Saturday, February 2, 2013

23. Girl's Joy: An Ounce of Persuasion

Girl's Joy by
Becky Brown


Artists in favor of votes for women also used humor to make their point.

Emily Hall Chamberlain postcard for
Campbell Art Co.

Pro-suffrage humor was usually low-key, non-threatening and sweet, often picturing children to make the point.

The leading magazine pictures the new year as a suffragist.

Kittens and Kewpie Dolls fit the light-handed theme.


Rose O'Neill did postcard series of her famous Kewpies.

The National American Women Suffrage Association commissioned a series of postcards in the teens with the motto “An ounce of persuasion precedes a pound of coercion.” Postcards in favor of suffrage seem almost as numerous to those opposed.


Kewpie dolls were the kind of subtle persuasion
that England's militant WSPU rejected as ineffective.

One could also ridicule the "Anti's" in cartoons.

"No Siree!
 Women's Suffrage is the
Curse of the Century"

The Anti-Suffrage Society as an A.S.S. assuring
Madam that her grandmother's
 pattern is not a bad fit.

Girl's Joy by
Georgann Eglinski

BlockBase #2191

Girl's Joy, also called Maiden's Delight, is a good block to remember pro-suffrage humor. The names were given to the block by the Ladies Art Company about 1890 and by the Nancy Cabot column of the Chicago Tribune about 1935.

Girl's Joy by
Dustin Cecil

 
Cutting an 8" Finished Block
For rotary cutting you are going to cut
rectangles for B and D
and trim them later.

The red measurements are the BlockBase/EQ default set to 1/16".
A - Cut 4 squares 2-1/4" (2-3/16").
     Cut each in half diagonally to make 2 triangles. You need 8 triangles.

B - Cut 4 rectangles 1-1/2" x 3-3/4". Once you piece 2 A's to either side of a B you will trim these. Those squares should measure 2-1/2" with seams.

C- Cut 8 rectangles 1-1/2" x 4-1/2".

D - Cut 4 rectangles 1-1/2" x 3-1/2". You'll trim these after you piece them into the center square, which should measure 4-1/2" with seams.
E - Cut 1 square 3-7/8".
     Cut with 2 diagonal cuts to make 4 triangles.

F - Cut 1 square 2-7/8"..

Measurements for a 12" Finished Block
A  - Cut 4 squares 2-7/8".
     Cut each in half diagonally to make 2 triangles. You need 8 triangles.

B - Cut 4 rectangles 1-7/8 x 5". Once you piece 2 A's to either side of a B you will trim these. Those squares should measure 3-1/2" with seams.

C -  Cut 8 rectangles 2" x 6-1/2".

D - Cut 4 rectangles 1-7/8" x 4-3/8". You'll trim these after you piece them into the center square, which should measure 6-1/2" with seams.

E - Cut 1 square 5-3/16". 
     Cut with 2 diagonal cuts to make 4 triangles.

F - Cut 1 square 1-15/16".

Piecing the Block



And here's a note for BlockBase users. Sometimes the rotary cutting instructions don't give you any instructions for odd shaped pieces like D and B above. You have to print out the template and measure it. I did that for you above.

Girl's Joy by
Becky Brown

One of the most popular Suffrage Valentines.
Copy this and send it to your Valentine.

Read David M. Dinsmore's "How Suffragist Postcards Got Out the Vote" post on the MS Magazine blog.

4 comments:

  1. I notice you say " suffragist" instead of "suffragette". I may have to use one of those words, but I don't know if "suffragette" is actually a bit mocking or belittling and, in those days, the women would have preferred "suffragist". You've studied this a good deal. What do you think?

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  2. See the box on the right side which says
    We'll use the term Suffragist, a general term for people campaigning for women's right to vote---women's suffrage. In 1906 English newspapers began using the term Suffragette to refer to the militant Women's Social and Political Union. WSPU members were thus Suffragettes, everyone else a Suffragist.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for taking the time to answer. I read the blog on a mobile device which cuts out all the side boxes. When I do select "view web version", the screen is so small it takes a lot of scrolling around to find everything that would show up on a PC screen, so I didn't realize the answer to my question was right under my fingertips. It's great that you provide all this informatioin, and I'll take a look occasionally on the big screen from now on to catch up on what I'm missing.

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  4. Hi - here is a topic you might want to do - working women at the turn of the century - I am a librarian and my profession as a woman's profession got its start at the end of the 19th century. You could alos focus on teachers and nurses too.

    ReplyDelete