Jane Grey Swisshelm
Edgewood, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Renowned editor, abolitionist, Civil War nurse, advocate of women's rights and temperance. Also author of "Half a Century, 1815-1865." Born Jane Grey Cannon at Pittsburgh December 6, 1815; died in old homestead on this site on July 22, 1884.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Jane Grey Swisshelm (1815–1884) lived and died at the homestead on this site, but her influence reached far beyond it. A fearless newspaper editor, she championed the abolition of slavery, women's rights, and temperance, and served as a nurse during the Civil War. She also chronicled her turbulent age in the memoir "Half a Century," writing at a time when few women held a public voice in American journalism.
Why it matters
Swisshelm shows how one determined woman used the press to press the great moral causes of her century — antislavery and women's equality — decades before either was won.
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