Rev. Anna H. Shaw

              225
?

Figure


MARY CARNELL, Photographer.


REV. ANNA H. SHAW

SUBJECTS

THE NEW MAN
THE FATE OF REPUBLICS
THE POWER OF THE INCENTIVE,
THE NEW DEMOCRATIC IDEAL
THE AMERICAN HOME
COLONIZATION AND CIVILIZATION
THE RELATION OF WOMAN'S BALLOT TO THE HOME
WOMAN SUFFRAGE ESSENTIAL TO A TRUE REPUBLIC
THE TEMPERANCE PROBLEM
(Sunday) THE HEAVENLY VISION
(Sunday) STRENGTH OF CHARACTER



The Redpath Lyceum Bureau
Boston and Chicago.

LUCY E. ANTHONY, Private Secretary,
7443 Devon St., Mt. Airy, Philadelphia.




BIOGRAPHICAL.
Born in England, Anna Howard Shaw was brought to this country in her fifth year, and planted amidst the wilds of pioneer life in Michigan, in a region without either libraries or schools, and no reading matter whatever save that supplied from the wall papering of a log cabin, which was constructed of old copies of the New York Independent.  Her history furnishes a signal proof of the impossibility of quenching the determination of a vigorous will by difficulties in the shape of environment.  Thirsting for knowledge, burning with desire for independence and self development, the young pioneer educated herself sufficiently, from such few opportunities as fell in her way, to enable her to begin her career as teacher at the age of fifteen.

Constantly learning as she taught, Miss Shaw distinguished herself so decidedly by her ability as a public speaker that the District Conference of the Methodist Church in her locality voted unanimously to grant her a local preachers license.  In this and other labors she earned her own support while pursuing her college course.  Two years later she entered the theological department of the Boston University, from which she was graduated with honor in 1878.  During the last year of her theological course Miss Shaw accepted the pastorate of the Methodist Church at Hingham, Mass.  Her second pastorate was in East Dennis, Mass., where she remained seven years, during six of which she preached for both the Methodist and Congregational Churches.  Strange to say, although the Methodist Episcopal Church had welcomed her services as local preacher, given her a license for that position, and although she filled most acceptably the pastorate, when she finally applied for the ceremony of ordination, the New England Conference refused such recognition on account of her sex.  Miss Shaw appealed to the General Conference in 1880, but this body only confirmed the sex prejudice of its New England branch.  Nobody questioned her consummate genius, her piety, her ability to preach sermons and manage congregations; but there are limitations inherent in the nature of things, and so ordination was refused this womanpreacher, and she went to the Methodist Protestant Church, and received orders, and she is still a member of the New York Conference.

During her pastorate in Dennis, Miss Shaw supplemented her theological studies by a medical course at the Boston University, practicing among the poor of the city of Boston while acquiring her education as a physician.  She thus legally won the title of Reverend in theology, and of Doctor in Medicine.

But these years of study and of contact with the people developed to a rare degree Dr. Shaw's greatest natural gift—the gift of oratory.  A burning conviction of the injustice of present social conditions, a quenchless enthusiasm in humanity's behalf, an unshakable faith in the ultimate conquest of right over wrong, give her remarkable fitness for the career upon which she has now embarked.  She has exchanged the little Cape Cod parish for a parish which knows no limit; her field is the world, and nearly every day in the week, often twice on Sunday, crowded audiences hang on the inspiring words which drop like living coals from the lips of this wonderfully eloquent speaker.

Dr. Shaw's ministry to the world consists in preaching a gospel of applied Christianity, not merely in delivering sermons compounded of scriptural texts, with expansions, but in applying a general golden rule standard to all the questions of the day.  As some one has well said, She is conducting a magnificent itineracy in the interest of social reforms.

Her keen wit and irresistible logic puncture the bubbles of sophistry by which men seek to defend selfish wrong doing, but the charm of her musical voice, the sincerity of her outspoken convictions, the kindliness evidenced toward a sinner, even while condemning sin, compels the admiration of those who most widely dissent from her proposition.

E. B. D.




PERSONAL TRIBUTES.
Rev. Anna Shaw, of Philadelphia, is one of the ablest speakers on the platform, either among men or women.  She has a well-trained mind, quenchless enthusiasm, and that rarest of all qualities—pluck.  Her history proves all this.  No woman could have wrenched education and success from more difficult conditions.  America does not contain a more loyal and devoted adherent of woman's cause.  A graduate of Boston University, in both medicine and theology, Dr. Shaw brings rare qualities to her platform work.  Her lecture, entitled The Fate of Republics, is one of the finest I have ever heard, both in matter and delivery.  Audiences will be conciliated by her cultured manner, enlivened by her wit, and captured by her logic.

FRANCES E. WILLARD.



