[A carte-de-visite of abolitionist and women's rights lecturer, Anna Elizabeth Dickinson]

n.p. n.p., [1860s?]. A carte-de-visite of the popular 19th century lecturer, alpinist, abolitionist, and women’s rights advocate Anna Dickinson (1842-1932). Dickinson was born to a Quaker family in Philadelphia and at 13 published an essay in William Lloyd Garrison’s “The Liberator.” At 19 she went on her first lecture tour, which was sponsored by the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. She was a popular speaker who stumped for the Republican Party and at the height of her fame earned the equivalent of $440,000 a year, which she mostly gave away. She later became a writer, actress and mountain climber. She became increasingly erratic, paranoid and obstreperous and was briefly committed against her will to an insane asylum by her sister. She lived for over 40 years with George and Sallie Ackley in Goshen, NY, where she died in 1932. It was alleged that she and Sallie were lovers.

Albumen photograph (2 ” x 3 ½”) on crudely trimmed mount. Dickinson’s surname misspelled ‘Dickenson’, as we’ve seen on other photographs. Penciled to the back of the card is '1860's woman's suffrage lecturer'. Item #9794

Price: $150.00