Mrs Pankhurst's purple feather : fashion, fury and feminism - women's fight for change
Boase, Tessa2018
Books, Manuscripts
In the Museum of London lies a purple feather, once worn by the suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst. The plumed hat was an essential part of her ultra-feminine image. For over half a century, from the High Victorian era to the Jazz Age, it was de rigueur to deck your head with plumage, wings - even entire birds. An insatiable global trade in feathers brought birdlife to the brink of extinction: snowy egrets, crested grebes, jewel-like hummingbirds. At its Edwardian peak, the plumage trade was worth a staggering £2m a year to Britain - £204m in today's money. The struggle to save the birds was a woman's campaign. Its aim was simple: to stamp out the fashion for feathers in hats. Leading the fight was Etta Lemon, and she was known as 'Mother of the Birds'. This book explores two very different heroines: Mrs Pankhurst and Mrs Lemon - one lionised, the other forgotten - and their rival, overlapping campaigns.
Main title:
Author:
Boase, Tessa, author
Imprint:
London : Aurum Press, 2018.
Collation:
xvi, 320 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (black and white, and colour) ; 24 cm
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:
9781781316542 (hbk)
Dewey class:
941.082309252941.082309941.082 BOA941.082309BOA(542)941.082309Boa
Language:
English
Subject:
BRN:
2651753