What Shall We Do with Our Daughters? A Lecture on Mary Ashton Rice Livermore

Image: (left) Mary Livermore, (top right) cartoon of the dramatic corseted waist, (bottom right) corsets on display at the Framingham History Center
Image: (left) Mary Livermore, (top right) cartoon of the dramatic corseted waist, (bottom right) corsets on display at the Framingham History Center

March 19th at 2:00 PM
Edgell Memorial Library, 3 Oak St, Framingham

Presented by Joan Grassey-Spinazola

Mary Livermore was one of the most fascinating women of the 19th century and yet she is practically unknown today. As a suffragist, abolitionist, and co-director of the U.S. Sanitary Commission in Chicago during the Civil War, she travelled across the country giving thousands of inspirational speeches and raising serious money for her various causes.  Known as “Queen of the Platform,” she delivered her most famous lecture “What Shall We Do with Our Daughters?” over 800 times. This speech focused on the health of women and girls and blamed the fashions of the day as the cause of many problems.

Framingham’s, Joan Grassey-Spinazola, a former stand-up comedian who spent years travelling a different kind of circuit, will tell us more about this charismatic woman and her fame.  Joan serves on the FHC Program Committee and given visitors’ fascination with the corsets on display in our History in the Stitches exhibition, she thought we should hear from Mary Livermore!

Tickets are $5/FHC members, $10/non-members and can be  purchased at the door. Questions? Call 508-626-9091 or e-mail laura@framinghamhistory.org.