Postcard, photographic postcard

The Catalogue and Enquiries stall at The Women's Exhibition 13-26 May 1909. The exhibition, organised by the Women's Social and Political Union to recruit new members and raise funds for the Votes for Women campaign, was held at Princes' Skating Rink in Knightsbridge and viewed by the leadership as a triumphant success. The Catalogues & Enquries stall was located in a central part of the exhibition. On the table in the centre of this image can be seen piles of the 20,000 exhibition catalogues printed for the exhibition that retailed at 3d and included a description of the exhibits as well as articles by the Suffragette leaders outlining the policies and purpose of the WSPU. The catalogues also included business advertisements the sale of lucrative advertising space being regarded as being a further opportunity to raise funds for the campaign 'war chest.' Also visible in the image are some of the purple, white and green murals designed by Sylvia Pankhurst that ran the length of the walls. Each mural was painted with an arch of purple grapes and green ivy with, in the centre, alternating designs depicting either a pelican feeding its young, a flying dove with an olive branch in its mouth or the broad arrow surrounded by a wreath of laurels. At the back of the hall was a large canvas painted with three female figures representing the themes from 'The Sower' to 'The Reaper'.

The sale of the catalogues contributed to the £5,664 of takings over the two week period that was hailed by the WSPU as an 'immense success'. According to a report in Votes for Women on June 4th 1909 through the success of the exhibition 'We [the WSPU] have shown a new side to the public, with the result that our Movement has won a better understanding on the part of those who knew nothing about it except from hearsay’.