Sergeant Major woman
Mrs. M. E. Hotchkiss
Sergeant Major chevrons on dress suggest a possible vivandiere dedicated to supporting Union troops.
Lucretia Coffin Mott (1793-1880)
Elmina Slenker
Boston, strong Puritan upbringing, education at female seminary, tutoring in Virginia leads to abolition stance, marries Universalist minister ’45, essayist, joins Republican Party & supports Lincoln, joins US Sanitary Commission, organizes aid societies, post-war turns to women’s rights, suffrage, temperance, activist newspaper editor, linked to Lucy Stone, Jane Hoge, Julia Howe.
DC birth, Catholic school education, into society, beauty, meets Stephen D in ’56 after he loses Prez nomination to Buchanan, fast courtship & married ’56, he is 43, she is 20, power couple in DC, mansion and balls, miscarriage and infant death, husband dies suddenly in ’61, volunteer work during war, remarries ’66, 6 children.
Beecher Family
Jesse Fremont (1824-1902)
Mary Grew (1813-1896)
Authors/Writers
Mary Livermore (1820-1905)
Political
Quaker Elizabeth Underhill
Lucy Stone (1818-1893)
Women
Works on spinning frame in Waltham textile mill where meets Nathaniel Banks, a “bobbin boy,” at age 17, lengthy courtship to marriage in ’47, they have 4 kids husband passes bar, into Mass state politics, abolitionist, national politics in US House then founding of American & Republican Parties, Major General in war, Dept of Gulf, Mary holds parties and events for soldiers and families in NO, post-war back to Mass & politics, he dies in ’94, Mary in 1901.
Libe Autie Tom Custer
A Youthful Stanton
Mrs. George McClellan is 18 year old Ellen Mary Marcy in 1854 when the General begins to court her. Her father, McClellan’s former commander, tries to keep her from marrying a military man, but that fails, and in 1860 the two are wed, after she has turned down nine proposals from various suitors. A year later he will quit his job as president of a railroad to become Commander of the Army of the Potomac. While three inches taller than her husband, most photos have “Nelly” seated by his side, and she becomes his loyal defender over 25 years of marriage.
Anna Dickinson (1842-1932)
Olive Logan (1839-1909)
Mary Palmer Banks (1819-1901)
Farm in Mass, autocratic father, decides to live her own independent life, teacher at 16 but paid half of males, dismayed in ’36 by Congress opp to hearing anti-slavery petitions from women, enrolls at Oberlin seeking equal voice, decides in ’46 to act as public speaker for women’s rights, graduates ’47, begins with Mass Anti-Slavery Society and meets Garrison’s followers, they support her call for petitions on women’s rights,these published in The Liberator, helps organize National Women’s Rights Convention ’50, shifts from abolition focus to women’s rights, first to promote wear of “bloomers” (vs. hoop dresses) and short hair cuts, tours nation ’53-58 to big crowds, turns to suffrage, in ’55 marries Henry Blackwell after “pre-nup,” Unitarian abolitionist Thos. Higgingson presides, keeps “own name,” has daughter, one of 3 top feminists along with Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
An iconic portrait of Libby Custer with husband George and his brother Tom both killed at the Little Big Horn. Elizabeth Bacon is 21 in 1864 when she marries the General, only to lose him 12 years later in 1876. She never remarries and spends the rest of her life defending his reputation before dying at 91 years in 1933.
Prominent Boston family, tutored, ’49 marries Harvard scientist Louis Agazziz, works & travels with him, founds school for girls, expeditions to Brazil, supports founding of Radcliff College, books on natural history, Brazil, her husband.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902)
Quaker parents are abolitionists, at boarding school, Garrison publishes anti-slavery letter she writes at 14 in Liberator, Anti-Slavery Society, sought after traveling lecturer, speaks on behalf of Radical Republicans in races, 5,000 crowd at Cooper Union, ’64 speech in US House to help black rights, post-war novel, playwright/actress, plays Hamlet on Broadway, last 37 years in relative obscurity, never marries.
Phoebe Cary (poet)
Lydia Marie Child (1802-1880)
Father is Lyman Beecher, conservative Calvinist minister, Hartford Female Seminary along with Fanny Fern, moves from Conn to Cincy when father heads Lane Theological Sem, meets Chase and experiences ’36 race riots, marries anti-slavery Prof Calvin Stowe ’36, underground rr member, move to Bowdoin College, dedication to end slavery after church service epiphany & loss of child ’50, begins writing novel she calls Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1st installment published in June ’51, book ’52 sells amazing 300k copies, sensitizes northerners to realities of slavery, meets Lincoln ’62 who calls her “little woman who started the war,” later a women’s rights activist (women = slaves to men), dies of Alzheimer’s at age 85.
Mary Custis Lee (1808-1873)
Grace Greenwood (1823-1904)
Ellen Mary Marcy McClellan (1835-1915)
Mrs. George Stearns (Mary Preston) (1802-1836)
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896)
Fanny Fern (Sarah Willis) (1811-1872)
Born in Mass, educated at seminary school and by older brother, writes first novel in ’24, more follow including a manual The Frugal Housewife, marries Boston lawyer ’28, drawn to abolition by Garrison ’31, her ’33 book calls for immediate emancipation w/o comp for owners, on board of Am Anti-Slavery Society ’39 , social pressure follows, ’42 novel The Quadroons explores abuses, opp violence as weapon of change until her friend, Chas Sumner, caned and Kansas war breaks out, also women’s and Indians rights activist along the way, wrote poem “over the river & through the woods.”
Atheist, anarchist, free-thinker and promoter of free love in the second half of the 19th century.
Nantucket, Quaker family & education, teacher, marries James Mott, influenced by abolitionist Quaker lecturer Elias Hicks who manumitted his slaves, refusal to use slave-produced goods, she preaches the “inner light,” husband a founder of American Anti-Slavery Society ’33, involvement in black churches, ongoing personal attacks for abolition & violating traditional female roles, London Convention ’40 (segregating female attendees) links her to Garrison, Phillips, Cady Stanton, new energy & leadership role, ’48 joins Stanton in running Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention, moral advisor to Garrison, linked to Gerrit Smith & James Birney Liberty Party ’48 & to Unitarians, “Mother Mott” is a pacifist who opposes all wars, continues as major force for both abolition and women’s rights until her death, “greatest American woman of 19th Cent."
Eminent Va family, father is step-grandson of George Washington, well educated, edits and publishes book on her father GW Parke Custis, marries 3rd cousin Robert E. Lee ’31, 7 kids, Lee inherits Arlington estate from her father ’57, Episcopal faith, teaches her slaves to read and for eventual emancipation, suffers rheumatoid arthritis, moves her family south during war, two sons become CSA Generals, post-war lives in Lexington at Washington U, she survives REL by three years.
Father a NY state Supreme Court justice, owns a slave & favors boys over girls, educated at coed Johnstown Academy, encounters revivalist C.G. Finney, cousin of abolitionist Gerrit Smith andmarries Henry Stanton ’40 (deletes “promise to obey” from ceremony), 7 children, mixes with Mott, Garrison, Alcott, Emerson in Boston, by ’48 an activist and speaker for women’s rights and ending slavery, ’51 meets Susan B. Anthony, start of 50 year union for suffrage, temperance, gender equality, prolific writer, The Woman’s Bible challenges church views on women, also History of Women’s Suffrage, Revolution weekly periodical with Anthony, lecture tours, loses Congress bid in ’66, international tours, ’92 testifies before Congress, suffrage passes in 1920, 18 years after death in NYC.
Aurore Dupin/George Sand (1804-1876)
Wife of minister H. W. Beecher, she published articles under the nom de plume “A Minister’s Wife.”
Frances Willard/3 Suffragettes
Father a Quaker & abolitionist, raises family of social reformers, attends then teaches at Quaker boarding school, ’37 collects anti-slavery petitions, signs feminist credo Declaration of Sentiments ’48, begins work with Stanton ’51, organizational genius, temperance petitions, speaker for gender equality, National Women’s Rights Conventions, focuses on suffrage as key to advances, works with Tubman on rr ’61,publishes Revolution, one of big 4 with Stone, Stanton and Mott, dies at 86.
Father a probate judge in Maine, niece of Lydia Marie Childs, famed feminist reformer, meets George Stearns who has built a successful mfr business in Boston, marries in ’43, supports his efforts to end slavery, they house run-aways, he support Free State settlers in Kansas, he is one of “Secret Six” who supports & funds John Brown’s raid at Harper’s Ferry, joins army & enlists 13,000 “colored” troops for Union, incl 54th Mass., after his death she contributes to black colleges and hospitals, last wish to be buried on Dec 2 in memory of J Brown’s death.
