LETTER: ALS to The Cosmopolitan.
Autograph Letter Signed
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. Autograph Letter Signed “Elizabeth Cady Stanton” to “Mr. J.B. Pond.” New York: August 3, [NY]; three leaves, 8 x 10.5”; first two leaves rectos only, final leaf writing on both sides; creased where folded; some minor closed tears along edges; with small red ink stamp “Book” on upper left of first recto.
Stanton writes to The Cosmopolitan contributor J.B. Pond to correct a mistake printed in the periodical regarding her precedence in the women's rights movement, the Seneca Falls Convention, and Susan B. Anthony. She also offers her daughter Harriot Stanton Blatch for speaking engagements in her stead. The letter reads, in part:
I read your sketch of women in “The Cosmopolitan.” You made one mistake in giving my place to Miss Anthony. I called the first women's conventions ever held in the north at Seneca Falls New York July 1848. Miss Anthony did not appear on our platform until 1852 five years after. Mrs. Howe, Livermore, [illegible] came over twenty years after...I should be glad to make your acquaintance & introduce you to my daughters who are both fine speakers, I dare say...I do not speak except on rare occasions. I can speak to larger audiences with my pen & with far less tax on my nervous energies…
On the verso of the last sheet, written vertically across the page, is a resume for Stanton's daughter Harriot (“Mrs. Blatch”).
J. B. Pond, in addition to being a writer, was a noted promoter of lecturers and musicians. His historical faux pas didn't seem to dampen Ms. Stanton's ardor in promoting her daughters for possible inclusion on his lecture circuit. Stanton would go on to publish her own articles in The Cosmopolitan, the family periodical featuring articles on travel, adventure, and women's interests; it would evolve into the present-day women’s magazine Cosmopolitan.
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