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Esther De Berdt Reed, by Charles Wilson Peale.
Credit: Courtesy of the Reed Family
Arriving in Philadelphia from London as a young bride, Esther De Berdt Reed (1747-1780) had by 1774 become a zealous "Daughter of Liberty". The women's committee that Reed organized raised $300,000 for the American cause, undertook the manufacture of linen shirts, and became for the model for similar drives in Maryland, New Jersey, and Virginia.