Cheney, Ednah Dow (1824–1904)

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Cheney, Ednah Dow (1824–1904)

Boston abolitionist, suffragist, and author. Born Ednah Dow Littlehale on June 27, 1824, in Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts; died in 1904; married Seth Wells Cheney (an American engraver), in 1853 (died 1856); children: one daughter.

Educated in excellent private schools, acquainted with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Bronson Alcott, and deeply influenced by Margaret Fuller , Ednah Dow Cheney helped relocate freed slaves and organized Boston teachers to serve in the South after the Civil War. She was secretary, then president, of the New England Hospital for Women and Children, as well as president of the New England Woman's Club and the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association. Cheney authored Handbook of American History for Colored People (1866), Gleanings in the Field of Art (1881), Life of Louisa M. Alcott (1889), and several stories, including "Nora's Return," a sequel to Ibsen's "A Doll's House"; her reminiscences were published in 1902.