This is the first sheet of the giant suffrage petition signed by ‘Mary J. Carpenter and 25,519 Others’ that was submitted to Parliament on 28 July 1893. Suffrage leader Kate Sheppard’s signature appears about halfway down the left column. You can now search a database of the signatures here.
This huge roll of names – which stretches more than 270 m – is exhibited in the He Tohu exhibition at Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa National Library of New Zealand in Wellington, alongside the Treaty of Waitangi and 1835 Declaration of Independence. The international significance of the treaty and the petition has been recognised by their inclusion on the UNESCO Memory of the World register of documentary heritage.
Archives New Zealand, Head Office, Wellington
Reference: LE1, 1893/7a
