Mary Rice Livermore

Mary Rice Livermore of Chicago played an important role in the Civil War. Born in Boston, she worked as a teacher before settling in Chicago with her husband, a Universalist minister. When war broke out, she volunteered to work for the United States Sanitary Commission, an organization affiliated with the War Department that raised money, established hospitals, and gathered medical and other supplies for soldiers.

In 1862 and 1863 Livermore toured military hospitals to assess conditions and needs while also ministering to injured and dying soldiers. With her friend and coworker Mary Hoge, she organized two fairs for the Sanitary Commission in Chicago that raised nearly $400,000 for soldiers' aid.
Like many other northern women, Livermore emerged from the war with a strong conviction to improve the legal and political status of women in America. She organized the state's first women's suffrage convention and urged women to seek higher education. The "days of tutelage," she wrote, "seem to be ended and women must think and act for themselves."