FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, September 15, 2011
CONTACT: Ellen K. Wheeler, PR & Communications Dir. (585) 279-7490, ext. 15
Anthony House invites California women to carry a symbol of women’s rights!
Rochester, NY— The Susan B. Anthony House invites the women of California to carry on their arm “Ms. Anthony—Purse with a Purpose,” a contemporary version of Ms. Anthony’s original alligator handbag, as they mark California’s centennial of woman suffrage on October 10, 2011, a cause Susan B. Anthony worked for a quarter of a century to bring about. The Anthony House, the National Historic Landmark in Rochester, NY and Anthony’s home for her 40 most politically active years, is offering this exciting symbol of the great reformer’s life and work for today’s innovative, creative women.
Deborah L. Hughes, executive director of the Susan B. Anthony House, said, “The original alligator bag traveled with Susan B. Anthony wherever she went, including several trips to California.” In it, she carried the key assets of her campaign for women’s rights—speeches, flyers, newspaper clippings, and the transcript of her trial for voting. With it, she was immediately recognized and known as “the lady with the alligator purse.” Children—from California, according to tradition— even invented a jump-rope rhyme that features the line
“‘VOTE!’ Said the lady with the alligator purse.”
Susan B. Anthony featured prominently in the long struggle for women’s voting rights in California. Ida Husted Harper details Susan B. Anthony’s trips to California in the biography Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, the first trip happening in 1871, when Anthony, together with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, traveled all over the state. On December 15 that year, her friends in San Francisco held a reception and banquet in her honor at the Grand Hotel. Harper shares this account from the San Francisco Chronicle: “Miss Anthony said: ‘I go from you freighted with a burden of love and gratitude, and no greetings have been more precious than those of working men and women. Tonight when the woman who earns her livelihood by selling flowers through the hotel came to the door of the parlor and, presenting me with the beautiful bouquet which I hold in my hand, asked, ‘Will you accept this because you have spoken so nobly for us poor workingwomen?’ it brought tears to my eyes…I felt a thrill of gratitude that I had been permitted to prosecute this work…we are not working for ourselves, but for those now suffering around us. For them, our sisters, and for future generations must we labor.’ ”
Twenty-four years later Susan B. Anthony returned to San Francisco for the Woman’s Congress in May of 1895, this time to lead the campaign for a state suffrage amendment. Harper reports “The newspapers of San Francisco had decreed that this congress should be a success, and to this end they had been as generous with space and as complimentary in tone as the most exacting could have desired. The result was that at not a session during the week was the great hall large enough to hold the audience which sought admission…” The mayor of the city offered the welcoming address, stating his belief, according to Harper, that “the ballot should be placed in the hands of woman as the most powerful agent for the uplifting of humanity.” At the close of the Woman’s Congress, according to Harper, the Chronicle reported: “nobody ever supposed that the women of San Francisco cared for aught except their gowns, their teas and their babies. But they do. They like brains, even in their own sex. And they can applaud good speeches even if made by women…” In spite of Anthony’s intense campaign all around the state, the people of California in 1896 turned down the suffrage amendment, passing it fifteen years later in a special statewide election on October 10, 1911. This was five years after Anthony’s death but still 9 years before women in every state won that vital right with the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.
California women can now share in that history with “Ms. Anthony—A Purse with a Purpose.” It was designed for the Anthony House by the Abigail Riggs Collection and is a beautifully crafted, numbered, limited-edition handbag inspired by the original alligator bag that was donated to the Susan B. Anthony House more than 60 years ago. Roomy enough for a mini-laptop computer, with comfortable handles for over-the-shoulder wear, this faux-alligator bag features a nameplate with Susan B. Anthony’s famous words, “Failure is impossible” as well as a medallion with her statement for woman’s financial independence, “Every woman needs a purse of her own.” The handbag comes with a DVD that tells the story of this ‘Purse with a Purpose’ and includes women from all around the world thanking Susan B. Anthony for her vision and perseverance.
“In purchasing the contemporary handbag,” continues Hughes, “women today all over the country share Ms. Anthony’s story as they embark on their own campaigns and causes, and demonstrate the financial independence Susan B. Anthony wanted women to have.” One-hundred percent of the purchase price from each handbag directly supports the mission and programs of the Susan B. Anthony House, thanks to a visionary group of women who underwrote the cost of manufacturing the bags.
For more information, please go to www.susanbanthonyhouse.org or call 585-279-7490, ext. 15.
Mission Statement (adopted 4/2010): The national Susan B. Anthony House and Museum preserves the National Historic Landmark where the great reformer lived for 40 of her most politically active years, collects and exhibits artifacts related to her life and work, and offers programs through its learning center that challenge 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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