"OUR WOMAN SUFFRAGE FLAG MAY HAVE FOUR STARS ON ITS FIELD OF BLUE—WHERE WE NOW HAVE ONLY TWO!!": EXCEPTIONAL AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED BY SUSAN B. ANTHONY, WITH ACCOMPANYING MARCH 4, 1894 POSTMARKED ENVELOPE SIGNED BY HER WITH HER "ROCHESTER NY" HOME ADDRESS, ALONG WITH JANUARY 4, 1894 ISSUE OF THE NATIONAL BULLETIN REPORTING ON THE NEW YORK CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION, FEATURING HER MARGINALIA

ANTHONY, Susan B. Autograph letter signed. WITH: Envelope stamped, postmarked "Mar 4,1894," autograph return address. WITH: The National Bulletin, January, 1894, autograph marginalia. Three items. ALS, cream card stock (2-7/8 by 5-3/8 inches); envelope (3 by 5-1/2 inches); National Bulletin, (6 by 8-1/2; pp. 4). $9000.

Rare 1894 collection of autograph materials signed by Susan B. Anthony, featuring a fascinating one-page March 4, 1894 autograph letter signed by her, a stamped envelope containing an 1894 postmark with her signed name and the return address of her Rochester home, along with a January 4, 1894 issue of the National Bulletin containing her autograph marginalia—together presenting a vital record of Anthony’s dedicated spirit and resolve in the long struggle for suffrage.

In the final years of the 19th century, Susan B. Anthony and other leaders in the fight for suffrage again marshaled their efforts, this time in anticipation of an upcoming NY State Constitutional Convention. "To get the word 'male' in effect out of the [US] Constitution cost the women of the country 52 years of pauseless campaign… they were forced to conduct 56 campaigns of referenda to male voters; 480 campaigns to get legislatures to submit suffrage amendments to voters; 47 campaigns to get state constitutional conventions to write woman suffrage into state constitutions; 277 campaigns to get state party conventions to include woman suffrage planks; 30 campaigns to get presidential party conventions to adopt woman suffrage planks in party platforms, and 19 campaigns with 19 successive Congresses" (Catt & Shuler, Woman Suffrage and Politics).

This rare collection of autograph materials captures the relentless work that fueled the long battle for women's civil rights. The focus is an upcoming 1894 NY State Constitutional Convention that had already "drawn attention from as early as 1887, when voters approved the need to revise the state constitution." As with the US Constitution, "at issue was the elimination of the word 'male,'" this time from Article II, Section I of the state constitution. Governors David Hill in 1887 and Roswell Flower in 1892 agreed that women could be represented at the convention. Not surprisingly, however, no women were nominated" (Goodier, Anti-Suffragists). Nevertheless, "the NY Woman Suffrage Association members organized a campaign, holding mass meetings in every NY county and securing 600,000 signatures out of a state population of roughly 2,500,000. The campaign's committee worked out of the Rochester, NY home of Susan B. Anthony… In May 1894 the president of the NY State Constitutional Convention appointed a committee in charge of suffrage amendments. Anthony and Jean Brooks Greenleaf, president of the NY State Woman Suffrage Association, spoke to that committee on May 24, 1894. Despite the suffragists' efforts, the petitions and committee hearings failed to bring about a suffrage amendment to the 1894 constitution" (Tarlton Law Library).

Prominent in this important collection is a March 4, 1894 autograph letter on ivory card stock signed by Susan B. Anthony. It is accompanied by a January 4, 1894 four-page issue of the National Bulletin with Anthony's autograph marginalia, and a stamped, postmarked envelope with Anthony's Rochester return address in her hand. The text of Anthony's autograph note, signed and dated March 4, 1894 by her, reads: "We now have two genuine republican Commonwealths—Wyoming & Colorado—and I trust, Nov. 6, 1894—will bring us two more—New York & Kansas—so that our Woman Suffrage flag may have four stars on its field of blue—where we now have only two!! Rochester NY, March 4, 1894, [signed] Susan B. Anthony, Rochester, NY" (original underlining). The envelope, with its cancelled "Two-Cent" stamp, is postmarked "New York, NY, Mar 4 10 PM." It is addressed to: "Remington Ward, Newport, R.I.." While unconfirmed, this is reportedly the prominent Newport, Rhode Island printer and publisher. The envelope shows Anthony's Rochester home as a return address, in her neat cursive: "Susan B. Anthony Rochester—NY." The accompanying January 4, 1894 issue of the National Bulletin contain's Anthony's autograph note along the margin of the rear page: "As you see, each speaks five nights, each meet in five different countries!!"—along with her note: "[unclear] & Susan B. Anthony alternate evenings at each of these meetings."

A very rare, exceptional near-fine collection of Susan B. Anthony autograph materials.