Oral evidence on the suffragette and suffragist movements

VHS copies of the oral history interviews; file of contextual material relating to the project.

In the mid to late 1970s Brian Harrison, then of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, undertook an oral history project financed by Social Science Research Council. The original aim of the project was to provide material to supplement documentary sources on the Edwardian women's suffrage movement in Britain and to make these interviews available to scholars subsequently working in the field. Interviews were conducted with surviving suffragists, their offspring and relatives. During the course of the project the chronological scope was widened to include those active in the women's movement after women's enfranchisement. Thematically the scope was also widened to encompass those who were active in other women's organisations, including international and religious organisations, and to cover themes including women's employment and birth control. Interviews with 183 individuals were completed.

Interviews were obtained on the condition that the permission of the interviewee would be sought before access was granted. Some individual interviews are therefore either closed or subject to access restrictions and readers are strongly advised to contact The Women's Library in advance of their visit

Description prepared by Jennifer Haynes, Head of Special Collections, The Women's Library

Summaries of the interviews prepared by Brian Harrison are available in The Women's Library Reading Room