A peace petition signed by nearly 400,000 Welsh women in 1923 has been returned to Wales from the United States after a century. The document, which called on the US to join the League of Nations, was housed at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington DC since 1924.
The petition, along with a specially-designed chest used to transport it, has been donated to the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion. The signatures represented 30% of Wales' female population at the time, gathered over seven months by a campaign led by Annie Hughes-Griffiths, with two paid staff and 400 organisers.
In February 1924, Mrs Hughes-Griffiths, Mary Ellis, Elined Prys and Gladys Thomas travelled to Washington DC with the petition. The New York press described it as 'a monster petition' said to be seven miles (11km) long. The campaigners gave speeches across the US, including in Salt Lake City, Chicago, Colorado, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
They were welcomed to the White House by President Calvin Coolidge, who then entrusted the petition to the Smithsonian for preservation. Now, a £249,262 National Lottery award will fund a project to digitise the names and make them available online.
Pedr ap Llwyd, chief executive of the National Library of Wales, called the petition's return 'remarkable'. He said: 'I can't possibly imagine how these ladies gathered such a vast number of signatures, without the conveniences of the web we have today. It's incredible that the Smithsonian has released such an important archive to another national institution.'
