Susan B. Anthony
A Register of Her Papers in the Library of
Congress
Prepared by Frank Tusa and Mary M.
Wolfskill Revised and expanded by Nan Thompson Ernst
Manuscript Division,
Library of Congress
Washington, D.C.
1997
Contact information:
http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mss/address.html
Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress Manuscript Division,
1998
Finding aid URL: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms997009
Latest revision: 2007 August
Title: Papers of Susan B.
Anthony
Span Dates: 1846-1934
Bulk Dates: (bulk 1846-1906) ID No.: MSS11049 Creator:
Anthony, Susan B. (Susan
Brownell), 1820-1906 Extent: 500 items;
7 containers;
3 linear feet;
7 microfilm reels
Language: Collection material in
English
Repository:
Manuscript Division, Library of
Congress,
Washington, D.C. Abstract: Correspondence,
diaries, daybook, speeches, scrapbooks, and miscellaneous papers relating
primarily to Susan B. Anthony's writings, lectures, and other efforts on behalf
of women's suffrage and women's rights. Includes material pertaining to the
National Woman Suffrage Association, after 1890 the National American Woman
Suffrage Association, and to the New York State Woman Suffrage
Association.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this
collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person
or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed
alphabetically therein.
Names: Anthony,
Susan B. (Susan Brownell), 1820-1906 Avery,
Rachel Foster, 1858-1919 Bloomer,
Amelia Jenks, 1818-1894 Johnson,
Adelaide, 1859-1955 Lincoln,
Abraham, 1809-1865--Assassination Mott,
Lucretia, 1793-1880 Phillips,
Wendell, 1811-1884 Pillsbury,
Parker, 1809-1898 Shaw, Anna
Howard, 1847-1919 Stanton,
Elizabeth Cady, 1815-1902 Stone,
Lucy, 1818-1893 American
Anti-Slavery Society National
American Woman Suffrage Association National
Woman Suffrage Association (U.S.) New York
State Woman Suffrage Association Anthony, Mary S. Papers
of Mary S. Anthony
Subjects: African
Americans--Suffrage Antislavery
movements Slavery Social problems Temperance Women--Education Women--Suffrage Women's rights
Occupations: Reformers Suffragists
Provenance:The papers of Susan B. Anthony, reformer and suffragist, were given to
the Library of Congress primarily by Lucy E. Anthony, Ann Anthony Bacon, and
others from 1940 to 1964. An addition to the collection includes items received
by the Library through gift and purchase in 1987 and 1990.
Processing History:The papers of Susan B. Anthony were arranged and described in 1971.
Additional material was incorporated into the collection in 1978 and 1994.
Transfers:A photograph of Anthony, given to the Library in 1988, has been
transferred to the Library's Prints and Photographs Division where it is
identified as a part of these papers.
The Library's Rare Book and Special Collections Division has custody
of Susan B. Anthony's personal library. Among the more than 250 volumes are
thirty-four scrapbooks compiled by Anthony, some of which were transferred from
the Manuscript Division. The scrapbooks are available on seven reels of
microfilm for purchase or loan through the Microform Reading Room.
Copyright Status:The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of Susan B.
Anthony is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17,
U.S.C.)
Microfilm:A microfilm edition of these papers is available on seven reels.
Consult a reference librarian in the Manuscript Division concerning
availability for purchase or interlibrary loan.
Preferred Citation:Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the
following information: Container or reel number, Susan B. Anthony Papers,
Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Date |
Event |
1820, Feb. 15 |
Born near
Adams, Mass.
|
1837-1838 |
Student, Friends seminary near
Philadelphia, Pa.
|
1839 |
Teacher,
Eunice Kenyon's Friends Seminary,
New Rochelle, N.Y.
|
1846 |
Headmistress,
Female Department, Canajoharie Academy,
Rochester, N.Y.
|
1848 |
Joined the
Daughters of Temperance in Canajorarie, N.Y.; by Mar.