PRESS NOTICES.

The Women's Club had a veritable treat yesterday afternoon in the lecture delivered by the Rev. Anna Shaw of Philadelphia.  The conference room of the First Church was literally packed with members of the club and their friends.  She is a most charming woman to look upon—thoroughly womanly in dress and manners, and sure to attract one at first sight.  Without notes and in a deep, pleasant voice, she spoke for nearly an hour on The New Man.—
Waterbury (Conn.) Republican.

Every seat was filled, and the distinguished lecturer held the closest attention of her hearers for more than two hours.  The subject of her discourse was the New Man.  Miss Shaw has a commanding stage presence, her voice is clear, her enunciation distinct, and her discourse was interspersed with numerous witty anecdotes, which kept her audience in the best of humor throughout the entire evening.—Belleville, Ill.


Miss Shaw spoke with intense spiritual fervor and held her audience under the spell of her own exaltation, which was voiced in language as beautiful as her thought.—
Dubuque (Iowa) Telegraph.


Rev. Anna Shaw lectured under the auspices of the St. Louis Christian Endeavor Society.  To a pleasing voice and facile delivery, she unites a rare fund of humor, which enables her to strike telling blows, but always with a velvet hand.—
The Republic, St. Louis, Mo.


Woman as an after-breakfast orator was the crowning success of the Sanitary Club, at its first symposium yesterday.  Man was the toast to which Dr. Shaw was invited to respond, and she bowed acquiescence with a quiet smile that placed her audience at once on mental tip-toe.  They remained so during her entire discourse, and then—well, Dr. Shaw was undoubtedly encored.—
Evening Bulletin, Philadelphia.


A large audience gathered at the college chapel, Monday night, to hear Rev. Anna H. Shaw's address on The Fate of Republics.  She is an eloquent, forcible speaker; her hearers were entertained and interested, and thoroughly enjoyed the richly humorous passages in her address.—
The News, Oberlin, Ohio.



The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw of Philadelphia, possesses a pleasing voice; some of her periods are well rounded, some of her sentences are of oratorical order, some of her sayings are epigrammatic.  The audience had nothing else to do but listen to her when she took the speakers stand.—
Times-Democrat, New Orleans.


The concluding address in the Brooklyn Institute series on The Position of Women was delivered at the Art Gallery by the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw of Philadelphia.  She interested an audience by speaking on The Political Status of Women.—
The Brooklyn Eagle, N. Y.


Logical in her deductions, magnetic in her delivery and forceful in her language, Miss Shaw drew her bow across the heart strings of her hearers, who responded to her magic touch in unison, for the nonce, at least, in favor of the cause which she represented.—
Minneapolis Times.


Rev. Anna Shaw, appeared before two large audiences in this city yesterday and established a reputation as a profound and original thinker, and an eloquent, graceful speaker.—
Louisville (Ky.) Commercial.


Dr. Shaw is an eloquent speaker, and charms her audience every where by her brilliant mental attainments and personal magnetism.  She is equally charming off the platform, and has won many adherents.—
The Denver Republican.


The lecture of Rev. Anna H. Shaw, at the Y. M. C. A. last night, on the subject, The New Man, was the best entertainment that has yet been given of this season's course.  Miss Shaw spoke for over an hour and a half, and gave the large audience present a delightful intellectual treat.  Her effort last night proved her to be a woman of high intellectual attainments and a master of wit and sarcasm.—
Wheeling Register.


Rev. Dr. Shaw is an eloquent speaker, and possesses in a large degree that personal magnetism without which a platform orator cannot be effective.—
The Toronto (Canada) Globe.


Unity Church was packed to the doors last evening when the Rev. Anna Shaw delivered her lecture on The New Man.  Miss Shaw's rich voice and quiet delivery made doubly attractive her brilliant address.  Her sallies of wit and her pointed sarcasms were greeted with ripples of laughter, which sometimes developed into roars, followed by delightful applause, while her high-minded views of the solution of the sex problem found sympathy in the hearts of her hearers.—
Los Angeles (Cal.) Times.


The Rev. Anna Shaw lecture at the Opera House Thursday night entitled The Fate of Republics, proved to be a masterpiece and met every expectation.  The house was crowded to the doors, standing room being at a premium.  Would that time and space permitted a more extended notice, but suffice it to say, Miss Shaw richly merits the reputation of being one of the foremost women of the nation.—
Dunlap (Ind.) Herald.


The Rev. Anna Shaw delivered her great lecture on The Fate of Republics this evening, which was pronounced the most meritorious address thus far given at this assembly.  It was a broad and analytical discourse.  With her wit and pathos and her pointed logic, she may be said to have scored a victory and to have won her auditors completely.—
The Oregonian, Oregon City, Ore.