Category: 2016

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Anthony Museum Raises Concern over Continued Misuse of Anthony’s Name and Legacy

Rochester, NY – In light of recent events in the world of American politics, the National Susan B Anthony Museum & House today reiterated its nonpartisan educational mission to inspire and challenge individuals, through Susan B Anthony’s life and work, to make a positive difference in their lives and communities.

 

Today, presidential candidate, Donald Trump, announced his intention to create a “pro-life coalition” headed by Marjorie Dannenfelser of the Susan B. Anthony List. This coalition would work to support Mr. Trump’s previously declared commitments to the anti-abortion movement and to encourage voter turnout in key battleground states. The Susan B. Anthony List is a 501(c)(4) organization. Along with its affiliated political action committee, the SBA List Candidate Fund, this organization has long raised concerns for the Anthony Museum and those dedicated to protecting the legacy of the great reformer. Neither organization is in any way affiliated or in partnership with the National Susan B Anthony Museum & House.

 

“Not only does the Museum maintain a nonpartisan perspective,” said president and CEO, Deborah L. Hughes, “but it would not be in keeping with Susan B. Anthony’s legacy to endorse a political candidate. We are pleased that this once-reviled woman has earned such a high place of honor and authority that individuals and organizations seek her as their champion, but the National Susan B Anthony Museum & House is here to tell the authentic story of her life and work, rather than to use her name for a political agenda.”

 

The National Susan B Anthony Museum & House, a 501(c)(3) educational entity, is dedicated to preserving and interpreting Anthony’s life and work in a historically accurate and responsible manner. It is not affiliated with any other organization bearing the name of Susan B Anthony.

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Please send any inquiries re: this statement to president & CEO, Deborah L. Hughes.

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Anthony Museum Announces “VoteTilla” Event to Mark Suffrage Centennial

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.

DHughes

“Thank you, Susan B Anthony!” Online Exhibit Launched

Rochester, NY – The National Susan B Anthony Museum & House is proud to announce the launch of a new online exhibit, “Thank you, Susan B Anthony!”, in partnership with Google Cultural Institute.

tysba_googleThrough this virtual exhibition, users are able to view artifacts, documents, and other items from the Museum’s permanent collection that bring to light new aspects of one of the world’s greatest social reformers. Viewers will encounter a young Susan B through the cross-stitch sampler she created as a preteen, images of her as a young woman, and letters penned in her own hand.

“We are excited to share these images, some of them never before published, with the world,” said Deborah L. Hughes, president and CEO of the National Susan B Anthony Museum & House. “Telling Susan B Anthony’s story through this innovative platform will help us inspire and challenge people around the world in a new way.”

“Thank you, Susan B Anthony!” is a part of the Google Arts & Culture’s American Democracy collection, which brings together over sixty online exhibits and more than 2500 individual artifacts from forty-four institutions dedicated to the preservation of U.S. political history and the practice of American democracy. The exhibition is accessible at g.co/AmericanDemocracy or through the Google Arts & Culture mobile app for iOS and Android.

Highlights of the “Thank you, Susan B Anthony!” exhibit include:tysba_google2

  • A letter from Susan B Anthony to her aunt and uncle, pondering her future as a champion of equal rights
  • A letter by Daniel Anthony, Susan B’s father, to his brother, endorsing Frederick Douglass and his newspaper, the North Star
  • A pamphlet transcription of Henry R. Selden’s remarks on behalf of Anthony at her 1873 trial for voting

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Google Arts & Culture is a product of the Google Cultural Institute and its partners designed to put the world’s cultural treasures at the fingertips of internet users and to assist the cultural sector in sharing more of its diverse heritage online. The Google Cultural Institute has partnered with more than 1100 institutions, providing the Arts & Culture platform to over 400 thousand artworks and a total of 5 million photos, videos, manuscripts, and other documents of art, culture, and history. The exhibitions on Google Arts & Culture are open for all online, for free, on the web and through their mobile app.

The National Susan B Anthony Museum & House interprets the legacy of the great reformer to inspire and challenge individuals to make a positive difference in their lives and communities. We preserve and share the National Historic Landmark that was her home and headquarters, collect and exhibit artifacts related to her life and work, and offer tours and interpretive programs to share her story with the world.

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

DHughes

US Treasury Announces Addition of Women to $5, $10, & $20

Harriet Tubman (photo courtesy of the Library of Congress)
Harriet Tubman (photo courtesy of the Library of Congress)

Rochester, NY – Last summer, the United States Treasury announced plans to redesign the ten dollar bill, incorporating the theme of “democracy” and the portrait of woman for the first time in over a century. The Treasury launched a social media campaign, using #TheNew10, and solicited public nominations on which woman to feature.

Now, almost a year of robust and thought-provoking discussions later, Secretary Jack Lew has announced plans to redesign not only the ten dollar bill, but also the five and twenty dollar bills. The announcement, made on April 20, also revealed plans to incorporate several women on all three bills.

Most notably, Harriet Tubman will be featured on the face of the twenty dollar bill. Alexander Hamilton, originally slated to be removed from the face of the ten dollar bill, will now remain, joined by images, on the reverse, of celebrated women’s rights advocates: Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul, and our own, Susan B Anthony. President Abraham Lincoln will remain on the face of the five dollar bill, while the reverse will feature a collage of images honoring the historic events, which took place at the Lincoln Memorial in DC.

“We are very pleased with the selection of Harriet Tubman,” said Anthony Museum president and CEO, Deborah L. Hughes. “Tubman gave her entire life and sacrificed much in the fight for equal rights.” Harriet Tubman was mentioned by several attendees at a town hall meeting held at the Anthony Museum last July.

The U.S. Treasury expects to unveil the new designs by 2020, the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which granted American women the right to vote.  More information can be found at their website: https://modernmoney.treasury.gov/

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Museum remembers the passing of an icon

sba_fullOn 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.”

IMG_3042Please 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).

DHughes

Sold Out Crowd for 2016 Susan B. Anthony Birthday Luncheon

Layout 1Rochester, NY – Billie Jean King and Susan B. Anthony have proved a winning combination! Thanks to an overwhelming and enthusiastic response, the National Susan B. Anthony Museum & House is pleased to announce that the 2016 Susan B. Anthony Birthday Luncheon is officially sold out. This milestone, ten days before the event, is the earliest ever for this annual luncheon.

The Susan B. Anthony Birthday Luncheon is held each year in mid-February to celebrate Susan B. Anthony’s February 15th birthday, to honor contemporary women who continue her legacy, and to raise awareness of the educational and inspirational programs offered by the Museum.

This year’s event will be held on February 10th at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center at noon.

Questions related to this event may be directed to luncheon@susanbanthonyhouse.org.

Media inquiries may be directed to Sarah Murphy Abbamonte, Director of Communications, at 585/279-7490 x 15 or sarah.abbamonte@susanbanthonyhouse.org.