1849 had become Presiding Sister of the Montgomery Union, No. 29, of the
Daughters of Temperance in Canajoharie, a position she also held after moving
to Rochester, N.Y., and joining that city's union in mid-1849
|
1849 |
Managed family farm |
1851 |
Met
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
|
1852 |
Formed the
Woman's New York State Temperance Society
|
1853 |
Helped organize the
“Whole World's Temperance Convention”
Helped a group of
Rochester, N.Y., seamstresses draft a code
of fair wages for working women in the city
|
1854 |
Organized and participated in a canvass to obtain signatures
on petitions demanding woman suffrage and improvement of the Married Woman's
Property Law in
New York
|
1856 |
Principal
New York agent,
American Anti-Slavery Society
|
1866 |
Corresponding secretary,
American Equal Rights Association
|
1868-1870 |
Published the
Revolution, a weekly periodical
edited by
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others
|
1869 |
Organized a woman's suffrage convention,
Washington, D.C. Formed, with
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the
National Woman Suffrage Association
|
1872 |
Voted illegally for president |
1876 |
Presented a “Woman's Declaration of 1876” with two colleagues
at the
Centennial Exposition,
Philadelphia, Pa.
|
1881-1902 |
Financed and coedited first four volumes of
History of Woman Suffrage (New
York, Fowler & Wells, 1881-[1922] 6 vols.)
|
1888 |
Founded the
International Council of Women
|
1890 |
Settled in
Rochester, N.Y. Vice president at large,
National American Woman Suffrage Association
|
1892-1900 |
President,
National American Woman Suffrage Association
|
1892 |
Trustee,
State Industrial School,
Rochester, N.Y.
|
1895-1896 |
Campaigned in
California to secure the vote for
women
|
1898 |
Collaborated in the preparation of
The Life and Work of Susan B.
Anthony (Indianapolis, Bowen-Merrill Co., 1898-1908. 3 vols.), by Ida
H. Harper
|
1900 |
Helped open the
University of Rochester, N.Y., to
women
|
1904 |
Founded, with
Carrie Chapman Catt, the
International Woman Suffrage Alliance
|
1906, Mar. 13 |
Died,
Rochester, N.Y.
|
The papers of
Susan Brownell Anthony (1820-1906) span the period
from 1846 to 1934, although the bulk of the material dates from 1846 to 1906.
The papers include
correspondence, a
daybook,
diaries,
scrapbooks,
speeches,
and miscellaneous items.
A volume of
correspondence is dated 1846-1905 and consists
primarily of Anthony's letters to
Rachel Foster Avery concerning the details of
Anthony's extensive lecture circuit, her finances, the activities of the
National Woman Suffrage Association, and her work
on the multivolume
History of Woman Suffrage which she
coedited with
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others. The file also
includes several letters from Anthony to the
Reverend Anna Howard Shaw and letters from
Wendell Phillips. Although most letters concern
suffrage, a few deal with personal and family matters.
A
daybook,
1856-1860, records the financial account Anthony kept of her work for the
American Anti-Slavery Society, woman's rights, and
personal expenditures for postage, room and board, travel, advertising, rent
for lecture halls, and other items. Twenty-five volumes of
diaries span
the period from 1865 to 1906 with some gaps and omissions. For the most part,
the diaries contain brief notations of Anthony's activities and a financial
record kept in the back of each volume. Other topics noted in the diaries
include family matters, African-American and woman suffrage, lecture tours, and
important events of the day, such as
Lincoln's assassination. Among her associates
mentioned in the diaries are
Amelia Jenks Bloomer,
Lucretia Mott,
Parker Pillsbury,
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and
Lucy Stone.
Six
scrapbooks
assembled by her sister,
Mary S. Anthony, contain clippings from newspapers
published in all parts of the
United States with a heavy concentration of those
from
New York state and
Washington, D.C. Memorabilia for the period
1876-1934 is also included. The scrapbooks primarily document the activities of
Susan B. and
Mary S. Anthony in behalf of woman suffrage,
especially the conventions of the
National Woman Suffrage Association and the
New York State Woman Suffrage Association. The
scrapbooks also contain biographical articles on Anthony and her associates in
the suffrage movement and articles on women in higher education and
professional employment, particularly in law, medicine, and journalism.
Manuscripts of
speeches and
other writings complete the collection. Anthony's early focus was
temperance and abolition as well as women's suffrage and education. The
manuscripts date from her first public address in 1848 to 1895 when she was
presented with part one of
Elizabeth Cady Stanton's
The Woman's Bible (New York, European
Pub. Co., 1895-1898).
