Christina Broom began her photographic career at 40 in 1903, making her among one of the UK’s first female press photographers.
During the years leading up to the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Cristina Broom took some of the most memorable photographs of the courageous women campaigning for the vote in London. During this period, now known as the “golden age of the postcard,” Christina learned how to become a commercial photographer and earned a comfortable living. She began working for Women’s Sunday in 1908 when she was 46. She and her family lived at 38 Burnfoot Avenue in Fulham with their only child, Winifred Margaret, known as Winnie, age 18.
Women frequently and loudly marched through the capital’s streets in 1908, claiming public spaces everywhere to demand the right to vote. Suffragettes and suffragists were irresistible and photogenic subjects near Christina. She managed to maneuver a tripod and a heavy box camera up to platform 6 – one of 20 – at the Women’s Sunday meeting in Hyde Park. She captured the genuine camaraderie of the speakers and their supporters.
Christina stopped photographing the women’s suffrage movement in 1913 for unknown reasons. She may have become more successful with other works. The escalating violence of the WPSU may have prompted the Brooms to end this particular line of work. The newspapers reported broken windows, arson attacks on empty houses and churches, railway stations and sporting facilities, and axe attacks on positions of art and museum displays between the summers of 1913 and 1914. Those days of beautifully dressed, photogenic women walking peacefully through the streets of London carrying artistic banners – a Broom staple – were over.
Here are some pictures are taken by Christina Broom of the Suffragettes from across Britain:
