Horticultural Hall at 100 Tremont Street, demolished in 1901, was the site of a pivotal meeting on January 28, 1870, where Lucy Stone (1818-1893), Henry Blackwell (1825-1909), Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910), Mary Rice Livermore (1820-1905), and others formed the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association (MWSA). The MWSA was instrumental in advocating for women’s suffrage in Massachusetts through educational efforts, presenting petitions to the state legislature, organizing lectures, and coordinating with national activities. Mary Rice Livermore (1820-1905) was a prolific writer, lifelong suffragist, and abolition activist. Boston-born and educated, she volunteered with the United States Sanitary Commission during the Civil War. A journalist, she founded The Agitator, a suffragist paper in Chicago, which later merged with the Woman’s Journal in Boston, where Livermore was an editor. She was a tireless lecturer on suffrage and temperance, often speaking multiple times a week for several months. Livermore also served as President of the American Woman Suffrage Association.
