Signed photograph of the prominent American abolitionist, social activist, poet, and the author of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Howe is shown as an older woman in a lace dress and veil, and has signed on the mount below the image on the photographer's mount. Photographed in 1902 by J. E. Purdy of Boston, with the photographer's mark in the lower right corner and on the mount. 6 x 8 inches. Block of toning from a prior matting around the center of the mount, else in fine and crisp condition.

Howe was an important advocate for abolitionism and a social activist, particularly for women's suffrage. She was inspired to write "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" after she and her husband visited Washington, D.C., and met Abraham Lincoln at the White House in November 1861. During the trip, her friend James Freeman Clarke suggested she write new words to the song "John Brown's Body", which she did on November 19. The song was set to William Steffe's already-existing music and Howe's version was first published in the Atlantic Monthly in February 1862. It quickly became one of the most popular songs of the Union during the American Civil War. After the Civil War, Howe helped found the New England Women's Club and the New England Woman Suffrage Association, later becoming co-president of the American Woman Suffrage Association and the president of the Association for American Women, the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association and the Association for the Advancement of Women. In 1908, Howe became the first woman to be elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.