Fortieth Anniversary of the First Woman's Rights Convention.
Who’s Who of American Feminism:
The International Council of Women of 1888
[Suffrage] International Council of Women Assembled by the National Woman Suffrage Association of the United States to Celebrate the Fortieth Anniversary of the First Woman’s Rights Convention. March 25th to April 1st, 1888, inclusive. Washington, D.C.: Printed by Rufus H. Darby, 1888.
8vo.; printed self-wrappers; covers detached.
Third edition of 5,000, so stated on the front wrapper. The pages of this program for the inaugural gathering of the International Council of Women read like a veritable Who’s Who of American feminism. Dividing each day into morning and evening sessions, the program includes on its list of speakers: Antoinette Brown Blackwell and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (Formal Opening of the Council); May Wright Sewall, Sarah B. Cooper, and Martha McLellan Brown speaking on Education; Harriette R. Shattuck, Isabel C. Barrows, and Clara Barton on Philanthropies; Mary A. Livermore and Helen Campbell addressing women in industries; Dr. Sarah Hackett Stevenson and Professor Rena A. Michaels discussing Professions; Matilda Joslyn Gage, Julia Ward Howe, and Frances Willard on Organization (with Susan B. Anthony providing music); Lucy Stone, Alice Fletcher, and Lillie Devereux Blake in a session on Legal Conditions; Isabella Beecher Hooker, Abigail Scott Duniway, and Anna Howard Shaw on Political Conditions. A “Conference of the Pioneers” held on Saturday morning must have been especially stirring for attendees, offering addresses by a dozen first wave feminists including Anthony, Stanton, Stone, Gage, and Mary Grew, as well as Frederick Douglass, Henry B. Blackwell, and Robert Purvis. An impressive international contingency of suffragists and women activists is also represented in the program, and includes Alexandra Gripenberg, Pundita Ramabai Sarasvati, Laura Ormiston Chant, and Ada Frederiksen.
The early pages of the program address the practical aspects of attending the convention: notes on railroad rates (“All the railroads east of the Mississippi River have granted to delegates and visitors to the International Council a reduction of one-third of the round-trip fare”); advice on hotels and boarding rooms; and information on obtaining tickets (prices ranged from twenty-five cents for a single admission to $4.00 for a season ticket with reserved seat). A note from Susan B. Anthony explains the Women’s Tribune will issue a daily report containing “a full stenographic report of the proceedings,” sent free to all members of the N.W.S.A. The back of the program lists the lyrics to 19 hymns used in the religious services that opened and closed the convention; the hymns range from the traditional “Auld Lang Syne” and “Nearer, My God, To Thee” to those specially adapted with feminist lyrics, for instance, “The Equal Rights Banner” sung to the tune of the Star-Spangled Banner: “And the day breaks upon us when women are rising/ And with ballots in hand, at the right’s dear command/ They’ll be true to the flag and will rescue our land/ And ever the Equal Rights Banner shall wave/ O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
Though the program went into several printings, very few copies have survived. OCLC locates only 5 copies, and our search of American Book Prices Current returns no auction records.
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Organized by the National Woman Suffrage Association – at that time led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Rachel Foster and May Wright Sewall – the International Council of Women was formed in 1888 to “devise new and more effective methods” for securing justice and equality for women of all nations. An international council was necessary, they argued, because “man’s sovereignty” transcended national differences and that “the position of women anywhere affects their position everywhere.” Their goal was to “rouse women to new thought…intensify their love of liberty, and…give them a realizing sense
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