Birmingham: A jungle for suffragettes

Researchers at the University of Sheffield’s National Fairground Archive have been exploring the heritage of the suffragette movement as part of International Women’s Week.

They have discovered fascinating facts relating to the suffragette’s involvement with travelling menageries such as the Birmingham Jungle – seemingly using the spectacle and danger of live acts to gain publicity for their cause – even going so far as to literally deliver their rallying speeches from the lion’s den!

An advertisement sent to the newspapers for a similar appearance in Sheffield in March 1912 read:

“A proposal to a lady desirous of demonstrating her adherence to the women’s suffrage movement, but not in directions of offending public taste.
If a fearless suffragette
seeks a chance where she may get
undying fame and world-wide notoriety
here’s that chance for show of nerve,
self-confidence and verve, midst surroundings
of the strictest of propriety.
For
THE JUNGLE MANAGEMENT
with the best of good intent,
will provide a GROUP OF LIONS as her attendants
for a ‘Votes For Women’ speech –
(with the lions in easy reach), here’s a chance of TRULY BRILLIANT RESPLENDENCE!
In other words –
the Jungle Management will be pleased to consider proposals from PROMINENT (Non-Militant) members of the “Women’s Suffrage Movement” to speak from the arena
MIDST A GROUP OF LIONS
conditionally that the speech must be fair and impartial and ENTIRELY FREE FROM PARTY FEELING”.

But was this genuine suffrage, or a canny publicity stunt arranged by the owners of the jungles? And how did the reporting of these events influence perception of the suffrage movement?

To read the research paper in full, visit: http://www.nfa.dept.shef.ac.uk/jungle/index4d6.html.

For further information on the research, contact Ian Trowell on i.trowell@sheffield.ac.uk