The V&A has been collecting press cuttings since 1831. Between April 1913 and July 1914, newspapers reported on a spate of attacks at British museums and galleries as suffragettes tried to force the UK Government to approve female suffrage. As they pasted the newspaper clippings into volumes, V&A staff must have worried that they could be next, especially as London was the focus for a majority of the attacks.
This blog will focus on the V&A’s reactions to the attacks – for a full list of incidents, please see the Suffragette Research guide.
Attacks on Works of Art
The attacks began on the 3rd of April 1913 when three suffragettes targeted thirteen paintings in Manchester Art Gallery. In June 1913, The Times reported that St John’s College library, Cambridge, had experienced ‘suffragist mischief’, including the ‘mutilation’ of books by cutting their bindings, and the hanging of a ‘Votes for Women’ card on one of the bookshelves.
The number of attacks escalated in the spring and summer of 1914, with perhaps the most famous incident taking place at London’s National Gallery on the 10th of March 1914. Mary Richardson slashed the Velazquez painting Venus at her Mirror (also known as the Rokeby Venus) six times. The National Gallery was targeted for a second time in May 1914. Two other London institutions suffered multiple attacks – the British Museum was targeted in April and May 1914; and The Royal Academy saw three separate attacks in May 1914. Institutions in other British cities were targeted in 1914 (The Scottish Academy, and Birmingham City and Art Gallery), but the final occurrence of vandalism took place in London. The National Portrait Gallery’s painting of Thomas Carlyle was damaged by Margaret Gibb in July 1914. The suffragettes suspended militant action upon the outbreak of World War One in August 1914. According to press reports, public sympathy was against the suffragettes – during the first Royal Academy attack, visitors called for Mary to be apprehended, and one visitor tried to hit her. A man attempted to protect her from further blows, but was branded a suffragette sympathiser and became a target for the crowd, who knocked his hat and glasses off.
Actions Taken to Protect the V&A Collection from an Anticipated Attack
On the 11th of November 1912, New Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir Edward R. Henry gave a warning of suffragette activity to the V&A in South Kensington, and the Bethnal Green Museum (now Young V&A). There was no concrete information about planned action, but generalised threats to damage property had been made. Staff at both museums were instructed to ‘search any suspicious person’, and to ask visitors to leave all sticks, umbrellas, bags, and parcels at the entrance.
Further warnings were issued in January 1913, including intelligence that the suffragettes planned to scratch ‘sentences framing their cause’ on glass in public buildings using diamond rings.
New notices were issued to staff, advising them to remain vigilant, and to detain women who tried to damage artworks by ‘seizing their wrists’.
In June 1914, a ‘personal friend of a great many suffragettes’ informed the V&A’s director of several plots to target the museum’s collections, including books and manuscripts in the National Art Library; the Raphael cartoons; and objects in the Ceramics galleries.
Despite stating that the informant’s information was so ‘vague’ and ‘in the nature of current gossip’ that ‘it hardly seems necessary to take action upon it’, the Jones galleries, the Ceramics and Salting collections, and the Loan Court were closed to the public, and orders were given to library staff not to issue valuable books or prints to readers. At the recommendation of the Police Commissioner, three officers were hired in May 1913. The arrangement was originally intended to only last until the end of June 1913, but continued until the summer of 1914 due to continued unrest.
The V&A escaped largely unscathed, as there was only one minor incident – the phrase ‘Votes for Women’ was scratched onto the handrail in Room 100 with a hatpin. The emergency security measures were abolished over time, but there is one legacy of the threat of militant action which remains today, and something we can all thank the suffragettes for – free entry to the V&A. The Museum decided to abolish admission charges in 1914 because the Board of Education considered that ‘the increase in the number of visitors which is likely to result from the abolition of the fees may be expected to provide some additional security for the Collections’ against possible suffragette ‘outrages’.
Further Information
If you would like to learn more about the suffragettes, the National Art Library has a wealth of sources. A research guide to relevant archive material can be accessed on our website.
