Documents Signed by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton Admit New Members into the First Women’s Rights Organization They Co-Founded in 1852
The Only Such Documents Signed by Both We Have Found Ever Having Reached the Market
The Raab Collection announced today that it has discovered and is offering for sale a great piece of American history that connects Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who helped women get the right to vote. The two documents, certificates of membership in a women’s rights organization, are the only such documents bearing the signatures of both Anthony and Stanton known to have reached the market and the earliest Anthony autograph we found for sale in 75 years. Acquired from heirs of the original recipient and never before offered for sale, they are valued at $15,000 each.
“These remarkable discoveries bring to light an early chapter in the lives of two iconic figures in the American women’s suffrage movement,” said Nathan Raab, president of The Raab Collection and author of The Hunt for History. “It’s amazing to imagine them together, in the same room, signing them.”
These newly discovered documents certify Mr. P.S. Kingsley and Mrs. Angeline Kingsley of Minetto, Oswego County, New York, as members of the first women’s rights organization founded by Anthony and Stanton, the Women’s New York State Temperance Society, formed in 1852. The issue of temperance and women’s rights were closely linked at this time. It thus represents the beginning of an extraordinary partnership between the two women, one that would ultimately lead to the groundbreaking work they did to secure the right for women to vote.
From Seneca Falls to Suffrage
In 1851, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton met in Seneca Falls, NY, where only three years prior a convention launched the women’s rights movement in the United States. They formed the Women’s New York State Temperance Society in 1852, and the lessons Stanton and Anthony learned during its formation would provide invaluable experience for their later suffrage work. They came to realize that women’s rights could not be fully achieved without securing political and legal rights, including the right to vote. If women wanted laws changed, they needed to be able to vote for them and have representatives who supported them. This insight would prove foundational in the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1919.
These newly discovered pieces of history capture Anthony and Stanton at the dawn of their trailblazing careers. Although neither woman lived to cast a vote in a national election, documents like this attest to the women’s hard work and tenacity over decades to achieve their goals.
To learn more about these documents and their recent discovery, Nathan Raab is available for interviews. The latest episode of our podcast, “Inspired by History,” includes a conversation with Nathan on this subject. Listen here:
