Podcast #90: Victoria Woodhull

In this episode, DLS co-founder Florian Duijsens introduces us to a woman of many lives, many careers, and many misadventures. Victoria Woodhull worked a clairvoyant and faith healer, she opened a financial firm on Wall Street, she started a newspaper, campaigned for women’s and worker’s rights, and ran for President — all in late 1800s USA.

DLS co-founder Katy Derbyshire joins host/producer Susan Stone to introduce our new season.

Show notes:

Victoria making the case for women’s right to vote

Not quite running partners: Victoria Woodhull and Frederick Douglass

Victoria, her first husband (Canning Woodhull), and their two children, Zulu Maud and Byron

Col. James H. Blood, Victoria saw their “futures linked and destinies bound by the ties of marriage!”

This early form of birth control would be soaked in vinegar.

Tennie wore a man’s jacket when she became a broker.

“Progress! Free Thought! Untrammeled Lives!”

The hateful former compulsive masturbator Anthony Comstock satirized in cartoons

In London, Victoria boldly reinvented her entire history, marrying a very eligible bachelor, John Biddulph Martin.

Tennie married even more successfully, ending up Lady Cook, with this gorgeous palace in Sintra, Portugal.

If you want to know more about Victoria Woodhull, out of the many books about her, Florian recommends the lengthy Other Powers: The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism, and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull by Barbara Goldsmith, and the shorter The Improbable Victoria Woodhull by Eden Collinsworth.

For more Dead Lady content, why not join us on Patreon? Over at patreon.com/deadladiesshowpodcast we bring you special Dead Lady features each month. In the newest, Katy and Susan are talking about Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be executed in the UK. It’s really a fascinating and tragic story, and an important one. You can support us with as little as 2 dollars or euros a month, or even become a free member if you like – and enjoy access to some of our archive.

The Dead Ladies Show was founded by Florian Duijsens and Katy Derbyshire. The podcast is created, produced and edited by Susan Stone.

Our theme tune is Little Lily Swing by Tri-Tachyon. We will be back again next month with another fabulous Dead Lady. Thanks for listening!