Born Aug. 13: Lucy Stone

By Michael Baadke

Lucy Stone, a pioneering women’s rights advocate of the 19th century, was born Aug. 13, 1818, near West Brookfield, Mass. A 50¢ definitive stamp honoring her was issued exactly 150 years later, on Aug. 13, 1968, as part of the Prominent Americans series (Scott 1293).

Stone studied at Oberlin Collegiate Institute, now Oberlin College in Ohio, and began speaking out publicly about women’s rights in 1847.

“Lucy Stone’s lecturing and writing career in the interest of the legal rights of women spanned nearly a half century,” the U.S. Post Office Department noted when the stamp honoring her was issued. “She was also active in the anti-slavery and temperance movements.”

Stone was the editor of the weekly Women’s Journal, and helped to bring about the first National Woman’s Rights Convention, in 1850.

Stone retained her maiden name when she married Henry Browne Blackwell (1825-1909). Their daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell (1857-1950) was also an active proponent for women’s rights.

Lucy Stone died Oct. 19, 1893.