New Legislation Highlights New York’s Role in Women’s Suffrage Movement (TWCNews)
Gillibrand pushes for Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission (Rochester Business Journal)
Gillibrand calls for legislation to commemorate women’s suffrage anniversary (News 10)
New legislation aims to provide funding for programs recognizing women’s suffrage (RochesterFirst.com)
Gillibrand Pushes For Suffrage Centennial Commission (WXXI News)
Volunteer Coordinator
National Susan B Anthony Museum & House
Position Description
Position Profile:
The National Susan B Anthony Museum & House preserves the National Historic Landmark where the great reformer lived for forty 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 Volunteer Coordinator is responsible for an effective museum volunteer program designed to support a high quality visitor experience.
Principal Responsibilities:
1. Recruits, interviews, trains, and certifies museum volunteers
2. Develops training materials and other volunteer resources (in collaboration with Educator)
3. Fills, maintains, posts, and distributes the volunteer schedule
4. Produces a volunteer newsletter monthly (in collaboration with Communications staff)
5. Acts as liaison between volunteers and staff to facilitate good relations and communications
6. Develops and facilitates educational programs in collaboration with the Program Director or CEO
7. Assists in planning and securing volunteer staffing for educational and group programs
8. Facilitates volunteer enrichment programs and volunteer meetings
9. Plans the volunteer recognition program
10. Corresponds with volunteers as part of institutional outreach and goodwill toward volunteers
11. Attends weekly staff meetings to provide input on volunteer program and maintain communication with colleagues
12. Serves as “Visitor Center Manager” at the Visitor Center for designated shifts
Reports to: President and CEO
Employment Status: Part-time, Hourly
This position is budgeted for 19 hours per week, including 5-8 hours of “Visitor Center Manager” time.
To apply, send cover letter and resume with references to:
President & CEO
National Susan B Anthony Museum & House
17 Madison Street
Rochester, NY 14608
Rochester, NY – The National Susan B Anthony Museum & House has begun major plans to commemorate the centennial of woman suffrage in New York State in 2017. VoteTilla – a weeklong navigational celebration – will take place along the Erie Canal from July 16 – 22, 2017. A core group of canal boats will set out from Seneca Falls and travel to Rochester, with a concluding celebration at the Anthony Museum on Madison Street.
Throughout the week, VoteTilla boats will dock at several towns and villages along the route. Local residents and partner organizations are invited to share in the celebration by offering programming and excursions or by adding their own boats to the traveling fleet. Current partners include Bristol Valley Theatre, Canal Society of New York State, the City of Rochester, Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor, the RIT Women’s and Gender Studies Coordinating Committee, Rochester Museum & Science Center, Susan B Anthony Neighborhood Association, the Seward House, and the University of Rochester’s Susan B Anthony Center for Women’s Leadership.
Superintendent Ami Ghazala stated, “The National Park Service at Women’s Rights National Historical Park is thrilled to partner with women’s organizations in the Finger Lakes. We strive to bring attention to historical and current stories that highlight the diversity of the United States.”
National Women’s Hall of Fame president Jeanne Giovannini stated, “This consortium will strengthen the ties and collaboration among these cultural and historical organizations, helping to bring national and international attention to the Finger Lakes Region for its significance and place in our nation’s history in the promotion of human rights.”
“VoteTilla will be a vivid reminder of the work and cooperation required to secure the vote for women,” says Anthony Museum president & CEO, Deborah L Hughes. “Educational, historical, and civic organizations and community members of all ages can come together to host events, greet the passing boats, and participate in special events, on both land and water.”
The VoteTilla celebration immediately follows both the July 4th Bicentennial Celebration of the New York State Canals and the Convention Days weekend in Seneca Falls.
For information on partnering with the Anthony Museum for this special event, please email or call our office at 585/279-7490.
September 18, 2017 A Monument to Woman—The Woman Suffrage Statue. Sandra Weber, author and historian
November 13, 2017 Unknown Frederick Douglass: The Life & Times of New Washington City. John H. Muller, DC Public Library, author, historian
December 4, 2017 Woman Suffrage & the New York Constitutional Conventions of 1846 & 1867-68. Dr. Jenny Lloyd, History Professor Emerita, The College at Brockport
Women’s History Month special Tea – March 5, 2018 Margaret Fuller, the “Marriage Question,” & the Culture of Reform. T. Gregory Garvey, Professor of English, College at Brockport
May 7, 2018 Funding Feminism: Following the Money in the Woman Suffrage Movement. Dr. Joan Marie Johnson, historian
June 18, 2018 Spiritualists, Suffragists, & Other Nasty Women of the Mid-19th Century. Dr. Amy Lehman, Associate Professor, Theater and Dance, University of South Carolina
Each presentation is offered in our Carriage House as a noon luncheon ($30 individual reservation) or 2 pm informal tea ($15 individual reservation), except for our Women’s History Month presentation on March 5, 2018, which will only be offered as a lecture and tea ($25).
