Woman of the Week

Orator, author, playwright, actor, reformer, and philanthropist Anna Elizabeth Dickinson is this week's Woman of the Week   

• To learn about her by viewing her item record, please click on her image.  

• To read her biographical sketch in A Woman of the Century, please click on the highlighted page numbers to the left of her image.

Anna Elizabeth Dickinson was born on October 28, 1842, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her father passed away in 1844, when Anna was two years old. She went to the Friends' Free School, studied hard, and read constantly.

By the age of fifteen, Anna had written her first article on slavery and had spoken at a meeting for the Anti-Slavery movement. She taught in Berks County, Pennsylvania before becoming a professional lecturer. Anna traveled around New England delivering addresses about slavery, temperance, and politics.  When Anna gave an address in Washington, D.C. during the early 1860s, she donated all of the proceeds from the event to the Freedmen's Relief Society.

Also a writer, Anna published the novel What Answer? in 1868.  Next, she decided to pursue playwriting and acting.  Anna wrote a play called "A Crown of Thorns" and made her debut on the stage.  When this career path ultimately failed, she decided to return to lecturing and continued to write plays.

Anna died in Goshen, New York when she was eighty-nine. She is buried at Slate Hill Cemetery, Goshen, New York.