Two letters were
added to the
collection in 1997. A photocopy of a letter dated 1883 from Anthony to
Mary Kimball Rogers concerns a speech she thought
had been lost in
Omaha, Nebraska. A typed letter dated 1896 from
Anthony to
Adelaide Johnson concerns the charges of
illegality that were raised when Johnson's marriage ceremony was performed by a
woman. Anthony's lobbying effort to have statues placed in the
United States Capitol of herself,
Stanton, and
Mott as the founders of the woman suffrage
movement is also noted in her letter to
Johnson.
The collection is arranged in five series:
Container |
Series |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
BOX 1 REEL 1
|
|
|
Letters to and from Anthony. |
|
Arranged chronologically. |
|
BOX 2-3 REEL 1-4
|
|
|
One daybook and twenty-five diaries. |
|
Arranged chronologically. |
|
BOX 4-6 REEL 5-6
|
|
|
Six volumes and two folders of clippings and memorabilia. |
|
BOX 7 REEL 6-7
|
|
|
Speeches by Anthony. Also includes
The Woman's Bible, part one, by
Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
|
|
Arranged chronologically. |
|
BOX 7 not filmed
|
|
|
Two letters by Anthony. |
Container |
Contents |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
BOX 1 REEL 1
|
Correspondence,
1846-1905,
n.d.
|
|
Letters to and from Anthony. |
|
Arranged chronologically. |
|
BOX 1 REEL 1
|
Bound volume |
|
BOX 2-3 REEL 1-4
|
Daybook and Diaries,
1856-1906
|
|
One daybook and twenty-five diaries. |
|
Arranged chronologically. |
|
BOX 2 REEL 1
|
Daybook, 1856-1860 |
|
|
Diaries |
|
BOX 2 REEL 1-2
|
1865, 1870-1874, 1876-1878,
1883, 1888
|
|
(11 vols.)
|
|
BOX 2 REEL 3
|
1890 |
|
BOX 3 REEL 3-4
|
1892-1901, 1903-1904, 1906
|
|
(13 vols.)
|
|
BOX 4-6 REEL 5-6
|
Scrapbooks,
1876-1934
|
|
Six volumes and two folders of clippings and memorabilia. |
|
BOX 4 REEL 5
|
1876-1903 |
|
BOX 5 REEL 5
|
1892-1902 |
|
BOX 5 REEL 6
|
1902-1903 |
|
BOX 6 REEL 6
|
1905-1906 |
|
(3 vols.)
|
|
BOX 7 REEL 6
|
Clippings, 1890-1934 |
|
|
National American Woman Suffrage
Association Convention programs, 1905-1906
|
|
BOX 7 REEL 6-7
|
Speeches and Writings,
1848-1895
|
|
Speeches by Anthony. Also includes
The Woman's Bible, part one, by
Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
|
|
Arranged chronologically. |
|
BOX 7 REEL 6
|
List of speeches |
|
|
1848, first public
address
|
|
|
1852, speech delivered at
Batavia, N.Y., in company with Emily Clark (2 copies)
|
|
|
1852,
"The Church and the Liquor
Traffic"
|
|
|
1853 |
|
|
Apr. 17,
"Maine Law"
|
|
BOX 7 REEL 7
|
June 27,
"Expediency"
|
|
|
1856,
"Report on Educating the Sexes
Together," written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and delivered by Anthony at
the New York State Teachers Convention, Troy, N.Y.
|
|
|
1858, speech, Union Agricultural
Society, Yates County Fair, Dundee, N.Y.
|
|
|
ca. 1859,
"Make the Slave's Case Our Own"
|
|
|
1861 |
|
|
"The No Union with Slave-holders
Campaign"
|
|
|
"What Is American Slavery?"
|
|
|
"Judge Taney"
|
|
|
1862, speech on
emancipation
|
|
|
1877,
"Homes of Single Women"
|
|
|
1895,
The Woman's Bible (part 1) by
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
|
|
BOX 7 not filmed
|
Addition,
1883-1896
|
|
Two letters by Anthony. |
|
BOX 7 not filmed
|
Letters, 1883, 1896 |
|