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Description

Emma Belk was one of the working class signatories to the 1893 women's suffrage petition. Aged 73 at the time,  she was living in Main Street Palmerston North. She and her husband James Duncan Belk were among the first group of settlers in Feilding. They were the senior members of a 3 generation family of 16 who migrated and arrived in Feilding in 1874. The photo was possibly taken in the 1890s, when Emma was widowed and assisting in her son Matthew's small grocery shop. Her grim countenance is understandable - she had given birth to 14 children, lost at least five of them, and had had a hard life in New Zealand.

Identification

Object type
Image
Archive
Palmerston North Suffrage Signatory
Date
1880s
Digitisation ID
COMM1537660783
Format
Sepia print
Held In
"Other"

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Taxonomy

Tags
belk,
feilding,
grocer,
herstory,
main street,
suffrage,
women,
Community Tags

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Related items

Emma and James Duncan Belk, early settlers in Feilding
Emma Belk, Signatory to 1893 Suffrage Petition
Louisa Snelson - Palmerston North's first Mayoress
Planting of “Kate Sheppard” camellias, 2018
Presentation to Palmerston North Historians
Suffrage 125 Camellia Planting
The Square looking towards Coleman Place
Commercial Hotel, corner of Main Street and The Square
Looking Across the Lakelet towards the Occidental Hotel
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Women’s Suffrage Centennial flower garden, 1993
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