People's History Museum, Manchester

The People's History Museum in Manchester mainly covers the last 200 years of the organised labour movement in Britain, with some earlier material.  There are Information guides to the British Union of Fascists, Early industrial Manchester, Miners strike, 1984-85, General Elections, Spanish Civil War, Chartism, and Women's Suffrage. The Archive and Study Centre can be visited by appointment Monday-Friday

The collections include a wealth of political and satirical prints, banners (which are linked to the Textile Conservation Studio), some 3,000 buttons and 1,500 political posters.  The collections are catalogued and can be searched by keyword or as a defined search. Records are accompanied by thumbnails which can be clicked for larger images.

The posters are the focus of the current exhibition: Picturing politics, which closes on June 17.  Various aspects of these are the subject of illustrated online articles by various academics under the headings: After the war, Labour for security, Let's go with labour and People power.

Much to explore on this site.

(C) People's History Museum

Women's Suffrage Banners and Ephemera from the Women's Library

For International Women's Day!

The Women's Library, formerly the Fawcett Library, is the major repository of women's suffrage material in this country. Images from these collections are available in two ways:

The VADS (Visual Arts Data Service) currently hosts 55 institutional collections (including two John Johnson Collection sections: Political Prints and Trades & Professions) which can be cross-searched or searched within individual collections. Included in the site are the Women's Library: Suffrage Banners (248 banners, including artwork) and The Women's Library Suffrage Collection.

(C) VADS and Women's Library

 

(C) Mary Evans Picture Library Ltd. and Women's Library

The latter is a taster of 67 choice images from a full range now delivered through the Mary Evans Picture Library, which hosts 2113 images from the Women's Library.  Not all are ephemera, but photographs, banners and artefacts can be excluded by confining the search to 'Illustrations only' (515 results).

Stop press: For today, the Women's Library has just mounted an online exhibition: Women and the vote.

 The Women's Library ephemera collection is not restricted to suffrage and contains much contemporary material.

More information about Women's Studies archives and resources is available through the Genesis portal, including 152 results for ephemera.

Mary Evans Picture Library

I visited the Mary Evans Picture Library many years ago and loved it.  There is a wealth of ephemera, enthusiastically collected by the late Mary and Hilary Evans, initially as a hobby and then as a business. The images are beautifully presented by theme,date, etc.

(C)Mary Evans Picture Library Ltd

In addition to its own collections, the MEPL holds images from the National Archives, Women's Library, Weimar Archive, the work of Ernst Dryden, the Illustrated London News, material which has passed through Onslow Auctions, political cartoons (mid 1790s-1810) from The Reform Club, and many other photographic and other archives. These can be viewed individually from the Collections page or cross-searched with other collections.  

The Features section is one of my favourites, with pre-selections of material relating to nearly 200 tantalising themes.

(C) Mary Evans Picture Library Ltd

You can also subscribe to an online Newsletter, download ME and You Magazine, and follow the MEPL on Twitter: @Mary_Evans

Museum of London

The Museum of London has wonderful collections of ephemera and is actively surfacing them, notably the tinsel prints, valentines, Christmas cards and trade cards.
The Collections pages enable you to read about the collections and to search (here I searched for suffrage).

(c) Museum of London

(c) Museum of London

As well as the museum's website Ellie, the Project Assistant focussing on ephemera, is blogging regularly about progress.

The Museum's commercial site has thousands of images which can be searched and ordered.