Suffragette speaker, Womens Sunday, 21 June 1908
Suffragettes from across Britain marched in seven processions through London to a rally in Hyde Park. The highly choreographed demonstration attracted a crowd of up to 300,000 drawn by the colourful spectacle of the delegates dressed in the suffragette tricolour, carrying over seven hundred embroidered banners.
At the 'Women's Sunday' meeting in Hyde Park, Christina Broom, who was less than five feet tall, managed to manoeuvre a tripod and a heavy half-plate box camera through the packed Hyde Park into a good position within two or three feet of platform 6 – one of 20 – and captured the earnest camaraderie of the speakers and their supporters.
Mrs Broom’s picture shows about 30 women, hugger-mugger with each other, and two youthful-looking constables completely surrounded by a sea of smiling Suffragette faces. This was the day the Suffragette colour scheme of purple, white and green, symbolizing dignity, purity and hope, was launched. Above the pyramid of women, three tricolor flags flutter in the breeze, and a chubby policeman peeps into the edge of the shot, keen to be included. Above the face of every woman is a hat – mortar-boards as worn by the university women, or heavily decorated galleon-sized structures with ribbons, feathers and artificial flowers, some also with veils.