Principal of Samuel Seward Institute in Orange County, NY, a secondary school founded in 1848 by Dr. Seward, father of Lincoln’s Secretary of State.
Attends Wesleyan Female College before going on to career as actress, author and lecturer on political issues including suffrage.
Adelle Cutts Douglas
(1835-1899)
English writer known not only for her sonnets and epic poems, but also for her criticism of slavery and child labor abuses.
Eunice White Beecher (1812-1897)
Alice Cary (poet)
Family moves from NY to Oberlin in 1841, then Janesville, WI and Evanston, IL, she studies at North Western Fem College, President of Evanston College For Ladies ’71, co-founder of Women’s Christian Temperance Union ’74, supports women’s suffrage to protect them from drunk husbands (“home protection”), heads WCTU for 20 yrs.
Born in Wales, Evans comes to America at age fifteen to continue her famous temperance crusades before advocating for soldiers wounded in the Civil War, especially Alfred Stratton.
Photography Book
Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888)
Elizabeth Cary Agazziz (1822-1907)
In mourning.
Susannah Evans
Real name is Sarah Lippincott, father an MD, attends Greenwood Ladies Institute, published poetry at 21, many children’s books, asst editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book ’49, NY Times reporter in Europe ’52, staunch abolitionist, writes for National Era, called “GC The Patriot” by Lincoln, post-war focus on women’s rights, front page obit in NYT.
Adelle Cutts Douglas
(1835-1899)
Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906)
Alice Bradley Neal
Maine, father owns “Christian newspaper,” she attends school run by Lyman Beecher’s daughter and then a seminary, early writing successes, ’37 marriage, 3 children, but husband dies and left destitute, second marriage & divorce, becomes a newspaper columnist under pen name Fanny Fern to support family, sentimental and witty and conversational style, ’53 Fern Leaves book sells 70,000 copies, wealth, Hawthorne praise,happy 3rd marriage, columnist until death.
Born in Hudson, NY, and begins writing and keeping a journal as a young girl, and then publishing poems and sketches. She marries magazine editor Joseph Neal at 19, but widowed in seven months. Writes over 30 poems and stories for Godey’s Ladies Book, also children’s and “household” books, remarries but dies after giving birth to second child.
Father Bronson an educator & transcendentalist, mom a social reformer, financial difficulties, mostly home schooled, mixes with Hawthorne, Emerson, M. Fuller, authors first book in ’49, family joins underground rr ’49, abolitionist & feminist, Union nurse, success as author with ’68 Little Women, dies at 55 of stroke.
Teachers
Woman Wearing Trousers
Wearing trousers became a symbol in the 19th century of gender equality, especially among suffragettes.
Unitarian, highly educated, authors essays, poems, plays, travelogues, suffragette and abolitionist who marries Samuel Howe, one of the “Secret Six” who support John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, lasting fame for the lyrics to the Battle Hymn of the Republic in 1861, feminist leader til death.
Abolitionists/Reformers
Teachers and students
A teacher with 9 students
Elizabeth Browning (1806-1861)
Like her Baptist minister father, Mary is an ardent abolitionist. She attends Catherine Beecher’s Female Seminary and in 1833, at age 20, she joins the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society. In 1840, as a Garrisonian, she attends the first World Society Convention along with Lucretia Mott and others. Later she becomes a Unitarian and lecturer in support of gender equality and suffrage.
Daughter of powerhouse senator, Thomas Hart Benton, born in VA, then to DC, names & raised like a son, Georgetown Seminary, meets John C. Fremont at 15, father opposes, eloped ’41, she records his western expedition notes and writes articles, Fremont soon famous & wealthy via CA filibustering ’47, move to SF ’49, he is 1st Senator from CA, opposition to spread of slavery leads to Repub nomination ’56, loses to Buchanan, she is heavily engaged in promoting husband’s career & in war effort, supports Sanitary Commission & Soldier’s Relief Society, meets with and badgers Lincoln when JF sacked for unilaterally “freeing all slaves in MO,” broke in ’73 due to failed RR venture, she publishes 3 books for income, JF dies ’90, $2,000/yr pension to her, dies in CA.
A teacher with 6 girl students
Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910)
Born Paris, raised by grandmother at Nohant, Marries and 2 kids, but rebellion, writing and romance, 1837-47 affair with Chopin, other affairs with men and women, smoking in public, men’s clothes, host of novels (Winter in Majorca, Indiana), opposes Paris communards, early liberated feminist.