The Labor Emblem: Organised Labor, the Hope of the World

In this era of advertising agency-produced branding, it seems strange to discover an individual designing a badge for the labour movement. But in 1909 the ‘Labor Emblem’, designed and set in white and blue enamel on gold or silver, was indeed the work of just one person – Miss Annie Emily Gardner of Sydney.  The use of the spelling ‘labor’ was used by the NSW Labor Party on its official publications from at least 1904 (and for the purposes of this article, will be used here).  It has been suggested that the American spelling was adopted as an anti- British measure.

Miss Gardner designed the badge to raise money for the relief of distress caused by “industrial trouble” in Newcastle, and indeed went to Newcastle herself to sell it.  In newspaper reports, she is described as a member of the executive controlling the political labour (sic) movement and a vice president of the Women’s Organising Committee of the Political Labour (sic) League.[1]

The badge was evidently successful, because three years later, in 1912, the following advertisement appeared in The Worker:

Who was Annie Emily Gardner?  Her English parents migrated to the United States, and she was born in San Francisco in 1872.  They migrated to Australia when she was five years old, and her father was a practising herbalist, living first in Glebe and later in Riley St, East Sydney.  He was a member of the Australian Union of Herbalists.

At the 1917 NSW ALP conference, Annie claimed to have joined the ALP in 1900 and to have been a union member for 8 years, though the union is not named.[2] There are newspaper reports of her attending the NSW ALP Conference or speaking in support of candidates, or for ALP causes, in metropolitan and regional NSW from 1904 until 1917.  Her political position was based on socialism, protectionism and opposition to non-European migration.[3] [4]  A substantial portion of her life was devoted to the labor cause.

In 1903 she was living in Marrickville, and her occupation at that time on the electoral role was that of canvasser;  possibly she was working for the Labor Party, work funded with a small allowance from the local ALP.  By 1910, she was living at 21 Junction Street in North Sydney and had written and illustrated the publication, ‘Labor’s Creed’ which she was selling from her home.

By 1913 she had moved to 37 Riley Street, East Sydney, here she lived with her parents for many years until 1937 when she was there just with her mother.  She moved to 211 Crown Street in the 1940s, and she remained in East Sydney until a few months before her death.[5]   Her occupation on the electoral roll was given as artist until the late 1930s, and later as home duties.

Given her father’s occupation, it was possibly his input (influence?) that led to Annie’s moving at the 1907 NSW ALP conference – there representing the Women’s Council – that patent medicines should not have the contents listed on the label, as listing would result in the better class of proprietary drugs being removed from the market.  Rather, all such medicines should be certified by the Government Analyst as not injurious to health and that their ingredients were pure. This was carried, together with a motion that all preserved foods shall bear the date of packing.[6]  It was not until the Wran government that date stamping was introduced in NSW.

In 1906, Miss A.E. Gardner, artist and vice-president of the Women’s Central Organising Committee, was elected to the Central Executive of the NSW ALP, one of seven women elected to the 24 member Executive in that year.  The women elected were: Mrs Dwyer (Kate), Mrs Grant, Mrs Bethel, Misses Gardner, Anderson (Selina), Hall (?) and Powell (Harriet).  By 1911 the number of women on the Executive had shrunk to two, and by 1916 there were none.  Until 1969 there were no more than three women Executive members and from 1933 to 1936 there were none.  In 1940 the short lived Hughes Evans Executive had a number of women members.

In October 1904 Miss Gardner and Miss Hall were appointed travelling organisers by the Women’s Political Labor League. Their task was to organise the female vote as far as possible throughout NSW.[7]  Political activism caused Miss Gardner to lose her job.[8]

Miss A E Gardner, Miss H F Powell[9], Miss Selina Anderson and Miss Hall were all effective public speakers and tireless Party workers, who in the end disappeared from the Labor Party.  Miss Powell went to America. Miss Anderson, who stood for federal parliament in 1903 (with the support but not endorsement of the Labor party), later stood as an independent in South Australia in 1918, attacking the Labor Party, and in 1922 for the Country Party in the NSW seat of Calare.  Like Annie Gardner, Selina Anderson also had an artistic bent, as at one time she was a photo retoucher.  Miss Hall, the sister of David Hall, one time member for Werriwa, also faded from the Party.

Miss Gardner disappears from the party by the 1920s. The last newspaper reference to her that mentions the ALP was in 1919, in an advertisement where, as the Late Vice President, Woman’s Organising Committee, P.L.L., she provided a testimonial for Clements Tonic as cure for insomnia.[10]  How did the endorsement come about? Was it through an advertising agency or through the manufacturer or some other pathway?  In 1946 she appeared in the Supreme Court as the next friend and aunt of Janice Margaret Irving, who had been injured in a car accident six years previously.[11]

Annie Gardner died in 1955 in Drummoyne, at the home of her niece, and was buried at Rookwood in the Roman Catholic section. [12] She had given so much to the Party.  It would be interesting to know something about her work as an artist.  Did she continue to work as artist, or did that occupation just stay on the electoral roll for decades until she changed her address?  If she wasn’t an artist, then what work did she do? As to her politics – did she continue to support the ALP once she was no longer active in the Party or did she become more conservative as she aged?

 

 

 

 Endnotes

various

[6] SMH 1 Feb 1907, p10

[7] SMH 8 Oct 1904, p10

[8] The Shoalhaven Telegraph 28 Nov 1906

[9] Sue Tracey,  Harriet Powell: Labor Organiser, The Hummer, Vol 7, No 1, 2011

[10] The Advertiser, Adelaide 10 April, 1919, p5

[11]  SMH 8 May 1946, p8

[12] NSW Births Deaths and Marriages