000 to bring home to Manchester a significant and rare suffragette banner that was created over 100 years ago at the height of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) campaign led by Emmeline Pankhurst.

About the project

The People’s History Museum tells the dramatic story of British people’s fight for democracy and equal rights. A national museum based in Manchester, we tell the stories of the radical heroes who believed in ideas worth fighting for, the pioneers who changed history in the struggle for fairness and equal rights.

The WPSU were known for their militant style of protest; tying themselves to railings, disrupting public meetings, blowing-up post boxes and going on hunger strike upon their arrest. Emmeline Pankhurst, who lived and set up the WPSU at her home in Nelson Street, Manchester, was at the forefront of this campaign alongside her daughters.

We need your help to raise the final £5,000 required to bring home Manchester’s suffragette banner having already secured grants from the Arts Council England/V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the Heritage Lottery Fund’s Collecting Cultures programme.

The People’s History Museum holds what is considered the world’s largest collection of trade union and political banners and our expertise in this area includes our own in-house Textile Conservation Studio.  The Manchester suffragette banner is the work of renowned maker Thomas Brown & Sons, based in Manchester but working across Britain.  Recognised for their outstanding quality, a number of the designs created by Thomas Brown are held in the V&A collection.

We will ensure the banner receives expert care from our conservation specialists and becomes part of the museum’s world-renowned collection, taking centre stage in our 2018 centenary exhibition - marking the centenary of the Representation of the People Act, when all men and some women got the vote.