Lucretia Mott

Art Historical Context

This evocative 1872 print portrait captures Lucretia Mott, a towering figure in 19th-century American reform movements. Born Lucretia Coffin, she was a Quaker minister, abolitionist, suffragist, and pioneering women's rights advocate who co-organized the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, igniting the suffrage movement. By 1872, Mott's lifetime of activism—as a lecturer, teacher, and social reformer—had made her a symbol of moral courage, challenging slavery and gender inequality amid the post-Civil War era. Depicted wearing a traditional bonnet and holding a book, the unidentified artist's print ...