Radical: Susan B. Anthony, Spiritualism, and Women’s Rights in Lily Dale, New York
2024-10-19 13:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York) | Anthony Museum Carriage House, 19 Madison St, Rochester, NY, 14608, United States
Lily Dale, New York, was founded at the apex of the fight for women’s suffrage in the United States, and unsurprisingly that struggle was in the hearts and on the minds of the radical feminists who co-founded this fascinating intentional Spiritualist community. Spiritualism’s Place: Reformers, Seekers, and Seances in Lily Dale reveals the role that the radical (and conservative) women’s rights activists like Susan B. Anthony, Anna Howard Shaw, and others played in Lily Dale–and the role that Lily Dale played in Progressive-era politics, including suffrage and Temperance. As an intentional community devoted to Spiritualist beliefs and practices, Lily Dale brings together multiple strands in the social and religious history of New York and the United States over the past 150 years: feminism, social reform, utopianism, and new religious movements.
In this event the authors of Spiritualism’s Place will discuss the intersections of women’s rights, radical religion, and Temperance in New York. As a nexus of Progressive-era change, Lily Dale is a fascinating case study, a place and moment in these histories, and Spiritualism’s Place captures the vibes and the venue.
Copies of the book, Spiritualism’s Place, will be available to purchase at the Museum Store and the book signing will follow the presentation.
Members $25 SOLD OUT
Member Special $50 (includes your reservation and book) SOLD OUT
Non-Members $30 SOLD OUT
Member – Virtual $25
Non-Member – Virtual $30
Click HERE to make your reservation. Space is limited!

Trailblazer: How Katharine Bement Davis Advanced Women’s Equality in the Workplace, at the Polls, and in the Bedroom
2024-12-11 13:00 - 14:00 | Anthony Museum Carriage House, 19 Madison St, Rochester, NY, 14608, United States
Join us for our December Guest Lecture Series presentation, “Trailblazer: How Katharine Bement Davis Advanced Women’s Equality in the Workplace, at the Polls, and in the Bedroom,” by Anya Jabour, Ph.D. Jabour is the Regents Professor of History at the University of Montana.
About the presentation:
Katharine Bement Davis (1860-1935) was a true trailblazer. One of the first women in the US to earn a PhD, she went on to become the first superintendent of New York’s Reformatory for
Women at Bedford Hills. Subsequently, she became the first female Commissioner of Corrections for New York City, where she quelled a riot and instituted reform. She spent the final decade of her career directing the Bureau of Social Hygiene, a privately funded think tank committed to combating commercialized sex and curbing the spread of sexually transmitted infections. While there, she conducted research for the first comprehensive study of female sexuality.
But Dr. Davis did not only blaze new trails for herself. At every stage of her career, she also advanced equality for women as a group. At the Bedford Reformatory, she provided educational
and recreational opportunities for the inmates; she also hired a cohort of highly educated women to work as physicians and psychologists. While she tackled what one colleague called “a man’s job” as Commissioner of Corrections, she also advocated women’s voting rights as an officer of the national suffrage organization. Finally, by publishing the results of her extensive study of women’s sexual desires and experiences, she redefined the parameters of “normal” female sexuality.
Based on extensive research in Katharine Davis’s personal papers, institutional records, and historic publications, this presentation about an important—but overlooked—figure in US history will highlight how she advanced women’s equality in the workplace, at the polls, and in the bedroom.

“Mistress of the Market: White Women and the Nineteenth-Century Domestic Slave Trade.”
2025-01-08 13:00 - 14:00 | Anthony Museum Carriage House, 19 Madison St, Rochester, NY, 14608, United States
Join the National Susan B. Anthony Museum & House for our January Guest Lecture Series presentation, “Mistress of the Market: White Women and the Nineteenth-Century Domestic Slave Trade,” by Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers. Jones-Rogers is an Associate Professor of History. She specializes in African-American history, the history of slavery, and women’s and gender history. She is the author of They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South (2019), which won prizes from the Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery, the Southern Association for Women’s Historians, the Southern Historical Association, the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, and the Organization of American Historians. Jones-Rogers was also the first African-American and the third woman to win the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History since the award’s inception in 1980. And in 2023, she received the Dan David Prize, the largest history prize in the world. She is currently at work on her second book, “Women of the Trade,” which reorients our understanding of the British Atlantic slave trade by centering the lives and experiences of English, African, and Afro-English women in its telling.

Feminists for Nursing
2025-05-14 13:00 - 14:00 | Anthony Museum Carriage House, 19 Madison St, Rochester, NY, 14608, United States
The Civil War and developments in the 19th Century made it possible for a new profession to open to women: nursing. Susan B. Anthony and other early feminists (they did call themselves that!) pushed for the advancement of the profession and for the recognition it deserved. Join us as Deborah L. Hughes, President & CEO, explores the connections between some early feminists and the Nursing Profession as we know it today.
Register here to attend in person or virtually.

Strong Passions: A Scandalous Divorce in Old New York
2025-06-11 13:00 - 14:00 | Anthony Museum Carriage House, 19 Madison St, Rochester, NY, 14608, United States
Barbara Weisberg will present on her book, Strong Passions: A Scandalous Divorce in Old New York. The book describes a case from 1862, in which Mary Strong stunned her husband, Peter, by confessing to a two-year affair with his brother. Peter sued Mary for divorce for adultery―the only grounds in New York―but not before she accused him of forcing her into an abortion and having his own affair with the abortionist. She then kidnapped their young daughter and disappeared.
Register here.

