Recognising and celebrating women’s suffrage history in Scarborough
- Melissa Kays
- Ben Catt
Kirsty Ryder, Postgraduate Researcher, Department of Archaeology
Email: kr895@york.ac.uk
Summary
The project discusses ongoing efforts to highlight Scarborough's involvement in the women's suffrage movement. It involves several key components: a research presentation at Scarborough Library, collaboration with Scarborough & District Civic Society, and the installation of two commemorative plaques on International Women's Day 2024. The plaques, funded by White Rose College of the Arts and Humanities (WRoCAH), will recognize local activist Florence Balgarnie and a former Scarborough Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) shop. Open research and collaboration have played a crucial role, aiding in regular sharing of findings and leveraging local expertise to identify historical locations. This approach uncovered previously unknown materials, including photographs of the former WSPU shop in a suffragette procession. The project's open research strategy and collaboration will continue to impact the community, both from the plaques installed, and as a Women's Suffrage Walking Trail and booklet are being developed based on the research findings.
Case Study
I am working with a local authority group to emphasise and celebrate Scarborough's involvement in the women's suffrage movement. This work is ongoing, and consists of:
A presentation of my research to a non-academic audience at Scarborough Library in July 2023.
Meetings and correspondence with Scarborough & District Civic Society team members.
The installation of two commemorative plaques on International Women's Day in March 2024.
I have successfully applied for and received WRoCAH funding to help the Society with the costs of these plaques - the first in Scarborough to recognise the contributions of women. One of the plaques will recognise a local activist, Florence Balgarnie, at her childhood home address, and the other plaque marks the former Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) shop in the city centre.
Open research has been a part of this project throughout as its success has relied on collaboration between myself and the partner organisation, with regular sharing of research findings. While I have been able to bring to light women's suffrage in Scarborough amongst council members, I do not have much knowledge of the area. I have relied on the council members’ knowledge and eagerness to help, which led to local library visits to aid in sourcing building information from microfilms and records. For example, while I was able to provide the home address of Florence Balgarnie, this historic address no longer exists, and it was only with an open research process and regular discussion of my findings that we were able to establish the building location (as it now exists under another street name).
Through this process I have learned that sharing my findings throughout my research has been of great benefit as we were able to uncover things much more quickly as a team than I would have as a sole researcher. Utilising the expertise of a local community has been immensely beneficial. The current owner of the former WSPU shop has also provided photographs of the building within a suffragette procession, demonstrating that the open research process has also uncovered new materials which have enhanced the project and knowledge of women's suffrage in the area more generally.
The open research and collaborative nature of this project will also have an ongoing impact; during this project I created a folder of additional information on other notable suffrage campaigners and activities in the area (sourced from the Suffrage Papers collection at LSE Women's Library) and left this with the team at Scarborough to help facilitate further understanding and appreciation of the town's suffrage history. I have already been informed that members are now in the process of implementing a Women's Suffrage Walking Trail and accompanying booklet.
Licensing information
Except where otherwise noted copyright in this work belongs to the author(s), licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Licence
Case study poster
Please consider sharing this in your department or school! A3 printed copies are available upon request from the Open Research team (lib-open-research@york.ac.uk)