While our Carriage House has been under construction, many guests might have noticed a new addition in the well-known Front Parlor of 17 Madison Street.
This room has become the temporary location for this bust of attorney John Van Voorhis. Van Voorhis was born in Decatur, New York, in 1826. He passed the bar in 1851 and began practicing in Elmira, New York. Later, he moved to Rochester and opened his own practice in 1854. He defended people like abolitionist Frederick Douglass and assisted the Seneca Nation in land disputes.
Van Voorhis was Susan B. Anthony’s lead defense attorney when she was tried and convicted of voting in the presidential election of 1872.
He also served three terms as a United States Congressman between 1879 and 1895.
A Chicago artist, Robert Lee MacCameron, was hired to paint a portrait of Van Voorhis. MacCameron has pieces at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in DC, the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, and museums in England and France. He is most notable for painting a portrait of President William Howard Taft.
It was typical for the artist to live in residency, so he lived with the Van Voorhis family in their Rochester home. While there, MacCameron started a relationship with Van Voorhis’ daughter Louise, and the two later married.
The newlyweds moved to Paris, where MacCameron continued his art education at the Beaux Arts School and received several prestigious awards for his work.
Upon their return to Rochester, MacCameron sculpted a marble bust of his Father-in-Law, which is currently in the Ontario County Courthouse, where Susan B. Anthony’s trial was held. This bronze cast is of the original marble bust. The Van Voorhis descendants donated the bronze bust to the Anthony Museum in 2021.
Meet Rhoda DeGarmo, an ardent anti-slavery advocate, temperance worker, suffragist, friend of Anthony and Stanton, yet for many today, an unfamiliar name. What did she do for women’s rights? What would she say to us today about the importance of voting?
Born in Massachusetts in 1798 or 1799, Rhoda and her husband, Elias DeGarmo, were farmers in Gates, NY, just outside of Rochester, in the 1800s. The DeGarmos were part of the network of anti-slavery activists who made up the Underground Railroad in the region. Their home often provided refuge for enslaved persons fleeing to Canada. She was one of the first people to join the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society when it was formed in 1842. She later became part of its equivalent of an executive committee, organizing Anti-Slavery Fairs all around the region. When Daniel and Lucy Anthony moved with their family to a neighboring farm in Gates in late 1845, the families discovered they had much in common and became close friends, working together on anti-slavery, temperance, and women’s rights causes.
In June of 1848, Rhoda DeGarmo and other Quakers walked out of the Genesee Yearly Meeting of Friends when the elders objected to their anti-slavery activities. The next month, at the Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, she was chosen as one of the organizers for the adjourned convention, to be held in Rochester in August. She supported the move to appoint a woman to preside over the Rochester convention, something strongly opposed by other women delegates as “a most hazardous experiment.” Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton refused to sit on the dais with a woman presiding.
Throughout her life, Rhoda DeGarmo worked with anti-slavery groups, with state and local women’s rights organizations, and temperance organizations, earning her a respected place as a human-rights activist among her contemporaries. She was a frequent visitor at the Anthony home in Rochester. She was a member of the Rochester Political Equality Club formed by Mary Anthony. In 1872, when Susan B. Anthony famously registered and voted in the presidential election, claiming her vote as a right of citizenship under the XIV Amendment, Rhoda DeGarmo, by then in her 70s, was right there, one of the 14 other women voting with her. Rhoda DeGarmo died in 1873, a few months after she dared to vote.
[Ed. note: In 1848, Rhoda DeGarmo’s portrait was created by artist C. Hoag, a painting that came to the Anthony Museum from a direct descendant. The portrait was conserved in 2012 with funding provided by the Greater Hudson Heritage Network and work performed by Tracy Dulniak of Great Lakes Art Conservation, LLC. This portrait is on display in Mary Anthony’s study in the Susan B. Anthony House at the Anthony Museum.]
a bench from Susan B. Anthony’s courtroom in Canandaigua, currently on view at the National Women’s Hall of Fame
Do you wish you had more power to change the world? The injustice we see in our daily lives can become overwhelming, leading us to believe that we are powerless to stop it.
Enter Susan B. Anthony.
