Scrapbook 'given by Miss Frances Power Cobbe to Annie Leigh Browne' with later additions from the collection of Eunice Murray

Pages 1-29 form the original Frances Power Cobbe / Annie Leigh Browne scrapbook of cuttings dating from 1893 to 1913. They begin with a few press cuttings and ephemera relating to demonstrations re the Direct Veto Bill, 1893 [for reforming the liquor traffic], but relate mainly to the suffrage campaigns of 1910-1913. The latter include many cartoons from the Daily Herald. Pages 30-115 are comprised of press cuttings [collected by Eunice Murray] from the national and regional press relating to the suffrage campaigns and dating from 1908 to 1914. There are some sub-headings that give an indication of the scope of the material and these include: 'Scottish women's appeal before the House of Lords: Miss Crystal Macmillan, 1908'; 'Suffrage (general), 1908'; 'Suffrage March to the Albert Hall', 13 Jun 1908; 'Suffragette Rally in Hyde Park', 21 Jun 1908; 'Suffrage work in Scotland and the North', 1908; 'Suffrage (general)', 1909; 'Suffrage (general), 1910; 'Scottish campaign', 1910.

Both Cobbe and Browne were involved in the nineteenth-century women's movement, whilst Eunice Murray was of a slightly later generation of women activists. Amongst other activities, Frances Power Cobbe (1822-1904), journalist, anti-vivisectionist, suffragist and social reformer, was an early member of the Kensington Society, the Enfranchisement of Women Committee and later a founder of the London National Society for Women's Suffrage and a member of the executive committee of the Central Committee of the National Society for Women's Suffrage. Annie Leigh Browne (1851-1936), suffragist, was a friend of Frances Power Cobbe, a founder of the Society for Promoting the Return of Women as County Councillors and a member of the Central Society for Women's Suffrage and its successor, the London Society for Women's Suffrage. Eunice Guthrie Murray (1877-1960) came from a family of Scottish suffragists, and by 1913 was President of the Women's Freedom League in Scotland. Later she became the first woman to stand in a parliamentary election in Scotland.

This collection is available for consultation. Intending readers are advised to contact The Women's Library in advance of their first visit.

Created by the Head of Special Collections, The Women's Library.

The scrapbook is annotated on the inside cover: 'This book was given by Miss Frances Power Cobbe to Annie Leigh Browne'. However, it is unclear whether the gift was of an empty volume or the scrapbook complete with cuttings. Since many of the cuttings date from after the death of Frances Power Cobbe, the former seems most likely. Inside the fly leaf a further annotation indicates that additions were made at a much later date, probably by staff of the Fawcett Library: 'News cuttings collected by Eunice Murray (see her picture album) ... pasted in this album in 1968.' It does indeed seem likely that the cuttings in the second part of the album were originally collected by Murray because of the Scottish connection and may have been donated by her to the Library and then pasted into the volume.

Further correspondence of all three women may be found in the autograph letter collection also held by The Women's Library (see GB 106 9). Papers relating to Frances Power Cobbe may also be found in the Huntington Library, the Bodleian Library, McMaster University Library, Nottingham University Library and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.