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Bullard, Laura (1831 - 1912)

Genre: General Fiction, Non-Fiction

The daughter of Jerimiah (Jeremiah?) and Lucy Curtis, Laura Jane Curtis Bullard was born on Nov. 21 1831 (1832?) in Freedom, Maine and also lived with her family in Bangor. Little is known about the Curtis family except that in the 1830s they started a company in Bangor to sell 'Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup,' a morphine-based tonic used to soothe aches and pains; it became a popular patented medicine.

Laura married Enoch Bullard, a merchant. The Bullards lived in Brooklyn, New York, and had a son, Harold. Laura Bullard was a close associate of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the famous women's rights activists. Since Mrs. Stanton lived outside the city, Laura and her mother often provided hospitality in their Brooklyn home to visiting dignitaries in the women's rights movement.

Bullard was one of the founders of Sorosis, an early women's club, and was a leader of the Women's Bureau and The Working Women's Association, both of which focused on employment issues related to women.

In the 1850s Bullard published two novels whose purpose was to promote women's independence. Her novel, Christine, or Woman's Trials and Triumphs (1856), is, in the opinion of some, the first novel to promote every demand of the women's movement.

During the late 1860s and early 1870s, Bullard was associated with The Revolution, a weekly women's rights newspaper started by Susan B. Anthony, publisher and owner. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Parker Pillsbury were editors. When the paper had financial difficulties in 1870, Anthony paid off the debt and transferred ownership to Bullard. Under her ownership, from 1870 to 1872, The Revolution became more of a literary paper. All issues of The Revolution are available on microfilm in The Maine Women Writers Collection at the University of New England. Bullard's biographical essay on Elizabeth Cady Stanton published in Our Famous Women (1884) can also be found in the Collection.

She died on Jan. 19, 1912.