Anthony Birthplace Museum Opening 'Hand in Hand' Exhibit
One of four plaster casts of the clasp between Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton will be on display at the Anthony Birthplace Museum beginning Aug. 24. Other items on display were donated on permanent loan by Nora Sabo, Anthony's great-grandniece.
The opening coincides with the anniversary of Aug. 26, 1920, the date the U.S. Secretary of State certified the 19th Amendment, giving women in the United States, from Maine to California, the national constitutional right to vote.
"On this day, over a century later, we recognize the women who led the charge to glorious victory: Susan Brownell Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton," museum President Carol Crossed said in a statement. "Their mutual leadership, their dependence on one another, and the value they placed on collaboration are portrayed in this clasped rendering of their affection for one another in their struggle to win for women the right to vote."
"Hand in Hand" features a plaster cast of the famous handshake. The cast is one of only four made by Anthony and Stanton and gifted nearly 128 years ago to significant Anthony and Stanton family members and friends.
Besides the plaster cast, the exhibit features Anthony's personal bank book and a letter penned by Anthony to her nephew Luther "Bert" Anthony. In it, Anthony advises her nephew in his career and offers sound, critical advice in an honest but affectionate tone, showing she was a loving and supportive aunt.
Items displayed in the exhibit were donated on permanent loan by Nora Sabo, daughter of Charlotte Anthony Sabo and granddaughter of Susan B. Anthony's favorite nephew, Bert Anthony. Charlotte Sabo had a career as a voice teacher, songwriter, and folksinger, joining union organizers with her second husband, Van Tyne. Known as Charlotte Anthony, she traveled the country performing with legendary singers of the era including Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, and Pete Seeger. She died in 2015 at the age of 97.
Susan B. Anthony was born in the East Road farmhouse, now a museum, on Feb. 15, 1820. She spent much of her life fighting for civil rights, in particular the abolition of slavery and women's right to vote. She and Stanton met in 1851 and spent 50 years working, writing, lecturing and advocating together for women's suffrage.
The cast was made by sculptor Meb Culbertson in 1895, when both women were in New York City to celebrate Stanton's 80th birthday. A bronze of the clasp is on display in Stanton's home at the Women's Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, N.Y.
The exhibit will be open to the public through the fall season.
The museum is located at 67 East Road and is open Thursday through Sunday from 10 to 4; for more information: 413-743-7121 or www.susanbanthonybirthplace.com.
Tags: Susan B. Anthony,
