Rachel Foster Avery
Rachel Foster Avery was born on December 20, 1858, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A devoted philanthropist and leader in the American women’s suffrage movement, she studied political economy at the University of Zurich in 1885, becoming one of the few American women of her time to pursue higher education abroad. She served as secretary of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), where she worked closely with her mentor and friend Susan B. Anthony. Avery was also active in the Pennsylvania Woman Suffrage Association and helped to organize national campaigns advocating for women’s right to vote. She died of pneumonia on October 26, 1919, in Philadelphia, just months before the ratification of the 19th Amendment.
Elnora, Monroe B. “Rachel Foster Avery Retires from Public Life.” San Francisco Chronicle, 9 June 1901, p. 30. ProQuest, www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/rachel-foster-avery-retires-public-life/docview/573100143/se-2. Accessed 2 May 2025.
Lasch, Christopher. “Avery, Rachel G. Foater.” Notable American Women, 1607–1950. Volume 1, A–F, edited by Edward T. James et al., Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971, pp. 71–72. Harvard Library, https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:457607836$130i. Accessed 2 May 2025.
“Rachel Foster Avery.” Historical Society of Pennsylvania Digital Collections, https://omeka.hsp.org/s/digitalcollections/document/17557#?xywh=-3433%2C-256%2C9659%2C5110. Accessed 2 May 2025.
“Rachel G. Foster Avery.” EBSCO Research Starters: Biography, https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/biography/rachel-g-foster-avery. Accessed 2 May 2025.