195

Adaline Mendum Buffum (1822-1888)

Extra. Fourth July, 1876, Chicago. WOMENS' POWER.

Chicago: Woman's Right Movement, 1876.
Single newspaper-style broadsheet on laid paper, printed in four columns on both sides; old folds, small hole to blank margin, one blank corner chipped with loss; two closed tears mended; 19 3/4 x 14 in.

"The Woman's Suffrage Movement has given place to the United States Church of Women; who, July 15, 1868 in the city of Chicago, took oath of allegiance and declared themselves independent of ecclesiastical authority and established a publishing house for the purpose of better disseminating their ethics and increasing their numbers. [...] A Copy of this EXTRA has been sent to President Grant, getting no reply, we have forwarded a copy to each member of Congress that they may know of the distress of American women in not being able to communicate with the U.S. Government."

This publication exists at the crossroads of Spiritual Philosophy, women's suffrage and the anti-slavery movement. From content in the paper itself, spiritualists Adaline Mendum Buffum and her adopted son, "Reverend" J. Whittier Buffum (1848-1924), based in Chicago, pursued a number of different business and philosophical enterprises. He worked as an undertaker and publisher of the monthly, "News from the Spirit World." Adaline edited the periodical "Spiritual Medium for Ladies." They also sold "charms or talismans magnetized by aged immortals," and a "spiritual oil."

All of the ephemeral publications produced by the Buffum's are rare. Worldcat locates issues of "News from the Spirit World" at the American Antiquarian Society, but it seems little is known about the two and their work in Woman's suffrage and the link they make through spiritualism to bridge the political injustices visited on American women.

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