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Mary Wollstonecraft

John Opie, Artist
1797
Oil on Canvas

Mary Wollstonecraft was an English writer and political philosopher. In 1792, she published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Because of this work, one of the earliest publications to champion women’s rights, she is today considered the preeminent feminist thinker of her generation. Vindication was serialized in American magazines prior to its first American book edition in 1794.

© National Portrait Gallery, London