Author: DHughes

MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE AND SUSAN B. ANTHONY:  FROM FRIENDSHIP TO FIGHT TO FRIENDSHIP

Join  Deborah Hughes, Executive Director of the Susan B. Anthony House in Rochester and Sally Roesch Wagner, Executive Director of  the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation in Fayetteville on April 19 at 2:00 at the Onondaga Historical Association as they take up a 120-year old argument and, in this historic event, invite the audience to work with them on finding a resolution.

Susan B. Anthony and Matilda Joslyn Gage disagreed in 1889 over how to get women’s rights.  Gage thought that Anthony destroyed the movement by working only for the vote and risked democracy by making a coalition with conservative women who wanted the vote in order to establish Jesus Christ as the head of the United States government, with their Christian God in the constitution.  Anthony believed that Gage’s attack on religious fundamentalists and focus on separation of church and state were a danger to the suffrage coalition she was building.

As we develop a women’s history trail, help determine how the Anthony and Gage historic home museums create a coherent interpretation of the political differences between these two leaders that respects both sides of the argument.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: CONTACT:

Wednesday, March 11, 2009 Ellen K. Wheeler

Director of Development & Public Relations

(585) 279-7490, ext. 12

Susan B. Anthony House to commemorate the

103^rd anniversary of Miss Anthony’s death

Rochester, NY—On March 13, 1906, at forty minutes past midnight, Susan B. Anthony died at the age of 86 in her own bed on the second floor of the house at 17 Madison Street, her home of 40 years. At her request, much of the ceremonial mourning of the day was not observed: no shades were drawn, no black crepe hung.  Only a simple wreath of violets was placed on the front door. For two days, close friends and family came to call. Then on March 15, the world said good-bye at an immense funeral held in Central Presbyterian Church (now the Hochstein School of Music). Amid a raging blizzard as severe as those that had challenged Miss Anthony’s own many journeys for The Cause, thousands of mourners filled the church and over ten thousand more passed by her flag-draped coffin that was flanked by an honor guard of women students from the University of Rochester—the school she’d finally opened up to them in 1900. Next to the coffin was a silk suffrage flag with four gold stars, representing the only states where women then could vote; pinned on her breast was a jeweled flag pin with four diamond stars, a gift from women of Wyoming, the first in our nation to win the vote, thanks to all of her efforts on their behalf.

The Rochester newspaper of the day reported “Rochester made no secret of its personal grief. There must have been people of every creed, political party, nationality, and plane of life in those long lines that kept filing through the aisles of Central Church. The young and the aged of the land were represented. Every type was there to bow in reverence, respect and grief. Professional men, working men, financiers came to offer homage. Women brought little children to see the face of her who had aimed at being the emancipator of her sex, but whose work had ended just as victory seemed within reach. Priests, ministers…, rabbis …, came to look upon her who had more than once given them inspiration in dark moments.”

The Susan B. Anthony House will observe the 103rd anniversary of Susan B. Anthony’s death this Friday, March 13, 2009 with the hanging of a simple wreath of violets on the front door of #17 Madison Street at 11:00 a.m. The wreath-hanging will be followed by a short presentation about Miss Anthony’s life and legacy by executive director, Deborah L. Hughes.   The public is invited to attend.  Susan B. Anthony died in her bedroom on the second floor of #17 Madison Street on March 13, 1906, at the age of 86.

Mission Statement (adopted 1/2007): The Susan B. Anthony House is a learning center through which we share and interpret Miss Anthony’s life as a champion of women’s rights, thereby inspiring and challenging individuals to make a positive difference in their lives and communities.

The Susan B. Anthony House is supported primarily through the contributions of its members and donors. The Susan B. Anthony House is not affiliated with other organizations bearing her name.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: CONTACT:

Friday, February 27, 2009 Ellen K. Wheeler, (585) 279-7490, ext. 12

Director of Development & Public Relations

Susan B. Anthony goes to Washington state…..again!

Rochester, NY—Susan B. Anthony traveled to the state of Washington many times in her numerous western campaigns to win voting rights for women. Her presence will be felt there again this weekend in Seattle at the opening of the Washington State History Museum’s Women’s Votes, Women’s Voices exhibit (www.washingtonhistory.org/wshm/featuredexhibits/womensvotes.aspx) celebrating the centennial anniversary of women obtaining the right to vote in Washington. On loan from the Susan B. Anthony House and included in the exhibit are three of Susan B. Anthony’s personal articles from the museum’s collection: her spectacles, inkwell, and black velvet cloak. Representing the Anthony House at the exhibit opening is Deborah L. Hughes, executive director of the National Historic Landmark on Madison Street.

