Faces of change: votes for women

In partnership with the National Trust, the Gallery presents a touring exhibition to three properties – The Workhouse, Killerton and Mount Stewart – as part of the women’s suffrage anniversary.

The exhibition presents an overview of the campaign for Votes for Women from the late 19th century until 1918. Photographs, prints, drawings and paintings from the Gallery’s collection will be displayed with some of the items from each property’s own collection which brings portraiture and places together to share stories that neither partner can tell as fully on their own.

Some special objects including surveillance photographs of militant suffragettes, issued to the National Portrait Gallery by Scotland Yard during the height of militant violence will be on display, alongside rarely seen portraits of key figures including suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst, and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia. Also included are portraits representing the legacy of the suffrage campaign, including a drawing of Nancy Astor, the first woman to take her seat as MP in the House of Commons, by John Singer Sargent.

At Killerton the exhibition explores the story of two generations of Acland women who held deeply divided views on women’s suffrage. Gertrude Acland was a founder member of Exeter’s anti-suffrage league whilst her niece, Eleanor Acland, was a founder member of the Liberal Women’s Suffrage Union. The display includes portraits of those who, like Gertrude, did not support votes for women.

This special display has been developed in partnership with the National Trust as part of the Gallery’s Rebel Women season of events and the National Trust’s Women and Power programme.