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noteS on SoUrceS The research for this book spanned eighteen years and consequently witnessed many changes in searching for and accessing sources. In the end, it combines traditional historical methods with the easier availability of certain materials, books, photographs, and public documents that are now digitized and searchable online. This essay presents the process of that research. It starts with an examination of the general sources on Shaw and, in many ways, follows my own process of uncovering and contextualizing Shaw’s life. However, it is not an exhaustive discussion of all the sources used in this book. Any discussion of Anna Howard Shaw’s life must start with her autobiography , The Story of a Pioneer (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1915). It remains the major source for information about her family and her early years. This book isn’t a traditional autobiography; Shaw did not physically write it. As discussed in Chapter 7, in 1914 Shaw dictated this series of recollections and reflections to journalist Elizabeth Jordan, who arranged and edited the material. The first part of the book is remarkably accurate given that Shaw told these stories without notes decades after the events took place. After Shaw enters the women’s rights movement, however, the book follows themes rather than time. It is neither chronological nor comprehensive. A more important consideration is that Shaw “wrote” the book at the end of her NAWSA presidency and at the height of the suffrage organizing movement . It is very much a celebration of that movement and the leaders who were close to Shaw, especially Susan B. Anthony. Though Shaw mentions that there were disagreements and tensions within the movement, she is generous in her praise of all the women involved. On the other hand, some women, such as Alice Paul, are not mentioned at all. In spite of its limitations , it is a wonderful and rich source. The collected papers of Anna Howard Shaw and Lucy E. Anthony that are part of Series X of the Mary Earhart Dillon Collection, 1863–1955 (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University) are the foundational materials for this biography. These 210 folders of letters, photographs, diaries, and other memorabilia cover the years from Shaw’s first teaching certificates in 1865 through the launching of the SS Anna Howard Shaw in 1943. The “Finding Aid” provided by the Radcliffe Institute traces the history of the collection and describes its scope and content. The guide also notes that the collection doesn’t fully capture either woman’s life; the original six thousand letters between Shaw and Lucy E. Anthony and one thousand between Shaw and Susan B. Anthony were eventually destroyed by Shaw’s heirs. Among the most important remaining items are Shaw’s reminiscences of her early childhood. While Story of a Pioneer highlights the adventures of Shaw’s early life, these writings recall the hard and unhappy beginnings of a sickly child. The diaries and appointment books not only trace Shaw’s travels for thirty years, but they also contain records of the lectures she gave, the people she met, and, in some cases, the money she earned. Dr. Mary Jewett’s recollections of Shaw in Florida give a glimpse into the rare “leisure ” of Shaw’s later life. Though a good section of the collection is taken up with transcriptions of Shaw’s speeches, sermons, and lectures, the quality and quantity of those records are inferior to those in Linkugel’s dissertation (discussed later). The next most significant source is the unpublished biography that Ida Husted Harper, coeditor of History of Woman Suffrage and Susan B. Anthony biographer, wrote during the 1920s. Harper had known and worked with Shaw during Shaw’s life. They also had their disagreements. After Shaw’s death, Lucy E. Anthony shared with Harper all the letters and materials she had saved from her thirty-year partnership with Shaw. Harper drew liberally from these letters, so much so that parts of the draft are simply excerpts from Shaw’s letters. Harper added some material related to Shaw’s early life based on the stories of Lucy E. Anthony and others. The draft follows Shaw’s life but continues Shaw’s approach of ignoring the conflicts within the NAWSA. Though Harper never completed the book, it is a valuable source because it contains at least some parts of the many letters Shaw wrote home. The existing draft belongs to the Bentley Library of the University of Michigan. In 1972, Ralph Wakefield...

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