Anna Elizabeth Dickinson

Dickinson was the first white woman on record to summit Colorado's Longs Peak, Lincoln Peak, and Elbert Peak (on a mule), and she was the second to summit Pike's Peak.

• Name — Anna Elizabeth Dickinson • Born — 28 October 1842 • Birthplace — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. • Died — 22 October 1932 • Place of death — Goshen, New York, U.S. • Resting Place — Slate Hill Cemetery, Goshen, New York • Occupation — Lecturer and author • Years Active — 1857–1888 women's rights, and temperance • Education — Friends Select School, Westtown School

Dickinson was born on October 28, 1842, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Quakers and abolitionists, John and Mary Edmundson Dickinson. Her Edmundson and Dickinson ancestors immigrated to the United States from England and with other Quakers settled at Tred Avon, or Third Haven, near Easton, Maryland, in about the 1660s. She had three older brothers—John, Edwin, and Samuel—and an older sister, Susan. Dickinson's father died in 1844 when she was two years old after giving a speech against slavery. Left in poverty, Mary opened a school in their home and took in boarders to support the family. Dickinson was educated at Friends Select School of Philadelphia and for a short time, until age 15, at Westtown School. A hardworking student, she spent any money she earned on books, having acquired an interest in literary classics from her mother. At the age of 14, she converted to the Methodist Church, and remained active in the church throughout her life.

• Illustration — The Liberator masthead, 1850 The Liberator, a newspaper owned by abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, published an essay by Dickinson on February 22, 1856, about the abuse received by an abolitionist schoolteacher in Kentucky. She was only 13. She went to work at the age of 15, about 1857, as a copyist. In 1859 and 1860, she was a teacher in Berks County, Pennsylvania, during which time she lived with the John and Elizabeth Longstreth family in Bristol, Pennsylvania. In May 1861, she obtained a clerkship for the United States Mint; she was one of the mint's first female employees. Dickinson was removed in December of that year for saying that General George McClellan's poor performance at Battle of Ball's Bluff amounted to treason at a public meeting.

As her popularity as a lecturer waned, she was invited to Colorado by Ralph Meeker. She arrived in Colorado in 1873. Over the course of three weeks she climbed Pikes Peak, Mount Lincoln, Grays Peak, and Mount Elbert, often using horses or mules. She joined the Hayden survey for a climb of Longs Peak. Dickinson had hoped the publicity would revive her career. Boulder County News reported the at the time scandalous detail that Dickinson had worn trousers for the ascent. Dickinson was the first white woman on record to summit Colorado's Gray's Peak, Lincoln Peak, and Elbert Peak (on a mule), and she was the second to summit Pike's Peak. She was the third white woman on record to climb Colorado’s Longs Peak, in 1873, and was certainly the first well-known woman to do so.

As another means of support, she began writing. She published the novel What Answer? (1868), that tackled negative viewpoints about interracial marriage. It is considered her most radical work. She argued for technical training for workers, better treatment of prisoners, assistance for the poor, and compulsory education for all children in A Paying Investment, a Plea for Education (1876). Dickinson wrote A Ragged Register of People, Places and Opinions in 1879. Her plays included The Crown of Thorns (1876), in which she played the role of Anne Boleyn and the play and her acting was unfavorably received in New York. She appeared in the title role of Mary Tudor (1878). Her plays included Aurelian (1878) and An American Girl (1880), which was successfully acted by Fanny Davenport. She performed as Hamlet on Broadway, but she did not have critical success as an actress.

• Illustration — Anna Elizabeth Dickinson, published in 1901. She was a friend of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Quaker lecturers Lucretia Mott and Susan B. Anthony. In her letters, Anthony sometimes addressed Dickinson as "Chickie Dickie". Benjamin F. Butler, a Civil War general and a politician, pursued her romantically. He remained her friend, a legal advisor, and source of money over many years. Unpublished correspondence from a woman named Ida appears to show at least one intimate episode with another woman during her life, referencing Dickinson "tempting [Ida] to kiss her sweet mouth," which historian Lillian Faderman included in her history of lesbian life in America. In 1870, she was the wage-earner and head of the household of her mother, older sister Susan, and a servant. In 1883, she moved to West Pittston, Pennsylvania, to live with her sister. Over the next years, her health began to fail as she aged and due to many years of poverty. On May 12, 1889, her 95-year-old mother Mary died in West Pittston, Pennsylvania. She was said to have been an invalid for years and cared for by her daughters, writer Susan and lecturer Anna. Mary's only living son, Rev. John Dickinson, was a professor of Geology at the University of California at the time. • Illustration — The main building, Berdell mansion, of the Interpines sanitarium, Goshen, New York. Dickinson began to exhibit signs of paranoia in 1891 and she was committed against her will to a mental hospital, the Danville State Hospital for the Insane, by her sister Susan Dickinson. She was transferred to a private hospital in Goshen, New York, under the care of Dr. Seward and with support of her friends, due at least in part to newspapers having reported false information about her care. Dickinson, who was taken to Danville in February 1891, stayed at the Interpines sanitarium and was giving lectures by late August that year. She filed suits against the newspapers who claimed she was insane and the people who had her committed. After protracted legal battles, she won the case of illegal kidnapping and three libel suits in 1898. She lost many supporters and friends due to her antagonistic behavior. Sometime after she was released from Danville, she lived in Goshen, New York, with George and Sallie Ackley, and continued to do so for more than forty years. Dickinson and Sallie Ackley were lovers, according to correspondence between Dickinson and Sallie Ackley and interviews with George Ackley and his sisters. George also said she was a heavy drinker. When Sallie died, she left $7,000 to Dickinson, with the understanding that upon her death, the remainder would be left to George. Dickinson died in 1932 of cerebral apoplexy. Since she did not leave a will, the remaining $6,000 inheritance went to her distant cousin, rather than to George. Dickinson is buried at Slate Hill Cemetery in Goshen, near George and Sallie's headstone.