How-to-vote card for candidates for the 1897 Federal Convention election

This rare how-to-vote card has survived the years and was discovered by State Library staff gathering material for an exhibition celebrating the Centenary of Women's Suffrage in South Australia in 1994. It was found among other electioneering material in the largely uncatalogued Ephemera Collection. The Library has recently begun to process this huge array of ephemera, and will no doubt unearth other gems. The cards were issued by the Labor Party and one side set out their manifesto for Federation. The other listed the candidates in alphabetical order, including the name of Catherine Helen Spence, who through this process became the first female political candidate in Australia. The card has been marked in pencil with crosses for ten candidates, none of whom included Catherine Spence. Another name on the list of candidates with a strong connection to the State Library is that of Sir Josiah Symon, whose personal library now forms one of our Special Collections, housed in a special room with Sir Josiah's own desk and chair.