LETTER: ALS to Mrs. Davis; with #4241; and with related Broadside re Nebraska referendum; prospectus for Vols. I and II; Notice of Publication of Vol. II; and card to Davis.
Rochester, NY: August 20, 1882.
Anthony ALS Presenting Second Volume of HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE to Daughter of Fellow Suffragist Clarina Irene Howard Nichols
together with:
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, Susan B. Anthony and Matilda Joslyn Gage, Editors. The History of Woman Suffrage. Illustrated with Steel Engravings. New York: Fowler & Wells, Publishers: 1881, 1882, 1887. Three Vol.
together with:
Broadside Addressed “To the Members of the National Woman Suffrage Association and the Friends of Equal Suffrage” from May Wright Sewall concerning the forthcoming suffrage referendum on woman suffrage in Nebraska. On the reverse is a printed a letter from Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the other officers of the National Woman Suffrage Association urging every female in Nebraska to write their Senator. Indianapolis, Ind. National Woman Suffrage Association, [ND but 1914). Page size: 5-7/16 x 8-7/16”, fine.
together with:
Notice of Publication of Volume II of “History of Woman Suffrage” and the announcement that there would be a third volume appearing in 1884, and that Volumes I and II were priced at $5.00 for cloth binding and $6.50 for sheep binding. New York: Fowler & Wells Publishers, 1882. Page size: 4-5/8 x 7-7/8", fine.
together with:
Advertising Brochure for Volumes I and II of HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE. New York: Fowler & Wells, [ND but 1882]. Page size: 9-3/8 x 5-15/16”, printed two sides, one edge ruffled and browned, else fine.
together with:
Card Addressed to Mrs. Bertha Davis advising arrival of one book via express. 1882.
Autograph Letter Signed by Susan B. Anthony to Miss Bertha Davis, daughter of Clarina Irena Howard Nichols conveying Vol. II of THE HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE to "place along side of Vol. I." Page size: 8-1/2 x 11" on National Woman Suffrage Association letterhead, folded to fit matching envelope, addressed to Mrs. Davis in Cavendish, VT in Anthony's hand and postmarked Aug. 21, 1882. The letter is fine. Housed with ephemera in custom-made cloth clamshell box. Anthony tells Davis that "The engraver is making a new plate of your precious Mother...". Anthony goes on to relate returning a daguerreotype to the wrong family and asks if Miss Davis has received one in error. She then relates she had recently heard from her old friend, who had been ill for some time. Anthony writes that she hopes her old friend will be able to "come over this side of the mountains...and be with her Bertha – her second self, as she used to tell me, in those olden days." As usual, Susan B. Anthony displays her generosity of spirit and innate kindness to one and all, always praising and letting those near to her know how she valued them. Also, quite apparent from this letter, is how much the publication (as well as the writing) of this HISTORY she undertook herself. She clearly obtained all the images from which the engravings were made (48 of them), arranged for the engraver and then had to return all the images to the original owners. She also had to distribute the volumes - to those personally part of the movement who might have contributed to the actual history - as well as to libraries, etc.
First Editions.
Vol. I, 1848-1861: 8vo, i-vi, 878pp Illustrated with 12 engravings of key members of the movement, including the authors.
Vol. II, 1861-1876: [i-11] 111 vii, 952pp; including Appendix. Illustrated with 13 engravings of key women.
Vol. III, 1876-1885: [i-iii] iv-xix, 1013pp. Mlustrated with 23 engravings of key women.
All bindings reddish brown cloth, blind-stamped in blind on front and back panels, stamped in gilt on spine with title and authors' names, bevelled edges, coated brown endpapers; Vol. I is very good with corners bumped and some dings to edges and foxing to frontispiece portrait and tissue guard. On the front blank a previous owner has noted in ink all references to Clarina Howard Nichols. The portrait of Clarina Howard Nichols has been excised. Vol. II, with frontispiece portrait and tissue guard foxed and, again, ink notations of all references to Clarina Howard Nichols. Dampstain to front cover about 1/2" wide and 4-1/2" long just at hinge with some other spotting to covers. Vol. III badly dampstained at front edge top to bottom and 3" wide with dampstaining to preliminary pages at fore edge. As with Vol. I & II, ink notations of references to Clarina Howard Nichols.
Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) not only led the woman suffrage movement but (like Winston Churchill who said, "History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.") wrote the history. Together with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Matilda Joslyn Gage and later with Ida Husted Harper, Anthony detailed the struggle for women's rights in this country. It is still the major primary source reference on the subject.
