Clement Davies. She was a formidable public speaker, the youngest headteacher of her time in London, a delegate at the International Women’s Congress in Istanbul in 1935, and founder of the Women’s Voluntary Services for Wales in 1939. The Equal Pay Campaign Committee (EPCC) was set up during the Second World War to close the huge pay gap between men and women in the public sector. In 1952, at the time of this photograph, with the Conservatives in power, the Commons passed a motion by Labour MP Charles Pannell calling on the government to announce an “early and definite date” (Smith) for equal pay in the public service. The government dragged its feet, and on 9 March 1954, Irene Ward and Edith Summerskill were among the four MPs who again put aside their party- political differences to present an 80,000-signature petition to Parliament demanding equal pay. They arrived at Westminster in horse-drawn carriages decorated in rosettes and streamers in suffragette green and white, driven by Dave Jacobs, the driver for Emmeline Pankhurst and Millicent Fawcett. The notion of equal pay for equal work was not enshrined in British law until the Equal Pay Act 1970. This photograph is, as the typescript press release pasted to the verso states, one of 285 selected from the Press Association’s Picture Library for the book Album of a Nation (1979). Photographs were selected to “commemorate the personalities, characters and customs of the recent past”. Original black and white photograph (237 × 149 mm) with typescript press release on green paper (145 × 116 mm) adhered to verso. A few marks, upper edge stained, rubbing to upper left corner, a well- preserved example. ¶ Harold L. Smith, “The Politics of Conservative Reform: The Equal Pay for Equal Work Issue, 1945–1955”, The Historical Journal , vol. 35, no. 2, June 1992. £250 [162086] 61 FINLEY, Martha, as Martha Farquharson. Elsie Dinsmore. New York: M. W. Dodd, 1867 the novel that began a publishing phenomenon First edition of one of the rarities of 19th-century American literature: the best-seller which founded the Elsie Dinsmore series, leading to a further 27 books over the next 38 years. Blanck recorded he had only seen two copies. The series sold over five million copies, and is known for its melodrama and sentimentality, focusing on the trials of the heroine, and her “Christian filial piety overcoming injustice and parental coldness through uncomplaining submission and unwavering religious principle” ( ANB ). Though such writing is since out of fashion, it proved enormously influential, a precursor of similar series including Nancy Drew, the Bobbsey Twins, and the Hardy Boys. The novels “provided Finley an income of $10,000 a year and maintained considerable popularity for generations. As late as 1945 the first half of the Dinsmore series was in print, although only four titles remained so fifty years later . . . For all her popularity, she has never been a critical success. Contemporary critics seldom recognized her existence, and the few moderns who discuss her do so with ridicule or hostility” (ibid.). She nonetheless demonstrates the taste of the reading public of her time and
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beyond, and was among the most financially successful female American authors of her century. The first printing is traditionally distinguished with the publisher’s address given as 506 on the decorated title page, and incorrectly as 605 Broadway on the printed title page. Copies are also known in purple and red cloth, without known priority. Octavo. Original green cloth, spine lettered in gilt within foliate cartouche, publisher’s imprint at foot, covers with double-blind ruled frame enclosing blind device. Housed in a custom green morocco box. Illustrated frontispiece and title page, 2 plates. Contemporary gift inscription “To Linnie from Harry” to initial blank. Minimal rubbing at extremities, inner hinges slightly tender with beginnings of split to rear, light browning to contents. A very good copy. ¶ Jacob Blanck, Peter Parley to Penrod , 1956, p. 26. £5,000 [161580] 62 FOOTE, Eunice Newton. “ On a new source of electrical excitation.” [Pp. 123–6 in:] Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Cambridge: Joseph Lovering, 1858 one of only two known papers by the author Uncommon first edition of the first article by a woman published in the Proceedings of the AAAS: a well-preserved copy in the original wrappers, with the ownership signature of American ornithologist George N. Lawrence (1806–1895), listed as a member of the AAAS on p. xxxviii of this volume. The American scientist, inventor, and women’s rights campaigner Eunice Newton Foote (1819–1888) is best remembered for her discovery of the absorption of thermal radiation by carbon dioxide and water vapour: namely, the greenhouse effect. Her famous paper on the topic was presented to the AAAS in August 1856, read on her behalf by Joseph Henry
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(first Secretary of the Smithsonian), and published shortly after in the American Journal of Science and Arts . This is Foote’s second paper, which provides an early, experimental description of the effect of a pressure-driven change on the static electricity of air, with reference to observations by Humboldt, Sabine, and de Saussure. It was presented to the AAAS on 14 August 1857, again read by Joseph Henry on her behalf. Its first appearance in print was in the Proceedings; abbreviated versions later appeared in the American Journal of Science and Arts and in the Philosophical Magazine . Octavo. Original buff printed wrappers. Five folding plates (one engraved with astronomical illustrations, the rest featuring diagrams and graphs) and two engraved plates, numerous illustrations in text. Faint pencilled signature, “Geo. N. Lawrence”, along upper edge of front cover. Wrappers fragile with some resulting creases and chips, including at spine ends and fragile lower corner, small pencilled number at centre, tear to front wrapper expertly restored, contents crisp and clean. A very good copy. ¶ Roland Jackson, “Eunice Foote, John Tyndall and a Question of Priority”, Notes and Records , 74, 2019, pp. 105–18; Tom Jacobs, “More than a Historical Foote Note”, UCSB’s T he Current , 6 November 2019. £4,500 [155260]
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60 EQUAL PAY CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE. Press photograph of a woman marching in the Equal Pay Campaign. London: Press Association Photos, 1952 A striking original press photograph of a masked placard bearer marching to Piccadilly Circus in London in support of the Equal Pay Campaign. Her placard advertises an impressive list of political feminist speakers for an event at Central Hall, Westminster, on 9 May 1952. The event was a cross-party affair, with Labour politician and author of Letters to My Daughter (1957) Edith Summerskill appearing alongside Conservative MPs Thelma Cazalet- Keir and Irene Ward, the latter the longest serving female Conservative MP in history. Jano Elizabeth Davies was the wife of the Welsh politician and leader of the Liberal Party,
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
LOUDER THAN WORDS
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