"There is no escaping the fact that the principle by which the
male citizens of these United States assume to rule the female citizens is not
that of self-government, but that of despotism; and so the fact is that poets
have sung songs of freedom, and anthems of liberty have resounded for an empty
shadow."
Victoria Woodhull spoke these words on November 20, 1871 at the
original Steinway Hall on 14th Street in Manhattan. The following year, again at Steinway Hall,
Woodhull broke from the Woman Suffrage Association to advance a more radical
women’s rights agenda. The delegates
from the convention who followed Woodhull from Steinway Hall to Apollo Hall the
next day nominated her as the first woman candidate for President of the United
States – in 1872!
 |
| Victoria Woodhull at Apollo Hall, 1872 Source: M.F. Darwin, One Moral Standard for All, New York: Caulon Press Courtesy University of Michigan/Hathitrust |
We hold in our Steinway Collection the letter that made the 1872 convention of the Woman Suffrage Association possible. Women were, apparently, not to be trusted with
business matters in the 19th century. It
was a legal issue – women, particularly married women, could not sign
contracts. So it took a man to secure
rental of Steinway Hall for the convention.
On February 6, 1872, Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, one of the most famous
and powerful men in America, wrote a letter to William Steinway, president of
the Steinway and Sons piano company, which owned the hall in Manhattan that
bore the family name. Beecher promised
to pay for the rental of the hall for the women, “should the Association fail
to meet the expenses.” Beecher was
motivated by his sister Isabella Hooker, a supporter of Woodhull and active in
the Woman Suffrage Association. If you
can’t read Rev. Beecher’s handwriting, we've transcribed it for you here.
Steinway Hall remained an important venue for the women’s rights
movement through the late 19th and early 20th century.
As the repository of the Steinway Collection, we invite you to explore
the papers, pictures and other materials of the Steinway family and their
Steinway & Sons piano company.
To help you, we have prepared some wonderful webpages on The Women of Steinway and Sons, which offer a unique look into both women’s labor and craftsmanship at the Steinway factory, and the place of Steinway family women
in the company’s business.
For more on the National Woman Suffrage Association, try here.
