FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: CONTACT:
Monday, November 19, 2007 Ellen K. Wheeler
Director of Development & Public Relations
(585) 279-7490, ext. 12
“If only the walls could talk:”
Sometimes they do at Susan B. Anthony House
Rochester, NY—Interior restoration at the Susan B. Anthony House brought forth an unexpected gem recently—an unopened letter that has been hidden in the wall for 106 years.
The letter, addressed simply to “Susan B. Anthony, Rochester, New York,” was mailed from Warren, Ohio in April of 1901. In it, Harriet Taylor Upton, then president of the Ohio Woman’s Suffrage Association and treasurer of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association, addresses Miss Anthony as “Aunt Susan” and describes local political activities in Ohio, including Upton’s successful campaign for school board. The letter is brief, newsy, gossipy, and obviously written from one good friend to another. Included in the envelope was a check made out to Miss Anthony for “clerk salary for March.”
Volunteers and staff at the Anthony House believe that the letter was inadvertently dropped through cracks in the stairway as it was being delivered to Miss Anthony’s second-floor study or third-floor workroom. It was found inside the plaster wall beneath the main staircase by one of the craftspeople working on the extensive restoration that has been in progress at the House for the past year-and-a-half.
Deborah Hughes, executive director of the Anthony House, declared, “There’s always something new to discover at the Susan B. Anthony House.”
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.
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