Mrs Desmond Humphreys
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The House of Commons, 1902.
Mrs Desmond Humphreys (1850 to 1938) was a celebrated writer who published over fifty novels under the nom de plume 'Rita'. Her books included Conjugal Rights and Other Stories, The Man Who Understood, and America Through English Eyes. The majority of women photographed by Stone at Westminster were either the wives of MPs or visitors, or those who had established themselves in a field outside of politics.
The first woman elected to Parliament - the Countess de Markievicz, a member of Sinn Fein, was returned to the House of Commons in 1918, but she did not take a seat. Despite the campaign of the Suffragette Movement, women did not get the vote in Britain until after Stone's death in 1914.
Location: The Benjamin Stone Photographic Collection, n14445-001
