Anna Howard Shaw portrait

Portrait of women's suffrage leader Anna Howard Shaw (1847-1919) , accompanied by a poem and mounted in a small sleeve with the date of February 14, 1920, printed on the front. That date would have been Shaw's 73rd birthday. She wears what looks like a graduation cap and gown and gestures with a large feather or palm in her hand. In addition to working as a leader in the fight for suffrage, Shaw was a licensed physician and was among the first female Methodist ministers ordained in the United States. This item comes from the Frances Jennings Casement Papers, a manuscript collection comprised of letters and association records related to the founding and leadership of the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association. Casement (1840-1928) was born in Painesville, Ohio, and graduated from Painesville Academy and Willoughby Female Seminary. Her father, Charles Casement, supported abolition and women's suffrage and encouraged Frances to be active in social causes. Frances Casement established the Painesville Equal Rights Association in 1883, and shortly after became involved in the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association, serving as its president from 1885 to 1888