ADAMS, Mass. — Susan B. Anthony has been hiding under a plastic wrap for nearly a year.

 

She's finally about to make her debut.

 

The bronze statue commemorating the voting rights activist is set to be unveiled on Thursday morning at the Town Common with special speaker Lt Gov. Karyn Polito.

 

Also attending will be Brian Hanlon, the artist who sculpted the figures of Anthony as an adult and a child.

 

The statue was supposed to be installed in the renovated park last year as part of a double celebration of Anthony's 200th birthday and the centennial of the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote. 

 

The celebration planned by the Adams Suffrage Centennial Celebration Committee was going to culminate in August with a weekend's worth of activities but the emergence of the novel coronavirus force the cancelation of numerous events.

 

The statue itself was installed last September but wrapped up for protection until the park could be completed. 

 

The common at the south end of Park Street has new pathways, a new gazebo in the eastern corner and a small plaza featuring the Susan B. Anthony memorial. 

 

The monument is made up of three pieces — a stepped granite base, the adult Anthony orating (she crisscrossed the nation during her adulthood giving 75 to 100 speeches a year on the subject of suffrage), and Anthony as a child sitting on the lower steps of the base.

 

The civil rights icon was born on East Road and lived there until her family moved when she was 6. She died in 1906, 14 years before the final passage of what is often called the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. She frequently returned to Adams to visit relatives whose descendants still live in the area. Her birthplace is now a museum.

 

The ceremony starts at 9:30 on Thursday, June 24; attendees are encouraged to bring lawn chairs for the speaking portion of the event.