CONNELL, Lena.

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Portrait of Mrs Despard. A photographic postcard showing Charlotte Despard, captured by a pioneer of the field. Connell was the UK's first professional woman photographer to accept both sexes as clients. She employed only women in her studio, where her patrons included many leading suffrage activists. Her present subject, Despard, campaigned for women's rights, improved welfare, and peace for over 40 years. In 1905, the British Journal of Photography concluded that Connell's portraits were the "best all-round example of conventional professional work" (quoted by Neale, p. 61). She became a member of the suffrage movement 1908 after she photographed Gladys Keevil, who had just been released from prison. In an interview with Women's Freedom League newspaper, the Vote, Connell declared that "Every woman who has to work for herself is an unconscious suffragist" and that "Equal pay for equal work in all professions open to men and women ought to be a first principle" (pp. 16-17). Charlotte Despard (1844-1939) carried out welfare projects in the Nine Elms slum district of London from the early 1890s. She initially served as the WSPU's honorary secretary but left in 1907 over controversies regarding its internal democracy and militant action. Shortly after, she co-founded the pacifist Women's Freedom League.Provenance: from the collection of the suffrage historian Elizabeth Crawford.

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