Mary Thistlewaite Birdsall was a suffragist and women’s rights advocate in Indiana. Mary married Thomas Birdsall in 1848 & they both became actively involved in emancipation, temperance, & suffrage from their home in Richmond, IN. Mary was part of the first Indiana Women’s Rights Convention in Richmond in 1852 & continued her involvement with the Convention through the 1850s. In 1859 she was one of the first three women to address the Indiana General Assembly. Unfortunately the Civil War pushed suffrage & women’s rights out of view & another Convention was not held in Indiana until 1869. Mary Birdsall was also a writer/editor. As the Women’s Editor of the Indiana Farmer, she included pieces on women’s rights, domestic economy, & proper compensation for women’s labor. In 1855, Mary Birdsall purchased The Lily, a nationally distributed magazine with an editorial focus on temperance, dress reform, suffrage, women’s rights, & the repeal of unjust marriage/inheritance laws.