On June 17, 1873, Susan B. stood in a Canandaigua courthouse listening to her male lawyer plead to a male jury in front of a male judge about a woman’s right to vote. She had already caused several headaches for local officials this year, most notably, by voting in the most recent presidential election. Her vote, along with fourteen female neighbors who voted alongside her, caused a stir in Rochester which Susan B. used as a platform to spread her message. She traveled the county delivering a fiery speech, advocating for the right of all people to vote. According to scholar Ann D. Gordon, “Anthony spoke in twenty-nine villages and towns of Monroe County, asking ‘Is it a Crime for a U.S. Citizen to Vote?’ When she delivered her lecture in Rochester, the county’s principal city, a daily newspaper printed her speech in full, circulating it further.” (p 34, The Trial of Susan B. Anthony)
Associate justice of the Supreme Court Ward Hunt, who was known by some to oppose the cause of suffrage, arrived to preside over the case. The court did not meet in Rochester, but in the nearby town of Canandaigua, NY. There, Susan B. sat for two days as proceedings continued, certain that the jury could see the logic behind her daring act.
As the case drew to a close, the jurors who had heard Susan B.’s story were prepared to deliberate, but Judge Hunt stopped them. He had already made up his mind, and told them so. With one action, the Judge became infamous in law journals, nationwide newspapers, and public opinion for denying Susan B. Anthony a trial by jury. He delivered her guilty verdict, along with a fine of $100, which she refused to pay. Then, he gave her the opportunity to address the court in what he no doubt assumed would be a short, defeated statement.
Susan B. stood.
“Yes, your honor, I have many things to say; for in your ordered verdict of guilty you have trampled under foot every vital principle of our government. My natural rights, my civil rights, my political rights, my judicial rights, are all alike ignored…” She held the court spellbound despite Judge Hunt’s repeated protests, refusing to sit down until she had finished. She spoke of natural rights, of logic, of governmental representation, but most of all, the injustice of the system that found her guilty.
“All of my prosecutors—from the 8th ward corner grocery politician, who entered the complaint, to the United States Marshal, Commissioner, District Attorney, District Judge, your honor on the bench—not one is my peer, but each and all are my political sovereigns; and had your honor submitted my case to the jury, as was clearly your duty, even then I should have had just cause of protest for not one of those men was my peer; but, native or foreign born, white or black, rich or poor, educated or ignorant, awake or asleep, sober or drunk, each and every man of them was my political superior; hence, in no sense, my peer.”
Her trial in 1873 became a hallmark of the suffrage movement, and her call for the right of all people to vote rings in our ears 150 years later. In the face of a broken system, Susan B. Anthony took action to achieve justice, building a network of support that lived beyond her. The work continued in the women who wrote the 19th Amendment, the women who fought for the vote of minority communities, and the women who work to ensure a safe and educated vote for all people today. Remember: we walk in the footsteps of women who kicked open doors that were closed to them; we can change injustice.
This year we were honored by the gift of a gorgeous green and silver wreath that now festoons the front door of the Susan B. Anthony House. It is difficult to imagine what Susan herself might have said about it, since there were few recorded years where Susan chose to decorate 7 Madison Street for the season. In keeping with the style of the Society of Friends (which you might know as the “Quakers”), the Anthony family celebrated the holidays a little differently than expected; there were no elaborate adornments, no tree in the parlor, and certainly no cookies left out for Santa Claus.
Then and now, members of the Society of Friends were known for their subdued celebrations, “With no minister, no program and no choir, the Quaker congregation will sit quietly in a room lit by a fireplace and candles…the entire four-hour service could pass without a sound.” (Virginian Pilot) Many Quakers tend to downplay the showier side of festivities, instead focusing on cultivating goodwill, peace, and community spirit even during the cold New York winter. Mr. and Mrs. Anthony raised their children in a branch of the Friends that emphasized simplicity, equality, and good action toward others, but certainly did not shy away from celebrating the holidays with gusto. The most notable deviance from cultural norms would likely have been their toast to the New Year — completely devoid of alcoholic beverages! In the Anthony House today, there is still preserved a velvet cloak which Susan received as a holiday gift from Mrs. Emily Gross, all the way from Chicago. Throughout Susan’s writings, we find her thanking various friends for shawls and fruit cakes around the holidays, but most of all we hear Susan and her closest allies speaking of how the work must go on, even on Christmas Morning. The Anthonys surely celebrated every day of the season as an opportunity to do good.
In reality, Americans during Susan’s childhood were just beginning to celebrate the holidays as we know them today, with Charles Dickin’s beloved A Christmas Carol published in 1843, and the iconic Christmas tree only gaining popularity after the Civil War. Life in the Antebellum period startled Americans. The United States were not as safe and warm as some had thought, but “At this cross-roads of progress and nostalgia, Americans found in Christmas a holiday that ministered to their needs.” (History Today) Practitioners of many religions joined in this nationwide joy, bringing a variety of traditions together under the snowy blanket of the “holiday season”.
