Suffragette surveillance photos from 1912

Scotland Yard's first surveillance camera, bought in 1912, was used to spy on "increasingly militant suffragettes" who demanded votes for women, regarded as terrorists in their day.

The covert photographs are at the heart of an exhibition marking the centenary of the founding of the Women's Social and Political Union, which invented modern direct action and ultimately changed the face of the UK…

One of the women on the list, Kitty Marion, went on to become one of the most celebrated of the suffragettes as she endured more than 200 force-feedings in prison while on hunger strike.

"On the one hand, the state considered them dangerous terrorists, but on the other it simply did not know what to do with them," says Ms Tulloch.

Spy pictures of suffragettes revealed (BBC)

(via How to Be a Retronaut)