Cut signature of Belva A. Lockwood. Washington, D.C., n.d. Handsomely matted and framed with a period engraving of Lockwood after a photograph by Bell and a modern informational plaque.

Belva Lockwood (1830-1917) was a pioneering lawyer, politician, and author active in the women's rights and suffrage movements. After being widowed at a young age, she sought higher education, studying at Genesee Wesleyan Seminary before attending Genesee College where she found a deep affinity for the law. The college had no law department, but she took private lessons from a local law professor. After graduating with honors in 1857, she began a teaching career but was determined to study law. She was refused admittance at Columbian Law School before she was allowed to enroll at the National University School of Law (now George Washington University Law School), however, she was denied a diploma because of her gender and was subsequently denied admittance the District of Columbia Bar. She wrote a letter of appeal directly to President Ulysses S. Grant - which was evidently effective as she was awarded her diploma a week after she sent her letter on September 1873.

She continued to face discrimination throughout her career, including denial of admittance to the Maryland Bar when she was not even permitted to speak before being removed. Nevertheless, she persisted, building her practice and winning cases. In 1880, she became the first female lawyer to argue a case before the United States Supreme Court, Kaiser v. Stickney, and later United States v. Cherokee Nation. She notably sponsored Black attorney Samuel R. Lowery to the Supreme Court bar, making him the fifth Black attorney to be admitted and the first to argue a case before the court. She also harbored political aspirations, running for president as the candidate of the National Equal Rights Party in the presidential elections of 1884 and 1888. Advocating for women's rights throughout her career, she supported women's suffrage, writing frequently on the subject.

[Women's History, Suffragette, Women's Suffrage, Women's Rights, Civil Rights, Politics, Signatures, Ephemera, Manuscripts, Letters, Documents]