Susan B. Anthony’s Gavel, 1888

National American Woman Suffrage Association

This rosewood and ivory gavel was presented to Susan B. Anthony by delegates from forty-nine countries invited to attend a meeting of the National Woman Suffrage Association. The meeting resulted in the formation of the International Congress of Women. The gavel was used by Anthony, Anna Howard Shaw, and Carrie Chapman Catt to chair Woman Suffrage conventions. The head is engraved “order is Heaven’s first law,” and, “Nat’l Woman Suffrage Assn. March 25 1888,” The quote, “order is Heaven’s first law,” comes from Alexander Pope’s 1734 poem, An Essay on Man.