LETTERS.
Letter from Mary E. Tillotson to “Good Sister Port”
Tillotson, Mary E. Autographed letter signed, “Mary E. Tillotson” to “Good Sister Port,” Vineland, N.J., June 10, NY [likely late 1880s]; one leaf, folded to make four pages; all sides covered.
American poet, feminist and suffragette Mary Tillotson (1819-unknown) calls for unification and encouragement from a woman identified only as “Good Sister Port,” expressing “a sense of my bles[s]ing to you for nobly acting your true womanly part in seconding your own convictions & the call of a hundred humane souls.” Mary Tillotson, best known as a crusader for sensible women's attire—donning trousers and loose dress shirts while other women of her time wore corsets and bustles—formed the American Free Dress League in 1874 to promote this style of clothing, or what she termed the “science costume.” Her letter, written from Vineland, New Jersey, dates this letter sometime in the late 1880s, following her move there from New York in 1884.
The majority of Tillotson’s letter to “Good Sister Port” relays her broad goals for furthering the women’s movement in an impassioned, rallying tone. She writes, on the power of added participation,
One alone can only voice a truth & act toward it with an individual preparation. Two agre[e]ing & acting together, means ten anon, & ten speaks for a thousand, & so on…Now, just look with me over our preparation. More than 20 ye[a]rs the spirit congres[s] has bi[ee]n plan[n]ing, proving the fitness[s] of laborers, & culturing an instrument for the u[ea]rthly, tangible organization & communication.
(Tillotson’s spelling results from what she called “improved spelling,” or her advocacy to the American Filological and Spelling Reform Associations, an 1870’s effort to change certain English-language words to a more intuitive spelling.) She goes on, “…we’l[l] stand by you as far as we comprehend the rite; wil[l] take quiet aiding steps while gathering forces, & numbers; & when en[ough]u far[e] with us to publicly announce, & practical[l]y demonstrate the work & object, wil[l] faithfully perform our duties to all concerned.”
Tillotson makes repeated references to a “Julia,” with whom Port has recently visited (this could be referring to Julia Ward Howe, a prominent suffragette and poet of the time, best known as the writer of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Howe, though a prominent activist, was notably less conservative and more positively received by critics than Tillotson). Tillotson writes about Julia’s attempt to “[reason] with her selfish husband” for support and “approval of her work & of its uses, [which…] would be a comfort…but would not make a worthy sustainer of a good cause. His footing would be so shaky as to tumble by the breath of scandal; & that wil[l] blow some cyclones yet” (Howe’s husband was Samuel Gridley Howe, the prominent American physician, abolitionist, and founder of Perkins School for the Blind, with whom Howe had a historically stormy relationship).
After making a plan to meet with Port, Tillotson signs off by expressing her hope of what is to come: “…some time you’l[l] (all) come, & we’ll lov[e] the poor, vain world with the best we can do for it.”
Tillotson, the author of four books on the women's dress movement, one book of poetry, and also contributed regularly to the Woman's Herald of Industry (The Vineland Historical and Antiquarian Society holds issues; OCLC recognizes limited copies of Tillotson’s women’s dress movement books in United States libraries).
,“Feminism and Dress Reform in the United States, 1848-1875,” by Amy Kesselman, Gender and Society. Vol. 5, No. 4, Dec. 1991
"Mary E. Tillotson," by Joan N. Burstyn, Past and Promise: Lives of New Jersey Women. Syracuse University Press: 1997. pp. 198-99.
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