Anna Howard Shaw (1847-1919), American suffragist leader, reformer, and feminist, was the fourth president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

Anna Howard Shaw was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, on Feb. 14, 1847, but was raised near Big Rapids, Michigan. She studied at Alma College in Michigan and at Boston University's theological school, from which she graduated in 1878. Pastoral work grew tiresome, and at the age of 35 she entered Boston University's medical school, receiving her medical degree in 1886. The practice of medicine proved equally unsatisfying, and she abandoned it for lecturing and temperance activities. She rose to head the suffrage department of the Women's Christian Temperance Union before leaving for the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).

Susan B. Anthony, then president of NAWSA, valued Dr. Shaw's oratorical talents highly and put them to frequent use. But when Anthony resigned in 1900, she chose Carrie Chapman Catt to succeed her. Four...