Marriage certificate for Emmeline Goulden and Richard Pankhurst, Manchester - Emily Pankhurst suffragette

A framed or mounted reproduction of an old handwritten marriage register entry is shown behind glass. The certificate names Emmeline Goulden and Richard Pankhurst and includes lines for the parties, their status, addresses and signatures. The light-coloured document contrasts with a dark display background. Emmeline Goulden, later known as Emmeline Pankhurst, became a central figure in the British women’s suffrage campaign. She married the lawyer and reformer Richard Pankhurst in 1879. The marriage record connects her earlier name to the surname by which she became internationally known. Its handwritten format shows how nineteenth-century civil and church records preserved family and legal information. Individual handwritten entries remain visible on ruled lines, showing the structure of a historic marriage register. The reproduced record is not an illustrated portrait of Emmeline Pankhurst but a document connected to her private life before she became known as a national political figure. Names, dates and witness details are the documentary features of this kind of certificate. Richard Pankhurst was involved in campaigns for legal and political reform, while Emmeline became especially associated with the militant suffrage movement. The photograph is valuable because it shows a formal record connecting the two people rather than merely repeating a later biographical summary. Richard Pankhurst and Emmeline Goulden married in 1879, before Emmeline became internationally associated with the women's suffrage movement. Richard was a barrister and campaigner for women's rights. The displayed reproduction places their names within the formal structure of a Victorian civil registration document. Its columns and handwriting connect a significant political couple to an identifiable personal event, while the reproduced format allows the lettering to be examined without handling an archival original.