A superlative association copy belonging to Mary Priestman, the influential Newcastle-born Quaker social reformer, campaigner for women’s rights, and a “Dearest Friend” of Josephine Butler, editor of this collection; with suffrage-related ephemera laid in.
Not only does Butler’s introduction to Woman’s Work and Woman’s Culture “constitute her most comprehensive, theoretical statement about the woman question” but it is also “her first public effort to integrate the discussion of prostitution and the double standard into a general discussion of the condition of women.” (ODNB). The publication year, 1869, was also significant for a related cause, as it saw Butler and Elizabeth Wolstenholme begin to agitate against the Contagious Diseases Acts, which so grossly breached the civil rights of women who were deemed to be selling sex. Following a ‘Ladies’ Protest,’ Butler and Wolstenholme founded the Ladies National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts (LNA) in December 1869.
The publication year, 1869, also saw Mary Priestman (1830-1914) move with her sister, Anna Maria, to Clifton, Bristol, where they joined the LNA, with Mary “act[ing] as the secretary,” according to Sandra Stanley Holton (see her ODNB entry for Anna Maria Priestman). The Priestman sisters also “helped form some of the first women's suffrage societies, in London, Bristol, and Bath” (ibid), and went on to form the first branch of the National Union of Women Workers in the publication year. They were instrumental too in founding the Women’s Liberal Association in Bristol in 1881, the first in Britain, and continued to be involved in temperance and social work, hence the leaflet laid in. Mary and Anna Maria were the first suffragists to use non-payment of taxes as a means of protest; as Quakers they didn’t support militant action (unlike Jennie Baines: see item ref #3066).
A wonderful copy uniting two significant late C19th campaigners for women’s rights and “Dearest Friends”.
The “J & L” of the inscription remain unidentified: inscribed in the month that saw Elizabeth Wolstenholme (another friend of Mary Priestman’s) draw Josephine Butler’s attention to the Contagious Diseases Acts, thus setting in motion the LNA, it’s tempting to speculate that they may refer to “Josephine & Liz.”
PROVENANCE: Later, from the library of Roger Clark & Sara Bancroft Clark.
[ref: 3072]