Mary Livermore
Mary Livermore, American (1820-1905) Administrator, author, editor, lecturer
Mary Livermore’s story reflects the nineteenth-century passion for political and social reform. After teaching on a slave plantation, Livermore became an ardent abolitionist. With her husband Daniel, she edited the progressive Universalist newspaper The New Covenant and published several books. During the Civil War, Livermore co-directed the activities of the Chicago Sanitary Commission. Her office collected some two-thirds of the entire amount of clothing, food, and medical supplies that the commission sent to Union soldiers; one Sanitary Fair alone raised an astonishing $70,000. From this experience, Livermore came to believe “that a large portion of the nation’s work was badly done, or not done at all, because woman was not recognized as a factor in the political world.” After the war, she devoted herself to women’s rights and temperance, serving as editor of the suffragist Woman’s Journal and as president of both the American Woman Suffrage Association and the Massachusetts Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. Livermore was also a much sought-after speaker. Her most popular lecture topic was “What Shall We Do with Our Daughters?” which stressed the importance of woman’s education. ~ From Woman Who Dare (Library of Congress)