Soldiers and Suffragettes

Anna Sparham, Christina Broom, Museum of London Docklands Staff, Diane Atkinson, Margaret Denny

In 1903 a self-taught novice photographer, Christina Broom, turned to photography as a business venture to support her family; from this modest beginning she was to emerge as Britain s acknowledged pioneer woman press photographer. Unconventionally for women photographers of the time she took her camera to the streets and recorded arresting and historically important images of Suffragettes, sporting events, royal occasions and World War I soldiers and developed a significant enterprise in picture postcards which she published from her home in Fulham, London, till her death in 1939. Despite her camera s presence at many significant historical events and her importance to press photography her achievements have, to date, been underappreciated; this, the first publication on her life and work redresses the neglect and also illuminates the vital role of her dedicated assistant and...