Clarina Irene Howard Nichols (1810-1885), newspaper editor and woman's rights leader was born in West Townshend, Vt. Her first marriage ended in divorce, after a 3 year separation, in 1843 (to a Justin Carpenter who was an alcohol abuser). She had begun writing for the Windham County Democrat of Brattleboro in 1840 and shortly after her divorce married the publisher and printer, George W. Nichols. She became an editor for her husband's paper and centered its concerns on the reform issues of the day, increasing its circulation. She entered the woman's rights movement in 1847 with a series of articles on the reprehensible legal and property restrictions on married women. By 1850, she had, through articles and speeches, assisted in the passing of state laws legalizing joint property deeds for husband and wife, the right for women to insure their husband's lives, and the right for women to inherit, own and bequeath property. By 1852, she had introduced a bill for woman suffrage (which was defeated). She became a well-known speaker on the woman's rights circuit, speaking at the 1850, 1852, and 1853 Woman's Rights Conventions. She also spoke at the 1853 World Temperance Convention as well as making an extensive speaking tour on temperance in Wisconsin. Moving to Kansas in 1853, she eventually started writing for the Lawrence Herald of Freedom and Topeka Kansas Tribune on behalf of women's rights. In 1859, when the constitutional convention met in Wyandotte she lobbied tirelessly for women's rights, the only woman present for every step of the proceedings. When Kansas was admitted to statehood in 1861 she represented the Woman's Rights Association on behalf of a married women's property law.
From 1863-1866 she lived in Washington, DC with her daughter who worked for the IRS. In 1867, she joined Susan B. Anthony for the unsuccessful struggle for woman suffrage in Kansas. In 1871 she moved to Mendocino, CA, where, despite increasingly ill health, she contributed to a local farm journal, Rural Press. She died in California at the home of her son in 1885. She is the author of Chapter VII in Volume I of THE HISTORY OF THE WOMAN SUFFRAGE, “Reminiscences by Clarina I Howard Nichols".
Although NAW cites her daughter as being named "Birsha" after her maternal grandmother, it seems clear that Mrs. Nichols called her daughter Bertha. Anthony's letter is addressed to her as Bertha. The locales mentioned by Anthony in this letter Vermont, Wyandotte, and across the mountains" (referring to the Rockies) - can only refer to Mrs. Nichols who was living in California in 1882 when Anthony wrote the letter. The handwritten notations of references to Mrs. Nichols in all three volumes further confirms this. The missing portrait is also confirmation. A wonderful association copy, with a touching letter from the great American leader, Susan B. Anthony, accompanied by important and scarce ephemera with important information about the publication of THE HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE.
Krichmar 1996. NAW II, 623-625. Wheeler, One Woman, One Vote. Timelines, p. 290. Naw II, pp. Stanton et al., The History of Woman Suffrage. Vol. I, pp. 171-178, 192, 522,561, 847; II, p. 258; III, pp. 48-50, 383, 764.
Transcription of Anthony ALS
Rochester N.Y. August 20, 1882
Dear Mrs Davis
I have ordered Vol. II. Of History of Woman Suffrage sent to you - thinking you would like to place along side of Vol. I.
The engraver is making a new plate of your precious mother - and I am expecting a print of it every day - and hoping that he will come nearer to getting a look of her into it - his is making the new one entirely from the dagerotype from which your brother took his photographs. It is faded - as were all of the pictures I could get of her - that the engraver finds it difficult to re produce. - But I am hoping.
In returning the various photos to families last summer to their various owners - I must have sent a daguerotype that had a shawl around the shoulders to the wrong person - as Mrs. Gray of Wyandotte Kansas writes me it did not reach the owner, then, as I understand a member of your family. Now did I put such a daguerotype into your package? Can you tell me what I did with it - The party at Wyandotte is feeling very sadly at my failure to return it according to my promise. I hope I can find where I sent it & return it properly.
I had a postal from your dear Mother not long since - reporting that she had found some relief from her maladies that have so crippled her physically for the past two years. I hope she may so recover as to come over this side the mountains once more and be with her Bertha – her second self, as she used to tell me, in those olden days.
Hoping to hear from you that you have received the Vol. II. And also whether said picture was in the package I returned to you - I am
Very sincerely yours,
Susan B. Anthony
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