Why did a judge bring Susan B. Anthony's autographed books to the Nashville Public Library?

You know Susan B. Anthony, right?

Maybe you thought, oh yeah, the first female face to appear on U.S. coin currency!

Well, that's true, though her dollar coin died shortly after it started being produced in 1979. Too close to the size of a quarter, it seems.

I'm talking about the late 1800s activist who fought hard for women to get the right to vote (though she didn't live to see it happen).

The one who fought against slavery. The one who led a women's movement at a time when it was wildly unpopular to do so.

The one who literally wrote the book(s) on women's suffrage. (More on that later.)

Susan B. Anthony was an unyielding pioneer, a butt kicker who captured the admiration of another bad-ass woman pioneer in Nashville nearly 70 years after Anthony died.

Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Martha Craig "Cissy" Daughtrey, 79, blazed trails for women in the legal system in Tennessee in the 1960s and beyond.

First female state prosecutor. First female federal prosecutor. First female faculty member for Vanderbilt law school.

First female on the Tennessee Supreme Court.

"I was the first woman everywhere I went," Daughtrey said in an interview at the Votes for Women room of the downtown Nashville Public Library.

That's where Daughtrey recently donated more than 400 books, including her beloved set of four books autographed by her hero Susan B. Anthony.

Anthony co-wrote the books, the first four of six volumes, anyway, "The History of Woman Suffrage (1881-1902)". Anthony died in 1906, before the last two volumes were written.

How did Daughtrey come to own them? Back to her firsts. As the first Vanderbilt law school faculty member to teach a women's seminar class, Daughtrey found there were no resources for such a class.

So she started collecting history books in the early 1970s, books about the women's movement and women in law. As part of that effort, Daughtrey found a hardback replica of "The History of Women Suffrage (1881-1902)" for about $200.

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A year or two later, Daughtrey saw an ad in the New York Times from an autograph dealer who was selling the first four volumes autographed by Anthony.

"I couldn’t get that man on the phone fast enough," Daughtrey said. "I was so afraid they were going to be gone."

They weren't. Daughtrey scraped together $375, in part by selling her replica set of the same books. She was thrilled to discover that Anthony not only autographed those four books but had written a different inscription in each of them to another activist.

"It was sort of overwhelming to think, not only did she sign them, but she had them in her hands. I get goose-bumpy thinking about it. It was a big deal."

And it was personal.

"I’d come through situations where I was the only woman in the room, and it was really easy to identify with those pioneers," Daughtrey said.

She brought the books with her to each new job, each new judge's chambers and giving instructions to her staff: If there's a fire, get my dog out first, but make sure you get those Susan B. Anthony books next.

Now, Daughtrey has donated them to the Votes for Women room of the downtown Nashville Public Library.

"It's such an honor that they're willing to take them," she said and then smiled. "And now I can visit them."

Reach Brad Schmitt at brad@tennessean.com or 615-259-8384 or on Twitter @bradschmitt.

Meet Judge Daughtrey and see the books

What: A conversation with Judge Martha Craig Daughtrey, moderated by Davidson County Chancery Court Chancellor Anne C. Martin

When: 11:30 a.m. Tuesday (May 17)

Where: Nashville Public Library auditorium, 615 Church St.

Admission: Free

RSVP: kjohnson@mpf.com

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Susan B. Anthony: How her books ended up in Nashville Public Library