--- title: Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Rare Letter description: The letter from suffragists Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton was recently found in a Connecticut attic and is now in Rochester canonical: https://time.com/4720173/susan-b-anthony-letter-rochester/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-03T19:30:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2024-01-24T12:05:20.000Z article:section: History og:title: Read a Newly Rediscovered Letter From Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton og:description: "I can speak and work with all the children of men" og:url: https://time.com/4720173/susan-b-anthony-letter-rochester/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc14271f25dc7a63/6988c0fdab6d77c56b6ad734/anthony.jpeg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read a Newly Rediscovered Letter From Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton twitter:description: "I can speak and work with all the children of men" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc14271f25dc7a63/6988c0fdab6d77c56b6ad734/anthony.jpeg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read a Newly Discovered Letter From Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to a Fellow Suffragist  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Updated: Jan 24, 2024 12:05 PM UTCPublished: Apr 3, 2017 7:30 PM UTC  Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1899 Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1899Universal History Archive / Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Updated: Jan 24, 2024 12:05 PM UTCPublished: Apr 3, 2017 7:30 PM UTC The crate full of papers didn’t look like anything special when George and Libbie Merrow found it in their Connecticut attic. Inside, however, was a treasure trove of papers that had belonged to the [suffragist](http://time.com/4643297/colorized-suffrage-photos/) Isabella Beecher Hooker in the 19th century. Now, in the [collection](http://motto.time.com/4721366/suffragist-documents-acquired-rochester/) of the [University of Rochester](http://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/unknown-letters-of-suffragists-susan-b-anthony-isabella-beecher-hooker-surface-in-connecticut-barn-229742/), the letters — from other suffrage icons, including [Susan B. Anthony](http://motto.time.com/4562785/susan-b-anthony-gravesite-election-day/) — are a window into the day-to-day workings of the movement for the enfranchisement of women. Hooker — whose father was Rev. Lyman Beecher and whose [half-siblings](http://time.com/vault/issue/1934-04-02/page/25/) included [Henry Ward Beecher](http://time.com/vault/issue/1927-10-03/page/49/), Catharine Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe — received the letters in the Rochester collection in the years between 1869 and 1880\. (Though the papers were acquired by Rochester in late 2016, the university — which is based in the city where Anthony is buried — has only just begun publicizing the collection, having spent months organizing and reviewing it.) At least one of those letters, as seen in the gallery above and transcribed below, is a double whammy of suffrage history: Sent to Hooker in October of 1869, it was written by _both_ Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, two leaders of the women’s suffrage movement. The change in handwriting is clearly visible near the top of the third page. Jessica Lacher-Feldman, an assistant dean and director of the university’s rare books and special collections department, has explanations for many of the references made throughout the letter. She believes that Anthony and Stanton were writing to Hooker to discuss a suffrage convention that was held in Hartford, Conn., later that month, and who would be invited to speak. The Mrs. Wilbour referenced would have been Charlotte Beebe Wilbour, president of the [Sorosis](http://time.com/4328111/neighbors-2-sororities-history/) women’s club; Mrs. Celia Burleigh was the first woman ordained a minister in the Unitarian church; Mrs. Livermore was Mary Livermore, founder of the suffragist paper _The Agitator_; Mr. Tilton was a writer, abolitionist and assistant to Henry Ward Beecher (until the 1870s, she says, when Henry Ward Beecher and Mrs. Tilton were accused of an affair). “I particularly love Stanton’s P.S., which are words to live by in my book,” Lacher-Feldman tells TIME in an email. “\[It is\] a testament to cooperation and collaboration needed in the challenges that these women faced head-on.” --- > “” ---  The 1st page of a letter from Susan B. Anthony to Isabella Beecher Hooker University of Rochester Department of Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation  The 2nd page of a letter from Susan B. Anthony to Isabella Beecher Hooker University of Rochester Department of Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation  The 3rd page of a letter from Susan B. Anthony to Isabella Beecher Hooker University of Rochester Department of Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation  The 4th page of a letter from Susan B. Anthony to Isabella Beecher Hooker University of Rochester Department of Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4720173/susan-b-anthony-letter-rochester/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4720173/susan-b-anthony-letter-rochester/"},"headline":"Read a Newly Discovered Letter From Susan B. 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