A Pageant of Great Women, Cicely Hamilton, The Suffrage Shop, 1910, First Edition This is the very first edition of one of the earliest and most popular suffrage plays and is an incredibly rare volume of some historical significance with only one other volume known to us. In the pre radio years of the early twentieth century suffrage plays were used to promote the women's movement around the country and A Pageant of Great Women became one of the most popular. Indeed it was the first publication of The Suffrage Shop which opened in Bedford Street, Covent Garden. The actress Edith Craig invited Cicely Hamilton (1872 - 1952), a suffragist, birth control advocate, and abortion law reformer to write the play which featured 52 great women of history including Jane Austen, Catherine The Great and Florence Nightingale amongst others, highlighting women's independence and history. Hamilton was involved with a number of related organisations including setting up The Women Writers' Suffrage League. The book contains the script of the play and fifteen photos of suffragists and actresses in costume as the great women of history together with 52 short biographies at the rear and was sold to raise funds for the cause. The detached boards have some chips and markings but colouring is bright and the spine missing. The remaining pages remain bound together and are clean without marks or tears save a short pencil poem inscription to the rear. Later Hamilton operated as a nurse and then auxiliary during WW1 and subsequently as a freelance journalist and promoter of women's rights and most specifically birth control. E.M. Delafield is thought to have modelled "Emma Hay" on Cicely Hamilton in The Diary of a Provincial Lady. Despite the faults, the book's historical significance and rarity will make it a sought after volume. Will be dispatched promptly, fully insured and professionally packaged.