Hooker, Isabella Beecher, 1822-1907
Variant namesBiographical notes:
Isabella Beecher Hooker, née Isabella Beecher, (born Feb. 22, 1822, Litchfield, Conn., U.S.—died Jan. 25, 1907, Hartford, Conn.), American suffragist prominent in the fight for women’s rights in the mid- to late 19th century. Isabella Beecher was a daughter of the Reverend Lyman Beecher and a half sister of Henry Ward Beecher, Catharine Beecher, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. She was educated mainly in schools founded by Catharine. In 1841 she married John Hooker, a law student and descendant of Thomas Hooker, the founder of Hartford. They lived in Farmington, Connecticut, for 10 years and then returned to Hartford, where John Hooker and a brother-in-law bought a hundred-acre (40-hectare) wooded tract, built houses for themselves, and sold lots to Stowe, Charles Dudley Warner, Mark Twain, and other prominent and congenial figures. Hooker’s interest in the law and the legal status of women was first aroused early in her marriage by her husband’s reading to her from Blackstone (whose position was that in marriage, man and wife are one person before the law and that the woman has no separate legal existence; see also coverture). John Stuart Mill’s essay on “The Enfranchisement of Women,” which she read in 1861, 10 years after its first appearance, further stimulated her, as did his later The Subjection of Women. Under the influence of Caroline M. Severance, she overcame her earlier disdain for crusading reformers and became an associate of Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Paulina Wright Davis, and other women’s rights advocates. Hooker helped organize the New England Woman Suffrage Association in 1868, and her “Mother’s Letters to a Daughter on Woman’s Suffrage” appeared anonymously in Putnam’s Magazine in November and December of that year. In 1869 she called and presided over the convention that organized the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association. From 1870 until success was achieved in 1877, she lobbied the Connecticut legislature vigorously in favour of a married women’s property bill drafted by her husband (see also Married Women’s Property Acts). Hooker was a prominent speaker at the 1870 convention of the National Woman Suffrage Association in Washington, D.C., and she planned and financed a special convention in January 1871 at which a federal constitutional suffrage amendment was drawn up and presented to Congress. For a number of years she was much of the time in Washington, D.C., lobbying and testifying in behalf of the amendment. Her association with Victoria Woodhull dated from that campaign and soon became quite close. She sided with Woodhull when the latter publicly accused the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher of adultery and was thereafter shunned by most of her family. She also followed Woodhull into spiritualist circles and for a time was convinced that she would soon be chosen by spirit powers to lead a matriarchal government of the world. Hooker published Womanhood: Its Sanctities and Fidelities in 1874 and remained active in suffrage work for most of her life, continuing as president of the state organization until 1905. She was involved in planning the first International Convention of Women in 1888.
Links to collections
Hooker, Isabella Beecher, 1822-1907. Isabella Beecher Hooker papers, 1873-1876.
Connecticut Historical Society
Hooker, Isabella Beecher, 1822-1907,. Autograph letters signed from Isabella Beecher Hooker to William Winter [manuscript], 1887.
Folger Shakespeare Library
Hooker, Isabella Beecher, 1822-1907. Letters to George Parker, 1906.
Connecticut Historical Society
Welles, Edgar Thaddeus, 1843-1914. Edgar T. Welles papers, 1858-1900.
Connecticut Historical Society
Hooker, Isabella Beecher, 1822-1907. Letter, n.d.
Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
City Missionary Society (Hartford, Conn.). Correspondence relating to the City Missionary Society, 1892-1894.
Connecticut Historical Society
Severance, Caroline M. Seymour (Caroline Maria Seymour), 1820-1914. Papers of Caroline Maria Seymour Severance, 1830-1980 (bulk) 1860-1914.
Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens
Hooker, Isabella Beecher, 1822-1907. Isabella Hooker letter to Mr. Post, 1903.
Connecticut Historical Society
Hooker, Isabella Beecher, 1822-1907. Isabella Beecher Hooker notes and newspaper clippings, ca. 1887-1905.
Connecticut Historical Society
Hooker, Isabella Beecher,. Letter, [n.d.], to Susan B. Anthony.
Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
Hooker, Isabella Beecher, 1822-1907. Isabella Beecher Hooker diary, 1876-1877.
Connecticut Historical Society
Beecher Family Papers
Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Letters from various persons, 1860-1893.
Houghton Library
Papers, 1880-1980.
New York State Historical Documents Inventory
Hooker, John, 1816-1901. Letters to William W. Patton, 1875.
Connecticut Historical Society
Harbert, Elizabeth Boynton, 1845-1925. Papers in the Mary Earhart Dillon Collection, 1870-1939
Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
Severance, Caroline M. Seymour (Caroline Maria Seymour), 1820-1914. Papers, 1830-1980
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens Manuscripts Department
Papers, 1850-1946
Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
Brown, Olympia, 1835-1926. Papers of Olympia Brown, 1899-1912 (inclusive).
Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
Lutz, Alma, 1890-1973. Collection of documents by and about abolitionists and women's rights activists, 1775-1943
Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
Beecher, Charles, 1815-1900. Papers, 1870-1873.
University of Florida
Colby, Clara Dorothy Bewick, 1846-1916. Papers of Clara Dorothy Bewick Colby, 1882-1914.
Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens
Holmes, Edward Jackson, 1846-1884. Journal, 1870-1871.
Massachusetts Historical Society
Beecher family. Beecher-Stowe family papers, 1798-1956 (inclusive).
Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874. Correspondence, 1829-1874
Houghton Library
Brown, Olympia, 1835-1926. Papers, ca. 1849-1963
Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
Lutz, Alma, 1890-1973. Collection of documents by and about abolitionists and women's rights activists, 1775-1943
Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
Bowles, Samuel, 1826-1878. Samuel Bowles papers, 1852-1893 (inclusive).
Yale University Library
Oswald Garrison Villard papers
Houghton Library
Meriden Political Equality Club (Meriden, Conn.). Records, 1889-1893 (inclusive).
Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
Glafcke, Herman. H. Glafcke letter to Mrs. John Hooker, 1871 May 6.
Connecticut Historical Society
Blackwell family. Papers, 1835-1963
Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
Clarke, James Freeman, 1810-1888. Papers, 1841-1897 (inclusive).
Harvard University, Divinity School Library
Cantwell, John Simon. Papers, 1804-1907.
Andover-Harvard Theological Library
Barrows family papers, 1861-1931.
Houghton Library
John Stuart Mill papers, 1812-1888
Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
Beecher-Stowe family papers, 1798-1956
Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
Beecher, James Chaplin, 1828-1886. Papers, 1850-1946 (inclusive).
Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
Autograph File, H
Houghton Library
Brown, Olympia, 1835-1926. Papers, ca. 1849-1963 (inclusive).
Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
Harbert, Elizabeth Boynton, b. 1845. Series II of the Mary Earhart Dillon Collection, 1870-1939 (inclusive).
Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
[Autograph Collection]
Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library
Blackwell family. Papers, 1835-1963
Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 1815-1902. Elizabeth Cady Stanton letter, 189u.
Connecticut Historical Society
Papers of Harriet Goodhue Hosmer, 1834-1959
Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
Seymour, George Dudley, 1859-1945. Diaries, 1912-1937.
Connecticut Historical Society
Mill, John Stuart, 1806-1873. John Stuart Mill papers, 1812-1888 (inclusive).
Yale University Library
Anna E. Dickinson Papers, 1859-1951, (bulk 1859-1911)
Library of Congress. Manuscript Division
Related names in SNAC
associatedWith
ALMA LUTZ, 1890-1973
associatedWith
Anthony, Susan B. (Susan Brownell), 1820-1906.
correspondedWith
Beecher, Charles, 1815-1900.
associatedWith
Beecher, James Chaplin, 1828-1886.
associatedWith
Bowles, Samuel, 1826-1878.
associatedWith
Brown, Olympia, 1835-1926.
associatedWith
Burnett, Frances Hodgson, 1849-1924.
associatedWith
Cantwell, John Simon.
associatedWith
Clarke, James Freeman, 1810-1888.
associatedWith
Colby, Clara Dorothy Bewick, 1846-1916.
correspondedWith
Dickinson, Anna E. (Anna Elizabeth), 1842-1932
associatedWith
Elizabeth Morrison (Boynton) Harbert, 1845-1925
associatedWith
Glafcke, Herman.
associatedWith
Harbert, Elizabeth Boynton, b. 1845.
associatedWith
HARRIET GOODHUE HOSMER, 1830-1908
associatedWith
Holmes, Edward Jackson, 1846-1884.
associatedWith
Hooker, Edward B.
associatedWith
Hooker, John, 1816-1901.
associatedWith
Hosmer, Harriet Goodhue, 1830-1908.
associatedWith
JAMES C. BEECHER, 1828-1886
associatedWith
Lutz, Alma,
associatedWith
Mill, John Stuart, 1806-1873.
associatedWith
OLYMPIA BROWN, 1835-1926
associatedWith
Parker, George Amos, 1853-1926.
associatedWith
Sanborn, F. B. (Franklin Benjamin), 1831-1917
associatedWith
Seymour, George Dudley, 1859-1945.
associatedWith
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 1815-1902.
correspondedWith
Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874
associatedWith
Valentine, Edward Kimble, 1843-1916.
correspondedWith
Villard, Oswald Garrison, 1872-1949
associatedWith
Welles, Edgar Thaddeus, 1843-1914.
correspondedWith
Winter, William, 1836-1917
associatedWith
Young, Robert, 1927-2008,
correspondedWith
Barrows family.
associatedWith
Beecher family
associatedWith
Beecher family.
associatedWith
Beecher family.
associatedWith
Beecher family.
associatedWith
Beecher family.
associatedWith
Blackwell family.
associatedWith
BLACKWELL FAMILY
associatedWith
Association for the Advancement of Woman. Congress.
associatedWith
City Missionary Society (Hartford, Conn.)
associatedWith
Meriden Political Equality Club (Meriden, Conn.)
Collection Locations
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Comparison
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Information
Subjects:
- Clippings (Books, newspapers, etc.)
- Correspondence
- Lectures and lecturing
- Note-taking
- Social reformers
- Vision
- Women
- Women's rights
Occupations:
- Lecturers
Places:
- MA, US
- CT, US
- CT, US
- OH, US
Variant Names
Hooker, John, Mrs., 1822-1907
Hooker, Isabella Beecher, 1822-1907
Hooker, Isabella Beecher
Hooker, Isabella (Beecher) 1822-
Hooker, Isabella Beecher, active 1853-1913, of Hartford, Conn
Hooker, Isabella (Beecher) b. 1822
Isabella B. Hooker
Hooker, Isabella B.
xxv. Hooker, Isabella Beecher, 1822-1907
Beecher, Isabella, 1822-1907
Beecher, John Mrs 1822-1907
Beecher Hooker, Isabella 1822-1907
Beecher Hooker, Isabella