“We’re delighted to be part of this exciting collaboration with the Washington State History Museum,” Ms. Hughes states. “We’re eager to share Susan B. Anthony’s story with the world. One great and tangible way we can do that is by loaning other museums some of her personal articles for their special commemorations. It helps bring to life the work she did, the distances she traveled, the dedication she gave to the cause of equality for all.”

Ms. Hughes also cites the immense impact cultural institutions have on their regions’ economies. “Museums and cultural institutions attract visitors from far and wide and contribute greatly to the economic health of their communities,” she says. “The Anthony House contributes to Rochester; the Washington State History Museum to its locations in its state. We’re happy to be a part of it.”

For more information, contact Deborah L. Hughes on her mobile phone at 585-802-6104.

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Mission Statement (adopted 1/2007): The Susan B. Anthony House is a learning center through which we share and interpret Miss Anthony’s life as a champion of women’s rights, thereby inspiring and challenging individuals to make a positive difference in their lives and communities.

The Susan B. Anthony House is supported primarily through the contributions of its members and donors. The Susan B. Anthony House is not affiliated with other organizations bearing her name.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: CONTACT:

Wednesday, January 21, 2009 Ellen K. Wheeler, (585) 279-7490, ext. 12

Director of Development & Public Relations

 

Susan B. Anthony House Annual Birthday Luncheon

to feature author and broadcast journalist Lynn Sherr

 

Rochester, NY—Lynn Sherr, veteran broadcast journalist and author, will be the keynote speaker for the Susan B. Anthony annual birthday luncheon from noon to 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center.  The event—the House’s major fundraiser—celebrates Susan B. Anthony’s life, work, and legacy, and is held each year near her February 15 birthday.  The Presenting Sponsor is Van Bortel Ford—Van Bortel Subaru.

Lynn Sherr, in the tradition of her hero, Susan B. Anthony, became a trailblazer for women in journalism when she was confronted with blocked doors and closed minds in the newspaper business 45 years ago. Since then, she has reported on generals and giraffes, astronauts and activists, politicians and personalities. She has widely covered women’s issues, the U.S. space program, foreign affairs, and issues concerning the environment. A graduate of Wellesley College, Sherr has received numerous awards for her reporting. She is a respected Anthony scholar, and the author of Failure Is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words, and co-author of Susan B.Anthony Slept Here: A Guide to American Women’s Landmarks. Her most recent book is her memoir, Outside the Box, My Unscripted Life of Love, Loss, and Television News.

Deborah Hughes, executive director of the Susan B. Anthony House, in announcing the keynote speaker, said, “This year marks the 150^th anniversary of the House itself at #17 Madison Street and our theme for the year is ‘What Does It Take To Change The World.’ We are delighted to welcome Lynn Sherr to be part of our special birthday celebration in this important anniversary year. She is a longtime friend of the House, a gifted and engaging speaker, and a person who knows firsthand what it takes to change the world.”

For more information or to purchase tickets, please go to www.susanbanthonyhouse.org or call 585-235-6124, ext. 10.

Mission Statement (adopted 1/2007): The Susan B. Anthony House is a learning center through which we share and interpret Miss Anthony’s life as a champion of women’s rights, thereby inspiring and challenging individuals to make a positive difference in their lives and communities.

 

 

The Susan B. Anthony House is supported primarily through the contributions of its members and donors. The Susan B. Anthony House is not affiliated with other organizations bearing her name.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: CONTACT:

Monday, November 03, 2008 Ellen K. Wheeler

Director of Development & Public Relations

(585) 279-7490, ext. 12

 

Susan B. Anthony to Visit Historic Site

of her Illegal Vote for President in 1872

 

Rochester, NY—Susan B. Anthony, as portrayed by Rochesterian Barbara Blaisdell, will lead a group of people from the Susan B. Anthony House at 17 Madison Street at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, November 4, to the site on West Main Street where she and a group of women voted in the 1872 presidential election. The group will include members of the Susan B. Anthony Neighborhood Association who are friends and neighbors of the Anthony House today. It will also include visitors from Nigeria and Sudan, women who are guests of the State Department and have been invited to the United States to observe our country’s election process.

