The Library’s latest permanent exhibition, Peacemakers, details the story of the 1923 Welsh Women’s Peace Petition. 390,296 signatures from the women of Wales to the women of America. The aim of the Petition was to encourage the United States to join the League of Nations, hoping to prevent the horrors of the First World War from ever happening again. This reflected a common sentiment in the 1920s.
In a first for an exhibition at the Library, dedicated PCs are available to search the digitised collection. Every signature, from than 6500 petition sheets, has been transcribed by volunteers over the course of 2024-2025 to create a searchable platform. The culmination of this work can be found on the Welsh Women’s Peace Petition webpage alongside our other digital Library resources such as Crime and Punishment, Wills, and Marriage Bonds. All these resources can be accessed from the comfort of your home.
The Peace Petition resource offers the ability to search by name, address, county and community ward. An interactive map is also available for counties and community ward searching. Give it a go yourself on our Peace Petition homepage!
Digitising this collection has not only provided further access to Library material but further spreads an important story for women’s history and for Wales’ history on an international scale. I was lucky enough to catalogue this collection and prepare it for digitisation. Seeing the level of interest from individuals, both locally and from afar, has been an absolute privilege, especially from those who have managed to locate their familial ties in Wales by seeing their own relatives’ signatures. Unfortunately, I wasn’t as fortunate as others as there was no sign of my home address!
The library continues to expand its digital resources. You can explore the founding of Plaid Cymru with our online timeline, and a new project will commemorate 60 years since the Aberfan Disaster on 21 October 1966. The project, running in conjunction with Glamorgan Archives, will see a selection of items from our print, archival, screen and sound collections digitised and made available online in 2026. This webpage will bring together the digitised items and signpost additional material of interest from Library collections and other repositories to further highlight the story of Aberfan and its community.
Category: Article