1883. 8vo, pp. [4]; single folded sheet; disbound, with remains of previous adhesive visible, and with split along fold, with slight loss. Short article published by the Bristol Women’s Liberal Association, and penned by the noted feminist, writer and campaiger for women’s rights, Helen Blackburn (1842-1903), and arguing on the importance on women’s right to vote for Town Councillors.
‘Helen Blackburn's outstanding contribution to the Victorian women's movement centred on two key issues: suffrage and women's employment. Much respected for her organizational skills, she was secretary of the London-based Central Committee of the National Society for Women's Suffrage (1874–80), helping to organize the great demonstrations of 1880; secretary of the Bristol and West of England Society for Women's Suffrage (1880–95); assistant secretary of the reorganized central committee (1888–95); and honorary secretary of the Central and East of England Society for Women's Suffrage from 1897. While working for the Bristol society, a donation of £1000 funded her for three years of organizational work in south and west Wales and the west country, during which time she embarked upon a series of exhausting lecture tours, spreading the suffrage ‘gospel’. Also in Bristol, which was an important centre for feminist activity, she became actively involved with the National Union of Working Women, representing it as a suffrage advocate at the TUC in 1881, and promoted the work of the newly founded West Bristol Women's Liberal Association, in which suffrage and Liberalism were intertwined. Helen Blackburn's greatest contribution to the women's movement was, arguably, as noted author and historian. Her Women's suffrage: a record of the women's suffrage movement in the British Isles, with biographical sketches of Miss Becker (1902) is an invaluable history of the Victorian campaign, its antecedents, organizational development, and personalities. She was the author of several well-argued suffrage pamphlets, and compiled the annual Women's Suffrage Calendar (1886–99) and A Handbook for Women Engaged in Social and Political Work (1881, 1895), an encyclopaedic compendium of information. Her writings epitomized the British movement's grasp of detail and meticulous marshalling of facts, and its understanding of the need for sound rational argument to counter entrenched prejudice and opposition to the cause. Her literary talents were put to further use as editor (1880–90) and joint editor (1890–95) of the Englishwoman's Review, a feminist journal founded and financially supported by Jessie Boucherett, with whom she shared a common interest in women's employment.’ (ODNB).