The National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth has opened a new permanent exhibition celebrating one of the most inspiring peace campaigns in Welsh history: the Welsh Women’s Peace Petition.
The exhibition is a place to learn, reflect and draw inspiration – where history meets hope and where seeds of action are sown to build a peaceful future for Wales and the world.
Central to the Peacemakers exhibition will be a copy of the iconic appeal and the famous oak chest that carried the message of peace across the Atlantic to America.
The pages of the petition will be shown alongside the accounts of the women who signed it – one story at a time, starting with Annie Hughes Griffiths. Personal items from her archive will be on display, including the diary she kept on that transatlantic journey, with her own words brought to life in sound and film.
But this is not just history. Visitors will be able to search for the names of their relatives in the petition through terminals in the exhibition space, thanks to a mass transcription process by the library.
They will be able to reflect, share their own message of peace and become part of the peace story that continues to this day.
Rhodri Llwyd Morgan, library chief executive, said: “Since the Welsh Women’s Peace Petition returned to Wales in April 2023, the National Library has worked diligently to share its story.
“The work to catalogue, digitise, transcribe and create a website since then has meant that people from all over the world have access to this incredible resource, so that they can look for their great grandmother, auntie or someone who lived on their street.
“The Petition’s story and that of the women behind it, remained hidden for too long but not any more. Now, this dedicated exhibition space means that their story is told and that the resilience of these women will be remembered for generations to come.”
Prof Mererid Hopwood, Wales’s National Peace Institute secretary, said: “In days that are full of stories about war and violence, the decision by our National Library to dedicate a space to this important exhibition is a statement of faith and hope.
“It gives us an opportunity to be inspired by the past so that we imagine – and create – a future where the people of the world can coexist peacefully with one another.
“It has been a privilege to collaborate with the National Library of Wales through Academi Heddwch Cymru (Wales’s National Peace Institute) to ensure that the story of the Welsh Women’s Peace Petition 1923-24 comes to light.
“This exhibition will aid the work of realising the vision of that petition, namely to ‘hand down to the generations which come after us, the proud heritage of a warless world’.”
Culture Minister, Jack Sargeant MS said: “It is a privilege to open this new permanent exhibition dedicated to the Welsh Women’s Peace Petition. This remarkable campaign, which united nearly 400,000 Welsh women in 1923-24, demonstrates our enduring values as a nation of peace.
“I’m proud that the Welsh Government was able to support bringing this incredible piece of Welsh history home where it belongs.
“The petition’s message, calling for ‘law not war’ and a world without conflict, remains as relevant today as it was a century ago and this dedicated space at the National Library will ensure the courage and vision of these women will continue to inspire future generations.”
Wales’ commitment to peace didn’t begin or end with the petition and the wider story of peace campaigning in Wales will also be told in this exhibition. From international messages of friendship to powerful acts of protest, Welsh people have continued to raise their voices for peace in many ways.
The exhibition highlights a few of those stories, including displaying items relating to the significant actions of the women of Greenham Common.
Signed by nearly 400,000 Welsh women, the Peace Petition of 1923–24 was a powerful act of solidarity and hope. Addressed to the women of America, it called for unity in the pursuit of a world without war and its message still resonates more than a century later.
The petition was launched in Aberystwyth in May, 1923 and peace campaigners worked tirelessly to collect signatures in the following months. From small villages to industrial towns, women signed in their thousands.
Behind every signature is a woman with her own story – a teacher, mother, factory worker, poet or campaigner who believed in peace and chose to act.
The final total of 390,296 signatures – one in three women in Wales – was proof of the widespread support for peace and the strength of Welsh women’s networks.
In February, 1924, a delegation of Welsh women led by Annie Jane Hughes Griffiths travelled to the United States to present the petition to the women of America. They were warmly welcomed and toured major cities, speaking at public meetings, women’s clubs and churches to share their message of peace.
To mark the centenary, the Smithsonian Institution made the honourable decision to gift the petition to the people of Wales, giving it a new home at the National Library of Wales.
The petition’s papers and oak chest have been exhibited at various locations across Wales and hundreds of volunteers took part in the task of transcribing every signature, to ensure that the vision of world peace lives on.
