ABSTRACT
Glasgow sustained over half a dozen firms of regalia makers to meet the demand at its height, and while belonging to a friendly society was never an option open to the poorest classes—membership and regalia were not cheap—the banners and regalia when paraded on the streets provided a shared experience of pageantry. Surprisingly few trade union songs and broadsheets have survived for Glasgow, which is probably due more to the predilections of the later collectors than a reflection on the original production, although ephemeral literature survives for the 1820 Rising and different, weavers’, cotton spinners’ and miners’ strikes. Most of the waxworks in Glasgow showed films and an advertisement published by Herbert Crouch in May 1897 shows the state of the art: Crouch’s wonderland and Cinematograph theatre, 137 Argyle street. The non-militant suffragettes and some of the women’s guild co-operators favoured the Glasgow health culture rambling club.
