New and Online For the First Time From the Library of Congress: Archival Materials of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton
From a LC Announcement:
Archival materials from one of the most successful political partnerships in history, the collaboration of suffragists Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in the movement for women’s rights, have been digitized and are now available online for the first time from the Library of Congress.
The collections include about 1,500 items dating primarily from 1840 to 1906 as Anthony and Stanton led the campaign for women’s voting rights.
Online Access
“The close friendship, collaboration and activism of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton changed history and led to fuller equality for women,” said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. “Their papers are part of an unparalleled collection of resources in the Library of Congress documenting the American woman suffrage campaign. As the centennial of the 19th Amendment extending voting rights to women nationally approaches, these collections will be a great resource for researchers and students around the world.”
Highlights of the Anthony and Stanton papers include:
- An official report and newspaper clippings of the historic 1848 convention for women’s rights in Seneca Falls, New York;
- A pamphlet printed by Frederick Douglass’ North Star newspaper after Douglass attended the convention and spoke forcefully for women’s suffrage;
- Stanton’s handwritten draft of her controversial “The Woman’s Bible,” which nearly divided the suffrage movement when it was published in 1895;
- Twenty-five volumes of handwritten diaries kept by Anthony on her activities and events of the day, such as President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination;
- Scrapbooks with newspaper clippings, programs and other accounts of the time that would be impossible to re-create today;
- Correspondence on the multivolume “History of Woman Suffrage,” the first three volumes of which the two women co-edited with Matilda Joslyn Gage;
- Speeches and correspondence on the temperance and antislavery movements.
The collections tell a story of mid-to-late-19th century activism and political protest by two women who inspired a larger movement in the United States and abroad. Their papers offer a window into their relationship. Anthony often served as the researcher, lecturer and organizer. Stanton was the writer and theorist for their core arguments, her travel more constricted while balancing a family and seven children.
In addition to voting rights, Anthony and Stanton also advocated on women’s legal status, health issues, divorce laws, property rights, equality in the church, the abolition of slavery and rights for African-Americans.
The Library acquired Stanton’s papers chiefly as a gift from Anthony in 1903 and from Stanton’s daughter Harriot Stanton Blatch in 1927-1928. Anthony’s papers were donated by her niece, Lucy E. Anthony.
The movement for women’s suffrage is well documented in the Library’s collections, which also include the records and books of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and National Woman’s Party as well as the personal papers of Lucy Stone, Henry B. Blackwell and Alice Stone Blackwell, Harriot Stanton Blatch, Carrie Chapman Catt and others.
Direct to The Anthony Papers
Direct to The Stanton Papers
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About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.