Christmas Eve is a simple celebration for Quakers, The Virginian Pilot
June 12, 2023: Aisha Pierre, Curator of Interpretation, National Susan B. Anthony Museum & House – Topic: Deep in the Archives
Curator of Interpretation, Aisha Pierre, has been working closely with our museum’s collection! She will be showcasing and celebrating some of the objects she has found since joining us in August of 2021.
Aisha has a BA in History from Rhode Island College (18′) and a MA in Museum Studies from Syracuse University (21′). She loves working with history through museum collections and loves the opportunity to share some of the incredible pieces from the collection with others.
May 8, 2023: Einav Rabinovitch-Fox, Department of History, Case Western Reserve University – Topic: Dressed for Freedom: The Politics of Fashion in American History
Title: Dressed for Freedom: The Politics of Fashion in American History
Description: What is the connection between fashion and women’s rights? How pockets, skirts, and bras became a political statement? How does fashion function in our political system? This talk will examine how fashion became a tool to express and challenge gender, race, and class identities and how women used it to advance their political agendas – from the suffragists to today’s politicians. Celebrating the publication of the recent book: Dressed for Freedom: The Fashionable Politics of American Feminism, the talk will reveal the importance of clothing and appearance in struggles for freedom and equality and why clothes matter.
Einav Rabinovitch-Fox teaches U.S and women’s and gender history at Case Western Reserve University. Her research examines the connections between fashion, politics, and modernity, and the cultural aspects of social movements. Her recent book, Dressed for Freedom: The Fashionable Politics of American Feminism explores women’s political uses of clothing and appearance to promote feminist agendas during the long 20th century. Her writing has been published in academic journals and books including the Journal of Women’s History, the International Journal of Fashion Studies, American Journalism: Journal of Media History, as well as The Washington Post, The Conversation, Public Seminar, and History News Network. You can follow her on twitter @DrEinavRFox
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Individual virtual lecture is available for $30 each with a limited number of viewers.
Click HERE to register for this individual lecture
April 3, 2023: Theresa McCarthy, PhD, Associate Professor, University at Buffalo –Topic: Haudenosaunee women’s leadership in contemporary times
Theresa McCarthy is an Onondaga nation, Beaver clan citizen of Six Nations of the Grand River Territory in Ontario. She is the author of In Divided Unity: Haudenosaunee Reclamation at Grand River which won the 2017 Native American and Indigenous Studies Association’s Best First Book Prize. Theresa’s research and teaching interests reside in the areas of Haudenosaunee citizenship/clans, Haudenosaunee/Six Nations land rights and sovereignty, Haudenosaunee languages and intellectual traditions, Haudenosaunee women, the historiography of anthropological research on the Iroquois, Haudenosaunee temporalities, queer Haudenosaunee studies, linguistic research methodologies, and community-based/applied research. Theresa has published articles in American Indian Culture and Research Journal and Histories of Anthropology Annual. She recently worked on a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council- funded archival project that digitized and repatriated an extensive collection of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century ethnographic material collected from Six Nations community members. She also worked as a co-producer on an educational documentary about the 2006 Haudenosaunee land reclamation near Caledonia, Ontario. For these, and other contributions, Theresa is recognized as Associate Professor /Iakorihonnién:ni of Indigenous Research at Six Nations.
Theresa is currently a UB Inclusive Excellence Faculty Fellow and she is Co-Chair of the Indigenous Inclusion Sub-Committee of the UB Inclusive Excellence Leadership Council. She is also the Principal Coordinator for the UB Haudenosaunee-Native American Studies Research Group, which she co-founded with the late Barry White (Seneca), and the late Bob Antone (Oneida) in 2008. A longtime advocate for the revitalization of Indigenous languages, Theresa has worked on reinstating Haudenosaunee language courses at UB, and on building relationships with nearby Haudenosaunee communities in support of Indigenous language learning. She is both grateful and proud to be living and working here on Seneca Nation territory.
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Individual virtual lecture is available for $30 each with a limited number of viewers.
