Letter: Anthony Birthplace Museum Supports Scenic Rail
 |
To the Editor:
I understand the Scenic Railway in the Berkshires is nearly complete. Only one mile needs to be laid in order to access North Adams and the town of Adams. The cost still needed is for the labor, not the materials.
Susan B. Anthony — Massachusetts, Berkshires and our country's greatest heroine — will tell you that the railway represents the movement of suffrage across the United States. I can see Susan getting off and on at small towns and municipalities across America, then into stage coaches to carry her to the assigned town hall, or school board meeting, or quilting bee where she spread the message of women and their right to vote. Because she traveled before photography was popular, Susan wore a red shawl to identify her to the journalists who were there along with the mobs (both in support of and opposed to) to greet her.
Within the next few years, the Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum, along with other history institutions in the Berkshires and throughout the state, are coordinating One Hundred Events for One Hundred Years. We are celebrating the National Suffrage Centennial, commemorating the Susan B. Anthony (19th) Amendment to the U.S. Constitution giving women the right to vote.
http://.www.celebratesuffrage.org
This statewide commemoration begins in 2018 and climaxes in 2020, the 100th anniversary of the amendment to enfranchise women. Massachusetts has more native suffragist leaders than in any other state in the country.
The scenic railway will give an added boost not only to tourism for the area during this historical time, but will add to the authentic ambiance of the suffrage era.
Carol Crossed
Crossed is president of the Susan B. Anthony Birthplace & Museum in Adams, Mass.
Tags: scenic rail, Susan B. Anthony,
