Votes for Women

1999: "Millennium - The Citizens' Tale"

The 48 stamps that Royal Mail produced for the millennium presented British history as chapters in a story, each done by a different artist. This one was created by Natasha Kerr, originally a textile designer with an interest in Italian renaissance frescoes.  Her career took an unexpected turn in the 1990s when her mother gave her family photos that had been languishing in plastic bag and she discovered an unknown family and her own story.  Inspired by this discovery she created art where she combines textiles and photographs, transferring family photographs onto antique bedlinen, painting and stitching pieces together to create individual pieces. She talks about it here   She also works to commission and I think that Royal Mail now owns this piece. I wonder if they have it on display?  Many suffragettes ended up in prison in their quest for the vote which would be a long campaign imaginatively using all means of publicity to make their point

 The vote was eventually obtained by British women in 1918 and this stamp celebrates the 50th anniverssary:

However not everyone had the vote as you had to be over 30 and own property and it was not until ten years later that all women over the age of 21 were enfranchised.  The Norwegians were slightly ahead of the curve

 and they commemorated the bicentanry of Camilla Collett and also the Centenary of Women's' Suffrage in 2013

The one of the left is of Camilla Collett (1813-1895)  in front of her novel  'Amtmandens Døtre (The Governor's Daughter),  A feminist pioneer, her novel explores the difficulties of women in a patriarchal society. A pioneer in literary and cultural history of Norway she experienced tremendous change in society and the older she got the more radical she became producing essays and books on the annoyances of women's everyday life and more general problems.  Her portrait also adorned the Norwegian 100 kroner note from 1977-1994.

The other stamp and the cover itself concerns Gina Krog and nine other campaigners who founded the Norwegian Association for Women's Suffrage in 1885 and embarked on a long struggle. Their first small victory was in 1901 when women were allowed to vote in local elections but this was restricted to those of a certain income. In 1907 women were given the same restricted rights to vote in general elections. By 1910, unlike the British parliament, the Norwegian parliament (the Storting) were in favour of all women being entitled to vote. When Anna Rogstad (shown on the stamp on the right) became the first female member of the Storting in 1911 this gave impetus to universal voting rights for women which occurred in 1913.

In a continuation of the great tradition of Norwegian stamp engraving both stamps were designed and engraved by Arild Yttri who works as an engraver at the Norges Bank.  I wonder if he did the 100 kroner note of Collett. 

An entry to Viridian Postcard's Sunday Stamps theme of - Women's History Month