A Museum for a Suffragist

Did you know that around 150 years ago women could be arrested in the United States for exercising their right to vote? Yes, that’s exactly what happened in November 1872 when suffragist Susan B Anthony and 14 other women from Rochester, New York, cast their ballot at a local booth. A couple of weeks later not only was she found guilty but the inspectors who had allowed the women brigade to vote were also jailed. She was tried and fined $100 with costs. Anthony refused to pay but was not imprisoned so could not appeal the verdict.

Recently, President Trump on the centennial of the ratification of 19th Amendment signed a pardon for Anthony. But the museum rejected the pardon. 

Debates aside, President Donald Trump’s decision regarding suffragist Susan B Anthony has renewed people’s interest in her. And to know more about a woman recognised for her seminal role in the women’s suffrage movement as well as her role as a civil rights advocate, you may pay a visit to the National Susan B. Anthony Museum & House in Rochester, New York. The museum has reopened for public tours (with admission by online reservation only and other rules in place). The museum collects and exhibits material related to Anthony’s life and work, and offers tours and interpretive programmes.

Although better known as a suffragist, Anthony was also active in other areas including anti-slavery campaigns, temperance, married women’s right to property, education for women and Blacks. Along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Parker Pillsbury, she began a newspaper called ‘The Revolution’ where the masthead read “Men Their Rights and Nothing More, Women their Rights and Nothing Less.”

In the museum, you will find the famous ‘alligator purse’ which became synonymous with her campaign for financial rights for women. She is also the first woman to be honoured with her likeness appearing on a circulating United States coin. Although the coins were last minted in 1999, they are still in circulation.

Interestingly, the building which houses the museum today, from where Anthony was arrested for voting, also has a history as interesting as its former owner. Originally built as a two-story, 12-room brick house in the Italianate style by a Madison Street dentist, it was bought by Susan B Anthony’s mother in 1866 after the extended family stayed here for a few years as tenants.

It became the headquarters of the National American Woman’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA) when Susan B Anthony was elected the association’s president. The first floor parlours become public offices, while guest rooms were used for mail, in connection with the New York State Constitutional Campaign. The third story, including a workroom, was added in 1895 for use in researching, compiling, and writing the History of Woman Suffrage and the biography of Susan B. Anthony. It was in this house that Anthony breathed her last.

However, following the death of Mary Anthony (Susan’s sister who had subsequently bought the house from their mother), the house passed through several hands, serving as a family dwelling as well as a boarding house.

It was not until 1944, when the Rochester Federation of Women’s Clubs placed a simple marker at the home, demands for converting the house into a memorial began. The following year, they raised funds to buy the house and establish a museum. In 1966, it was declared a National Historic Landmark.

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Susan B Anthony Museum & House (@susanbhouse) on Sep 5, 2019 at 10:22am PDT

Since 1998, the building is being gradually restored to make it look as it was when Anthony lived here. For example, replacing the roof with cedar shingles and yankee gutters, restoration of plaster, walls, ceilings, floors, and windows, installing wallpapers matching them to photos taken during the yesteryears, replicating the original faux-grain painting on doors, floors, and windows, and replacing late-twentieth-century light fixtures with modern equivalents of the original gas lights.

Even though, with pandemic containment rules in place, much of the 45-minute guided tour through the museum is conducted outdoors, with a walk-through of the first floor of the house, featuring the front parlour where she was arrested for voting.