Born 30 December 1858 in Pittsburgh.[1] Daughter of J. Heron Foster and Julia Manuel.[2] An active suffragist and an assistant to Susan B. Anthony.[3] Served as corresponding secretary of the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), 1880–1890.[4] Helped organize the convention of the International Council of Women held in Washington, DC, 1888, and served as corresponding secretary for that organization, 1888–1893.[5] Married Cyrus Miller Avery, 8 November 1888, in Philadelphia; three daughters, one of whom Foster had adopted in 1887.[6] Instrumental in the merger of the NWSA and the American Woman Suffrage Association, 1890.[7] Served as corresponding secretary for the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), 1890–1901.[8] Served as corresponding secretary for the National Council of Women of the United States, 1891–1894.[9] First vice president of the NAWSA, 1907–1910.[10] Corresponded with Emmeline B. Wells.[11] Died 26 October 1919 in Philadelphia.[12]
[1] “Mrs. Rachel Avery, Votes Leader, Dies,” Evening Public Ledger (Philadelphia), 29 Oct. 1919, 14; Christopher Lasch, “Avery, Rachel G. Foster,” in Edward T. James, ed., Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971), 1:71.
[2] “Mrs. Rachel Avery, Votes Leader, Dies,” 14; “A Prominent Woman Married,” Philadelphia Times, 9 Nov. 1888, [2]; Lasch, “Avery, Rachel G. Foster,” in James, Notable American Women, 1:71.
[3] Lasch, “Avery, Rachel G. Foster,” in James, Notable American Women, 1:71–72.
[4] Lasch, “Avery, Rachel G. Foster,” in James, Notable American Women, 1:72; “Mrs. Rachel Avery, Votes Leader, Dies,” 14; Ida Husted Harper, ed., The History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 5 (National American Woman Suffrage Association, 1922), 17.
[5] “Mrs. Rachel Avery, Votes Leader, Dies,” 14; Lasch, “Avery, Rachel G. Foster,” in James, Notable American Women, 1:72; Rachel Foster Avery, ed., Transactions of the National Council of Women of the United States, Assembled in Washington, D.C., February 22 to 25, 1891 (J. B. Lippincott, 1891), 354; Tiffany K. Wayne, ed., Women’s Rights in the United States: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Issues, Events, and People, vol. 2 (ABC-CLIO, 2015), 2:212.
[6] “Prominent Woman Married,” [2]; “Avery, Mrs. Rachel Foster,” in Frances E. Willard and Mary A. Livermore, eds., A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-Seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life (Charles Wells Moulton, 1893), 38; Lasch, “Avery, Rachel G. Foster,” in James, Notable American Women, 1:71.
[7] Wayne, Women’s Rights in the United States, 2:163; Lasch, “Avery, Rachel G. Foster,” in James, Notable American Women, 1:72.
[8] Lasch, “Avery, Rachel G. Foster,” in James, Notable American Women, 1:72; “Representative Women of the Convention,” Woman’s Exponent (Salt Lake City), 15 Mar. 1891, 141; Harper, History of Woman Suffrage, 17; Emmeline B. Wells, Diary, 2 Feb. 1895, Diaries of Emmeline B. Wells, Church Historian’s Press, churchhistorianspress.org/emmeline-b-wells.
[9] Avery, Transactions of the National Council of Women of the United States, 359, 363; “Mrs. Rachel Avery, Votes Leader, Dies,” 14; Lasch, “Avery, Rachel G. Foster,” in James, Notable American Women, 1:72.
[10] Lasch, “Avery, Rachel G. Foster,” in James, Notable American Women, 1:72; “Mrs. Rachel Avery, Votes Leader, Dies,” 14.
[11] Wells, Diary, 22 Jan. 1894 and 23 Jan. 1900.
[12] “Rachel F. Avery,” 26 Oct. 1919, certificate 97787, Pennsylvania, U.S., Death Certificates, 1906–1970, Pennsylvania Department of Health, Bureau of Health Statistics and Research, Death Certificates, 1906–1970, Record group 11, Series 11.90, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, PA, ancestry.com; “Mrs. Rachel Avery, Votes Leader, Dies,” 14.