At the Cape Ann Museum, honoring a pioneer in promoting equality for women

John Singleton Copley’s (1738–1815) “Portrait of Mrs. John Stevens” (Judith Sargent, later Mrs. John Murray) (oil on canvas), in the show “Our Souls Are by Nature Equal to Yours: The Legacy of Judith Sargent Murray, through May 2 at the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Mass. This is via the Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Art Acquisition Endowment Fund. Photography ©Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago. This portrait was painted in 1770-1772.

The Cape Ann Museum says:

The show is a collaboration by Cape Ann Museum, the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Sargent House Museum, in Gloucester, to celebrate the Sargent House Museum's 100th anniversary. This exhibit is focused on the life and achievements of Judith Sargent Murray (1751-1820), a Gloucester native and civil-rights advocate. While her brothers were tutored in preparation for college, she educated herself and began writing essays, poems and letters.

Her most famous work, On the Equality of the Sexes, argued that men and women experienced the same world, and therefore deserved the same rights. This essay was first published in 1790, a time when women's rights as a political topic was practically unheard of. Murray also wrote about such other topics as education, politics, theology and money. Her outspoken writing paved the way for future advocates of women's rights.