- Date:
- 1865
- Original Format:
- Carte de Visite
- Item#:
- MES23324
- Photographer:
- Napoleon Sarony
Anna Dickinson (1842-1932)
Anna Elizabeth Dickinson became famous as a young abolitionist. From an orthodox Quaker family, the young girl began lecturing on the rights of African-Americans while in her teens. In 1864 Dickinson became the first woman ever to speak before Congress. She also lectured on the rights of women. At the height of her career Dickinson earned a thousand dollars a lecture (roughly ten thousand dollars in the late twentieth century). Because of her support for the continuation of the war, Dickinson was known as the Joan of Arc of the Civil War. Later she became a novelist, a playwright and an actress, but struggled with her physical and mental health. The public was less kind to a middle-aged woman than a precocious teenager.
Related Categories:
- Writers & Poets
- Actors & Actresses
- Social Workers & Reformers
- Women's Suffrage
- Teachers
- Abolition Movement