Mary Newbury Adams (October 17, 1837 – August 5, 1901) was an American women's suffragist and education advocate.

Her parents were strong abolitionists, and their family was forced to move several times in search of a congregation with like-minded views.

She believed that women had played an essential role in the development of civilization and they were at par with men; she joined other feminists and suffragists to bring gender equality.

A number of similar clubs and organizations were being established across the country at this time, and in 1873, the Association for the Advancement of Women was founded by Maria Mitchell.

These clubs were initiated with the purpose of coming together and educating one another on wide range of subjects but soon they turned to places where women were gaining the courage to speak before audiences and were getting confident to voice their opinions.

In the following years, she became an active participant in the organization contributing papers to congresses and communicating with other local clubs that were being established.

[4] In 1869, the Dubuque Times hired Adams to cover a women's suffrage meeting in Galena, Illinois run by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

She continued to give public addresses and traveled extensively in the last years of her life, including at Stanton's 80th birthday celebration in New York City in 1895, the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and at a meeting of the National American Women's Suffrage Association.