Description
Dickinson, Anna Elizabeth (1842-1932), Full-length photographic portrait carte-de-visite, with two signed quotes on separate pieces of white card stock, one reading, “Liberty! Truly yours, Anna E. Dickinson,” (dated 10/28/1878) and the other, “I am glad to do what you desire, — & so to sign myself Truly Yours, Anna E. Dickinson,” (dated 4/28/1876). All three items, the portrait by Sarony and the two signed and dated quotes are mounted with hinges on a mat. Condition of all three items is fine. A Quaker and Philadelphia native by birth, Anna Elizabeth Dickinson was a radical firebrand orator and out-spoken advocate for the rights of African Americans and women at a time when such ideas were incendiary and almost never spoken of by women, unless that woman happened to be Anna Elizabeth Dickinson. She even criticized Abraham Lincoln for being too moderate on slavery. Her advocacy for women went well beyond the right to vote and approached same-sex liberation issues. William Lloyd Garrison was the first to publish one of her essays in The Liberator. She actively campaigned for radical (pro-abolition) and successful Republican Party candidates. She was the first woman to address the United States Congress in 1864, where she received a standing ovation. She lived out her days in up-state New York in seclusion.
