Susan B. Anthony and Emily Gross

Susan B. Anthony, head of the American suffrage movement and early feminism, had a relationship with a woman named Anna Dickinson before forming a close companionship in her later years with  Emily Gross, a Chicago woman who was the wife of a wealthy businessman, Samuel Gross. While no correspondence between the two women has been located, it’s possible to trace their relationship through letters that Anthony wrote to friends and relatives. “I shall go to Chicago and visit my new lover — dear Mrs. [Emily] Gross — en route to Kansas. So with new hope & new life…” Anthony wrote. Although the two never lived together, they managed to spend long periods of time together until Anthony’s death. [New York Times]