Dr. Hope Elizabeth May was knee deep in Hunger Strike Medal research when she learned about the "Mystery of Nurse Pine's Medal". As an educator, Dr. May creates "information delivery devices" which help her to transmit morally energetic narratives. The Centenary of the 19th Amendment was a stimulus to Dr. May to produce special devices, and so in 2020-2021, she resolved to bring into production two special devices: 1) the replicas of the Hunger Strike Medals distributed by the WSPU; and 2) the replica of Adelaide Johnson's (1859-1955) Portrait Monument with the restored inscription which was erased from the original. May also resolved to create anew a Hunger Strike Medal for American Alice Paul (1885-1877) who was forcibly fed both in the U.K. (as a member of the WSPU) and the U.S. (as a member of the National Woman's Party). Production of the Portrait Monument replica was completed in 2021, and production of the Hunger Strike Medals was completed in 2022.

For the WSPU medal, May recreated a medal for Lady Constance Lytton (1869-1923), a model of virtue who is unknown to most Americans, and whom Olive Schreiner (1855-1920) describes as embodying "the highest ideal of human nature, in which intellectual power and strength of will are combined with an infinite tenderness and a wide human sympathy; a combination which, whether in the person of the man or the woman, is essential to the existence of the fully rounded and harmonised human creature." (from the Introduction to Schreiner's 1911 work, Woman and Labour, which is dedicated to Constance Lytton). May created anew a medal for Quaker Alice Paul because 1) To our knowledge, Alice Paul never received a medal from the WSPU; 2) she was forcibly fed on two continents (in both the U.K. and the U.S.); 3) most Americans are unaware of Paul's connection to the WSPU; and 4) the colors of the National Woman's Party (purple, white, and gold) are the same as the colors of the International Peace Flag created by Cora di Brazzà (1862-1944) in 1897. For some years, Dr. May has been researching the intersection of the women's and peace movements, and having both WSPU and National Woman's Party medals, each with their different colored ribbons, help to convey these ideas.

Dr. May recreated the Alice Paul and Constance Lytton medals as a means of teaching the stories behind them, including the different tactics of the U.K. movement led by the WSPU, on the one hand, and the different tactics of the U.S. movement led by Alice Paul's National Woman's Party, on the other. While both movements eschewed physical violence, the WSPU movement was, unlike the U.S. movement, an open war on property. Alice Paul's Movement, on the other hand, eschewed property destruction. The two different tactics raise interesting questions about property, be it "real" property such as land, or tangible property such as a Nurse Pine's Medal. Property can convey meaning and story and it can transmit value, as Nurse Pine's Medal and the other medals of the WSPU demonstrate.

If you are interested in acquiring the medals and other similar items, click here, or send Dr. May an email. 100% of the proceeds are used to support further research that leads to the production of "information delivery devices," which Dr. May personally finances.

A fun fact is that The Constance Lytton replica medal is currently being used on the wax model of Emmeline Pankhurst at Madame Tussaud's, London. Constance Lytton was forcibly fed twice and therefore medal contains two colored bars. Emmeline Pankhurst, however, was never forcibly fed. Thus the medal on Emmeline Pankhurst's wax figure is technically "inaccurate". Dr. May pointed this out to the Pankhurts-model-production-team, but because of the way in which the medals were manufactured, it was impossible to furnish a medal without the colored bar. The production team made the decision to use the medal with the colored bars. The National Portrait gallery on its website here also errs in claiming that Mrs. Pankhurst was forcibly fed.