"It’s in the Water-Women’s Rights and the Erie Canal"--a collaboration with Corn Hill Navigation
2025-09-10 16:00 - 17:30 | Corn Hill Navigation: Sam Patch
The Anthony Museum is pleased to be participating in Corn Hill Navigation’s Unlocking the Past Speaker Series on Sam Patch: Navigating the Erie Canal during the first 200 years.
This series takes an in-depth dive into the values, customs, ideas, and creativity that were sparked by the opening of the Erie Canal and the impact this waterway had on the individual and on the collective society of upstate NY and beyond. We will have educational presentations along with hands on art cruises to create a better understanding of what travelers did during long days flowting along the canal.
Join Deborah L. Hughes, President & CEO of the Anthony Museum, for “It’s in the Water-Women’s Rights and the Erie Canal.”
About the presentation:
The western NY canals run right through the 19th Century, merging and connecting a unique flow of religious fervor, free thought, and social reform. The waterways carried and connected the people and their ideas, and spurred the momentum for abolition, women’s rights, religious ideas, and social change. Join us as we explore this theme and some of the remarkable characters.
To register, visit: Sam Patch Speaker Series | Corn Hill Waterfront and Navigation

Serenity Sutherland, "Visualizing the History of Women's Scientific Networks"
2025-10-08 13:00 - 14:30 | Anthony Museum Carriage House, 19 Madison St, Rochester, NY, 14608, United States
Join us on Wednesday, October 8 at 1 p.m. when Dr. Serenity Sutherland, Associate Professor of communication studies at SUNY Oswego, will give a talk entitled “Visualizing the History of Women’s Scientific Networks.”
The talk will be presented in-person and is available virtually.
Register here.

“Racism and Anti-Racism: Some Lessons from Susan B.”
2025-11-12 13:00 - 14:00 | Anthony Museum Carriage House, 19 Madison St, Rochester, NY, 14608, United States
Join us for our Guest Lecture in November 2025, as Deborah L. Hughes, President & CEO, National Susan B. Anthony Museum, & House explores “Racism and Anti-Racism: Some Lessons from Susan B.” Attend in person, or virtually. For reservations and more information about this presentation and our Guest Lecture series, visit Guest Lecture Series

"The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of World War II Resistance Hero Rose Valland"
2025-12-10 13:00 - 14:00 | Anthony Museum Carriage House, 19 Madison St, Rochester, NY, 14608, United States
On December 10, our Guest Lecturer will join us on zoom to present, “The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of World War II Resistance Hero Rose Valland”
Join other guests in person in the Anthony Museum Carriage House, or choose the virtual option. For more information and to make a reservation, visit our Guest Lecture page.

The Rising Generation: Gradual Abolition, Black Legal Culture, and the Making of National Freedom
2026-01-14 13:00 - 14:00 | Anthony Museum Carriage House, 19 Madison St, Rochester, NY, 14608, United States
Join us for a presentation by Sarah L.H. Gronningsater, author of The Rising Generation: Gradual Abolition, Black Legal Culture, and the Making of National Freedom. To register, visit our Guest lecture Series page.

Julie Aronson, PhD, Curator of American Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings at the Cincinnati Art Museum
2026-03-11 13:00 - 14:00 | Anthony Museum Carriage House, 19 Madison St, Rochester, NY, 14608, United States
We welcome Julie Aronson, PhD, Curator of American Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings at the Cincinnati Art Museum, to be our featured guest lecturer in March. Dr. Aronson will be presenting via zoom from Chicago. We were introduced to Dr. Aronson when the Anthony Museum acquired a sculpture by noted artist Bessie Potter. Dr. Aronson is the author of Bessie Potter Vonoh: Sculptor of Women, Ohio University Press.

“Lighting the Way: The Adventurous Career of Pioneering Architect Anne Graham Rockfellow”
2026-04-08 13:00 - 14:00 | Anthony Museum Carriage House, 19 Madison St, Rochester, NY, 14608, United States
Brandt is a project architect at Bero Architecture. He serves as the chair of the Town of Irondequoit Historic Preservation Commission; is a Trustee and member of several committees of The Landmark Society of Western New York; and is a member of the Young Urban Preservationists.
To register to attend in person or virtually, or to learn more about this year’s series, visit our Guest Lecture Series page.

“Kate Gleason, Rochester’s Renaissance Woman”
2026-05-13 13:00 - 14:00 | Anthony Museum Carriage House, 19 Madison St, Rochester, NY, 14608, United States
On May 13, Kenneth Frederick, PhD, returns to the podium to share another fascinating program about another one of Rochester’s influential women. To register to attend in person or virtually, or to learn more about this lecture and others, visit our Guest Lecture Series page.

Fighting for Equality: World War I and American Women’s Struggle for Suffrage
2026-06-10 13:00 - 14:00 | Anthony Museum Carriage House, 19 Madison St, Rochester, NY, 14608, United States
To register to attend in person or virtually, visit our Guest Lecture Series page.
