Letter from Paulina Wright Davis to Emma R. Coe, August 17, 1851. Davis writes that she does not intend to attend the upcoming Bloomer Festival in New York. "Though the reform in dress is important it is but a fragment of the great work." She refers to women like Elizabeth Oaks Smith, whose beauty will "give grace and elegance to our movement." Susan B. Anthony, unimpressed by Smith's elegance, prevented her from presiding over the 1852 Syracuse convention because Smith was wearing a fancy, low-cut, white dress.
Citation
Davis, Paulina W., 1813-1876, “Letter from Paulina Wright Davis to Emma R. Coe, August 17, 1851,” RBSCP Exhibits, accessed February 3, 2025, https://rbscpexhibits.lib.rochester.edu/items/show/435.