The site on West Main Street is directly across from Canal Street and near Hahn Automotive. In 1872, there was a shop at this location that also served as a polling place. There, Susan B. Anthony and fourteen other women cast their ballots, believing that the 15^th amendment gave them that right. Miss Anthony’s arrest in her Madison Street home two weeks later, and subsequent trial in Canandaigua the following spring, demonstrated that the amendment’s reference to “citizens of the United States” did not include women.

A statue commemorating their courageous action in 1872 is planned for the site on West Main Street, to be designed by Rochester artist, Pepsy Kettavong. Kettavong created the Anthony-Douglass statue in Anthony Park on Madison Street and the Nathaniel Rochester statue in the South Wedge. A prototype of his proposed statue for the voting site will be shown at the commemoration on West Main Street, to which the public is invited to attend.

 

Background: The Susan B. Anthony House was Anthony’s home during the most politically active period of her life and the site of her famous arrest for voting in 1872. It became incorporated as a memorial to Susan B. Anthony in 1946. It is a National Historic Landmark and is supported primarily through the contributions of its members.

Mission Statement: The Susan B. Anthony House is a learning center through which we share and interpret Miss Anthony’s life and work as a champion of women’s rights, thereby inspiring and challenging individuals to make a positive difference in their lives and communities. For more information, visit our website at www.susanbanthonyhouse.org.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: CONTACT:

Friday, October 31, 2008 Ellen K. Wheeler

Director of Development & Public Relations

(585) 279-7490, ext. 12

Susan B. Anthony House announces Election Day special!

Rochester, NY—All citizens exercising their right to vote and proclaiming that by wearing an “I Voted Today” sticker on Election Day will receive free admission to the Susan B. Anthony House on Tuesday, November 4.

The National Historic Landmark museum will give those who have voted the opportunity to tour the House for free during its normal tour hours, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Anyone wearing an “I Voted Today” sticker from any polling site will be admitted without charge. Refreshments, while supplies last, will be served in the Carriage House after the tour and each voter will also receive an Anthony House button that reads “VOTE said the lady with the alligator purse,” a line from the children’s jump-rope rhyme that is a reference to Susan B. Anthony.

An ardent abolitionist, labor activist, educational reformer, temperance worker, suffragist, and women’s rights campaigner, Miss Anthony was arrested in 1872 at her home for the crime of voting—it was then a crime because she was a woman. Forty-eight years later, and fourteen years after her death, the 19^th Amendment was ratified, guaranteeing women the right to vote. In honor of her life’s work, it is known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment.

Tours last approximately 45 minutes. The Susan B. Anthony House is located at 17 Madison Street, off West Main. The House is open Tuesdays through Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $6 for adults, $4.50 for seniors, $3 for students.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: CONTACT:

Monday, October 06, 2008 Ellen K. Wheeler

Director of Development & Public Relations

(585) 279-7490, ext. 12

 

From the Susan B. Anthony House:

VOTE! said the lady with the alligator purse

 

Rochester, NY—The Susan B. Anthony House, home for forty years of the famed women’s-rights and human-rights advocate, is promoting the vote this year with a bold new pin that directs one and all “VOTE! said the lady with the alligator purse.” The line is taken from an old children’s jump-roping rhyme:

Miss Lulu had a baby.

She called him Tiny Tim.

She put him in the bathtub

to see if he could swim.

He drank up all the water

He ate up all the soap.

He tried to eat the bathtub

but it wouldn’t go down his throat.

Call for the doctor

Call for the nurse

Call for the Lady

with the Alligator Purse!

Mumps, said the doctor

Measles, said the nurse

Vote! said the Lady

With the Alligator Purse!

 

And of course, the lady with the alligator purse was Susan B. Anthony! For dozens of years, Miss Anthony traveled all over the United States and Europe, promoting woman suffrage. She became well known in all the places she went for her signature ensemble—long black dress, red shawl, and alligator bag. Children everywhere knew her as “the lady with the alligator purse” and so eventually included her in a jump-rope rhyme.

 

The Susan B. Anthony House is selling the buttons for $1.99 each in its gift shop in the Visitors Center at 19 Madison Street. Hours are Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. The gift shop also sells jump ropes that include the rhyme.

 

The Susan B. Anthony House is supported primarily through the contributions of its members and donors. The Susan B. Anthony House is not affiliated with other organizations bearing her name.

Mission Statement (adopted 1/2007): The Susan B. Anthony House is a learning center through which we share and interpret Miss Anthony’s life as a champion of women’s rights, thereby inspiring and challenging individuals to make a positive difference in their lives and communities.