Lucretia Coffin Mott

Twenty-two years senior to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Coffin Mott was the elder stateswoman of women’s rights and although not a suffragist, she inspired many. Before the movement for women’s rights gained traction, Mott enjoyed universal respect within the U.S. abolition movement for her frugal and moral lifestyle. For Mott, clothing was a public manifestation of her religious and social beliefs. In addition to wearing the Quaker cap, as in this photograph, she often sewed her own garments using fabric that she sourced carefully to avoid using material produced through slave labor.