09/01/2026
Now this is a thank you note! For , we’re highlighting this letter from women’s suffrage activist Carrie Chapman Catt to Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage, also known as Mrs. Russell Sage, expressing gratitude for a donation check. After inheriting her late husband’s fortune, Mrs. Sage became a philanthropist supporting a range of causes, including women’s suffrage.
To learn more about connections between philanthropy and voting rights, check out the Voter Education Primary Source Set Curriculum in the Teach with Archives section of RE:source!
The letter reads:
My dear Mrs. Sage -
There are no words in the English language to describe my ecstasy of spirit when Mrs. Crowell brought me your generous check this evening. I am going away to make a suffrage pilgrimage around the world, and my great concern over the New York work was the question of finance. Now you have lifted that load from my shoulders and I go lighthearted and happy. The money will be put into a special fund and use for our reach only.
We have just made something over $700 from a Benefit performance; and we made $500 from a Benefit Mrs. MacRay arranged. I shall give $500 myself. Mrs. Crowell is exceedingly generous, and now all this may be used to keep the pot boiling. It is splendid. We are surely going to get the suffrage in New York and when it comes, it will be due in large part by your generosity.
On Monday, our City Committee meets, and I shall there present your check. I wish you could realize the extent of our gratitude and the great happiness you have given us all. Blessings on you, a thousand fold. We love you for what you are, and reverence you for what you do!
Mrs. Crowell, who is a new worker in our cause, was inexpressibly happy and grateful to you.
Lovingly & Cordially,
Carrie Chapman Catt
📸:
Russell Sage Foundation records, RAC