March 13, 2023: Mallory Szymanski, Assistant Professor of History, Alfred University-Topic: Discerning Doctors from Quacks: the art, science, and social practice of men’s sexual health in late-nineteenth century United States
Men in the late-nineteenth century found themselves exhausted by the increasing demands of round-the-clock factory work and a fast-paced urbanizing society. New categories of ‘nervous disease’ emerged to reckon with range of symptoms men experienced, including anxiety, fatigue, indigestion, sexual debility, and many more. Panicked that they were irreparably damaged, and unsure about how to admit it, men often suffered in silence rather than see a doctor. Meanwhile, a vibrant marketplace of patent medicines and specialists promised to cure even the most embarrassing symptoms and to restore a man’s vigor. Sick men found it difficult to discern the so-called quacks from the formally trained physicians, or to relate to highly educated elites inside intimidating clinics. Reminiscent of the confusion caused by contradictory media messaging in the Covid-19 pandemic, this talk addresses the question about men in the late-19th century: which sources provide accurate medical information, and how does one decide?
This talk explores two unexpected places men could find such information: evening lectures at the local YMCA and popular novels by neurologist S. Weir Mitchell. Focused on engendering trust, these sources encouraged men to see doctors as confidants, confessors, and friends.
Bio
Mallory Szymanski is an assistant professor of history at Alfred University. She is a gender historian who writes about medicine and culture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She is an assistant producer for the podcast Sexing Historyand co-editor at Clio and the Contemporary.
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Individual virtual lecture is available for $30 each with a limited number of viewers.
January 9, 2023: Carol Faulkner, PhD, Professor of History and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University – Topic: Marriage Reform in Nineteenth-Century America
“Marriage Reform in Nineteenth-Century America” – This presentation explores the centrality of the “marriage question” to nineteenth-century social movements. Feminists, abolitionists, spiritualists, and communitarians criticized the institution of marriage as legalized prostitution or legalized adultery. In its place, they proposed a variety of alternatives, from consent to liberal divorce to free love. While marriage reformers are often dismissed as the scandalous fringe of social movements, they helped advanced the view that marriage should be about love.
Carol Faulkner is Professor of History and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. She received her BA from Yale University, and her PhD from SUNY Binghamton. This presentation is drawn from her recent book, Unfaithful: Love, Adultery, and Marriage Reform in Nineteenth-Century America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019). She is also the author of Women’s Radical Reconstruction: The Freedmen’s Aid Movement (2004) and Lucretia Mott’s Heresy: Abolition and Women’s Rights in Nineteenth-Century America (2011). She is the co-editor of The Selected Letters of Lucretia Coffin Mott, Interconnections: Gender and Race in American History, and Lucretia Mott Speaks: The Essential Speeches and Sermons (University of Illinois Press, 2017).
EGISTRATION INFORMATION
Individual virtual lecture is available for $30 each with a limited number of viewers.
December 12, 2022: Nada Odeh, Syrian artist, activist, humanitarian, and poet – Topic: Diversity, Inclusion and Art
Nada Odeh is a Syrian artist, activist, humanitarian, and modern-day poet. She was born and raised in Damascus and came to the United States in 2013 due to the conflict and revolution in her country. She established a project known as ‘Nada’s Picassos’, which began in Damascus but has moved to Dubai, Michigan, and currently New York State. The medium she works in is acrylics on canvas and Arabic miniatures; Middle Eastern colors and small details of her heritage influence her art. The key theme in her artwork is Syrian refugees in camps and the Syrian people. Recently, she has focused more on displaced Syrian women in exile.
Nada got her M.A. in Museum Studies from Syracuse University and her B.A. in Fine Arts from Damascus University. She has attended many workshops in the field of visual arts, communication arts, and therapeutic arts. Nada has exhibited her art in Damascus, Dubai, New York City, Detroit, Toledo, Tiffin, Washington D.C., Syracuse, Albany, and Auburn, New York. She lives and works in Syracuse, New York.
Nada is a freelance curator who had the opportunity to curate different projects on the topic of immigration and folklore arts. She worked with the New York Folklore Society on different projects to highlight immigrants’ and refugees’ folklore arts.
Nada’s art and activism helped many organizations and artists to live the art experience to the ultimate levels.
PRESENTATION: Diversity Inclusion and Art
Immigrant women go through several challenges while moving to a new country and trying to start a career. In the presentation, I will be talking about those challenges and how I was able to use my art to communicate with communities, and how it’s important to represent the voice of immigrant women. My activism and the art I created in my journey.
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Individual virtual lecture is available for $30 each with a limited number of viewers.
