For the 100th year of women’s right to vote in the United States, I’m working on a book of working class suffragist women in the United States and Great Britain. I’ve decided to focus on twelve, because that folds nicely into an accordion book. I am printing them as small postcards, because that’s what I can print on my Kelsey Excelsior. I didn’t want to focus on the more famous ones, like Emmaline Pankhurst or Susan B. Anthony.
They have a punk rock feel to them, because I’m limited by the Kelsey for the quality of print. I kind of like that though. I feel like my work is usually precise, but working within my tools, I have to accept an uneven spread of ink and spots that don’t print exactly as I’d like. I’m learning to let perfection go!
Many of the women belong to either a union or a socialist political party, as well as a suffrage organization. Two of my favorite are Augusta Lewis, who founded the Women’s Typographical Union No. 1 in New York City, and Frances Nacke Noel, who was an important member of Los Angeles Women’s Trade Union League. I’m from a suburb of Los Angeles, and my parents still live there. The other women are Alice Hawkins, Annie Arniel, Annie Kenney, Helga Estby, Janet McCallum, Leonora Cohen, Mary Gawthorpe, Rose Winslow, Selina Cooper, and Theresa Malkiel.