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Exhibition Shall Not Be Denied: Women Fight for the Vote

Shall Not Be Denied: Women Fight for the Vote

The Transatlantic Campaign for Suffrage

Harriot Stanton Blatch (1856–1940). Hanging posters for lecture by Sylvia Pankhurst (1882–1960), December 29, 1910. Photograph. Harriot Stanton Blatch Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (050.00.00)
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“Miss Sylvia Pankhurst . . . American Tour, January, February, 1912.” NAWSA Records, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (050.03.00)
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“Miss Sylvia Pankhurst . . . American Tour, January, February, 1912.” NAWSA Records, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (050.03.00)
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Harris & Ewing. “Miss Lucy Burns of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage, left, with Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst,” 1913. Reproduction from glass negative. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (050.02.00)
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Lecture Ticket to Hear Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928), November 14, 1913. NAWSA Records, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (051.00.00)
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The Transatlantic Campaign for Suffrage

Suffragists on both sides of the Atlantic informed, inspired, and financed each other. Harriot Stanton Blatch arranged several American speaking tours for her friend, militant British suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst. In December 1910, Blatch plastered advertisements throughout New York for a lecture by Pankhurst’s daughter Sylvia, a socialist labor activist who shared Blatch’s goal of attracting more working-class women to the cause. Sylvia gave lectures in early 1911 and again in 1912. Emmeline’s third American trip in 1913 received heightened publicity when immigration officials detained her at Ellis Island until President Wilson approved her entry.