Abigail Scott Duniway papers

Collection

Identifier: Mss432

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The collection consists primarily of records of the Duniway Publishing Company and the Oregon State Equal Suffrage Association. The Duniway Publishing records include cash books, mailing books, and advertising ledgers (1880-1886) of the publication The New Northwest. The Oregon State Equal Suffrage Association records include a minute book, membership and account books, constitutions, a small amount of correspondence, and a copy of a letter from Susan B. Anthony regarding the woman's suffrage movement. Also of note in the collection is a copy of a typed transcript of the journal Abigail Scott Duniway kept from April 2, 1852, to September 28, 1852, during her family's overland trek from Illinois to Oregon City, Oregon. The transcript contains an introduction by Leslie M. Scott. A subscription list from the Oregon State Secular Union from 1891 is also included in the collection.

Dates

1852-1915
Majority of material found within 1880-1915

Creator

Duniway, Abigail Scott, 1834-1915 (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.

Biographical / Historical

Abigail Scott was born in Groveland, Illinois, in 1834. One of her brothers, Harvey Scott, would become the editor of the Oregonian newspaper. The Scott family traveled overland to Oregon in 1852, a trip on which Abigail Scott's mother and youngest brother died. The family came first to Oregon City, then settled in Lafayette. Abigail Scott taught school at Eola, and in 1853 she married Benjamin C. Duniway, with whom she had four children. After Benjamin Duniway was incapacitated in an 1862 accident, Abigail Scott Duniway supported her family through teaching and a millinery business in Albany, Oregon. After moving to Portland in 1871, she published and edited The New Northwest and became Oregon's leading advocate of women's suffrage. She moved to Idaho in 1887 and helped to achieve women's voting rights there in 1896. After returning to Oregon, she was instrumental in the passage of Oregon's own women's suffrage bill in 1912. Her writings include the autobiography Path Breaking (1914) and the novel Captain Gray's Company. Duniway died in Portland in 1915.

Extent

1.35 Cubic Feet (3 document cases, 2 reels microfilm)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

A small collection of papers of Abigail Scott Duniway, who was an emigrant to Oregon, an editor, and an advocate of women's suffrage. Includes records of the Oregon State Equal Suffrage Association, records of the Duniway Publishing Company, and copy of a typescript transcription of Duniway's overland diary, 1852.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in the following series: Series A, Duniway Publishing Company records, 1881-1886; Series B, Oregon State Equal Suffrage Association Records, 1872-1915; Series C, General materials and overland journal, 1852-1914.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Probably the gift of Clyde Duniway, Library Accession 409.

Existence and Location of Copies

Overland diary available in microfilm and a print copy from the microfilm.

Existence and Location of Copies

Selected suffrage-related documents in the Duniway papers are viewable online in OHS Digital Collections.

Related Materials

Additional papers of Abigail Scott Duniway are held at the University of Oregon Special Collections and University Archives, Coll 232B, Eugene, Oregon.