MARY A. LIVERMORE - AUTOGRAPH NOTE SIGNED - HFSID 287121

MARY LIVERMORE
Handwritten list of questions about pending tasks
Autograph Note signed: "Mary A. Livermore", 1 page, 5x5¾. No place, no date, no addressee. In full: "What shall be done with Mrs. Phinney's request? Can you select the Xmas Cards for Sherborn? Or will you find some one else to do it? Or shall they be omitted this year? Do as you please - or obtain advice. Yours truly". Mary Ashton Rice Livermore (1820-1905), principally concerned with theological questions in her youth, became a staunch abolitionist after spending three years as a tutor on a slave plantation in Virginia (1839-1842). Raised with the Calvinist doctrine of pre-destination, she moved to the other end of the religious spectrum, embracing Universalism and marrying Universalist minister Daniel Livermore in 1845. During the Civil War she was an active organizer and fundraiser for the US Sanitary Commission, and herself tending wounded soldiers under fire. With slavery abolished, she turned her journalistic and lecture skills to temperance and women's suffrage. Immensely popular as a speaker, she became known as "the Queen of the American platform," and delivered an average of 150 lectures a year. She also took a keen interest in spiritualism, believing she had received messages from her dead husband. Livermore was active in politically oriented women's including, the American Woman Suffrage Association, the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and the New England Women's Club. One horizontal mailing fold through center. Top and right edges lightly frayed. Otherwise, fine condition.