Photograph.
A Portrait of Abolitionist Anna Dickinson
[Abolition] Photograph: Anna Dickinson, n.d.
2-1/2 x 4”; black and white; produced on cream-colored cardstock.
In the portrait, the Civil War orator looks regal and serene; she is seated, facing toward the left and dressed in formal attire. “Anna Dickinson” is printed beneath the photograph.
Anna Dickinson (1842-1932) was born and raised in Philadelphia, the youngest of five children. Her father John, an abolitionist and dry goods merchant, died when Anna was only two, and Anna and her sister were forced to join the work force after only five years of formal schooling to contribute to the family income. Dickinson worked as a copyist, schoolteacher, and then for the United States mint. In 1860, she began delivering speeches on issues such as slavery and women’s rights. The novelty of a female orator drew large crowds and after Dickinson was fired from the mint (after a particularly incendiary speech against General McClellan), she began focusing on oratory as a profession. Dickinson was largely responsible for helping the Republicans sweep the state of Connecticut in the 1863 elections after she delivered an impassioned speech at a huge rally in Hartford on the eve of voting.
After the Civil War ended, Dickinson became a regular on the lyceum lecture circuit, averaging about 150 lectures a year. Though in her speeches she advocated women’s social, legal and political equality, she remained separate from the organized suffrage movement, despite close friendships with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She wrote two books in her lifetime: What Answer? (Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1866), a defense of interracial marriage, and A Paying Investment (Boston: James R. Osgood & Co., 1876), on the need for compulsory education. After the traveling lecture industry dwindled in the 1870s, Dickinson tried her hand at playwriting and acting, appearing in several of her own plays. She was ridiculed by the critics, however, and none of her dramatic works enjoyed much commercial success.
In 1888, Dickinson was invited to speak at several Republican campaign events. She lost her contract, however, after waving a bloody shirt on stage and denouncing Grover Cleveland so viciously that people began to question her sanity. Suffering from sever paranoia, Dickinson was committed to the Danville State Hospital for the Insane in 1891. Though she was declared mentally fit and released soon after, she remained out of the spotlight for the remainder of her life. She died of cerebral apoplexy in Goshen, NY in 1932. NAW I, 475-476.
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