Thank you to everyone who came out…in the rain and the sun…for this year’s 19th Amendment Celebration!
Susan B. Anthony House Celebrates 19th Amendment (WXXI)
Celebration of 19th Amendment at Susan B. Anthony House (13WHAM)
19th Amendment Celebrates 96 Years (RochesterFirst.com)
Passing the Torch at the Susan B Anthony House (Talker of the Town)
Members of the National Susan B Anthony Museum & House are invited for a special member-only event with Dr. Ken Florey on the evening of Friday, August 19!
Professor Kenneth Florey is a long-time specialist in Woman Suffrage Memorabilia, his collection having been recognized both here and abroad for its comprehensiveness. He has published two books on suffrage: Women’s Suffrage Memorabilia: an Illustrated Historical Study and American Women Suffrage Postcards: a Study and Catalog.
All members are invited to a reception with Dr. Florey at 6:30 pm in the Carriage House behind the Visitor Center at 17 Madison Street and to view his exhibit “Original Artifacts from the Susan B. Anthony & New York State Campaigns”. You will also have an opportunity to purchase his books for signing!
As space is very limited, please let our Membership Director, Lesia Telega, know as soon as possible but no later than August 12, if you will be able to join us! She can be contacted via phone at 585.279.7490 x12 or email at lesia.telega@susanbanthonyhouse.org.
Reservations are now open for our annual Family Tea intergenerational event on
Saturday, April 23
2pm – 4pm
$35.00
(includes admission for 1 adult/1 child)
Whether you are a grandparent, parent, aunt, uncle, or a friend, you and your special little one will enjoy an inspiring afternoon at the National Susan B. Anthony Museum & House!
Tour the Anthony House and learn all about the ways people communicated in the 19th century
Enjoy an informal “tea” with hot beverages and yummy light refreshments
Create hand-crafted notecards
Have your photo taken with “Susan B. Anthony”
This event is strictly limited. Advance reservations are required and may be made online or by calling our administrative office at 585/279-7490 x 10.
After Mary S. Anthony’s death in 1907, the house at 17 Madison Street served as both a single family home and a boarding house. In 1944, the Rochester Federation of Women’s Clubs placed a simple marker to commemorate that this was once the home of the Great Reformer, Susan B. Anthony, and her sister, a reformer in her own right, Mary S. Anthony. The placement of this marker fueled conversations about a more permanent memorial and led, one year later, to the purchase of 17 Madison Street with funds raised by the Rochester Federation of Women’s Clubs.
The Federation was recently featured in the Genesee Valley Penny Saver. To read the full article, please visit their website.
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 on 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, 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 1901. 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 service in the church lasted an hour and a half. It took another 2 or more hours for the thousands of mourners to file past the coffin. Finally, in late afternoon, with the snowstorm still raging, Susan B’s most intimate friends and relatives accompanied her to her final resting place in Mt. Hope Cemetery. There, beneath a simple white stone engraved only with her name and dates, she was laid to rest. The final words were spoken by her dear friend, the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, who in tender and reverent voice, pronounced these solemn words: “Dear friend, thou hast tarried with us long; thou has now gone to thy well-earned rest. We beseech the Infinite Spirit who has upheld thee to make us worthy to follow in thy steps and carry on the work. Hail and farewell.”
Some years earlier, during a family reunion at her birthplace in Adams, Massachusetts, Susan B. Anthony had written her own epitaph. As the family gathered out in the yard on a glorious summer day, amid the horse-drawn carriages of all those who had come to call, someone remarked that the scene looked like a funeral. Anthony immediately replied:
“When it is a funeral, remember that I want there should be no tears.
Pass on, and go on with the work.”
Please join us for a memorial wreath ceremony on Sunday, March 13, at 11:00 am. The short ceremony will be followed at 12:30 pm by A Conversation with the CEO in our Carriage House. Anthony Museum president & CEO, Deborah L. Hughes, will provide an update and lead a discussion of future plans for the Museum. Both events are free and open to the public.
All general public tours will be available at the student rate of $5.00 that day only (members are always complimentary).
