'Rightfully Hers' Tours Popup Display Tours Berkshire Libraries

08:28AM / Saturday, October 12, 2024Print Story | Email Story

ADAMS, Mass. — The Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum announces a touring pop-up display which highlights the fight for the right to vote and encourage civic engagement this election year.

The Rightfully Hers display was produced in 2020 for the centennial of Women's Suffrage with the support of Unilever, The National Archives Foundation, Pivotal Ventures, Carl M. Freeman Foundation, the AARP & Denise Gwyn Ferguson. The four-panel display highlights the final years of the suffragist fight for the right to vote, the passage of the 19th amendment, and ways that we can work to ensure the right to vote for all citizens today.

"We received two copies of this display from Dr. Shannon M. Risk of Niagara University after her presentation at the museum this past June," James Capuzzi, Executive Director of the Museum said. "The museum is excited to share them with Berkshire County in hopes that they ignite a conversation about the struggles women faced to gain the power to vote and encourage all people now to vote in federal, state, and local elections."

Rightfully Hers will be on display at the following libraries this Fall: Adams Free Library, 92 Park Street Adams, MA 01220, now through September 30, David & Joyce Milne Public Library, 1095 Main Street Williamstown, MA 01267 from September 30 - October 17, the Berkshire Athenaeum, 1 Wendell Ave Pittsfield, MA 01201 from October 15 -26, and the Lenox Library, 18 Main Street Lenox, MA 01240 from October 18 - November 2.

Alongside the exhibit, the League of Women Voters will be tabling at the Berkshire Athenaeum as we approach election day to ensure residents are registered and know their polling locations and other important voting information. The tour will conclude with a reenactment of Susan B. Anthony at the Lenox Library at 2:00 PM titled "Vote with Susan B. Anthony." Attendees will hear the story of Berkshire native Susan B. Anthony and make their own "Vote" buttons.

"It is important that people understand the immense hardships that different groups in the United States have undergone in order to exercise their right to vote," James Capuzzi said. "Women were imprisoned, beaten, starved, and force-fed for silent protests outside the White House. We can honor their sacrifice by voting in this, and every, election."

Tags: Susan B. Anthony,

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Letter: Progress Means Moving on Paper Mill Cleanup

Letter to the Editor05:00PM / Wednesday, February 11, 2026

To the Editor:

Our town is facing a clear choice: move a long-abandoned industrial site toward cleanup and productive use or allow it to remain a deteriorating symbol of inaction.

The Community Development team has applied for a $4 million EPA grant to remediate the former Curtis Mill property, a site that has sat idle for more than two decades. The purpose of this funding is straightforward: address environmental concerns and prepare the property for safe commercial redevelopment that can contribute to our tax base and economic vitality.

Yet opposition has emerged based on arguments that miss the point of what this project is designed to do. We are hearing that basement vats should be preserved, that demolition might create dust, and that the plan is somehow "unimaginative" because it prioritizes cleanup and feasibility over wishful reuse of a contaminated, aging structure.

These objections ignore both the environmental realities of the site and the strict federal requirements tied to this grant funding. Given the condition of most of the site's existing buildings, our engineering firm determined it was not cost-effective to renovate. Without cleanup, no private interest will risk investment in this site now or in the future.

This is not a blank check renovation project. It is an environmental remediation effort governed by safety standards, engineering assessments, and financial constraints. Adding speculative preservation ideas or delaying action risks derailing the very funding that makes cleanup possible in the first place. Without this grant, the likely outcome is not a charming restoration, it is continued vacancy, ongoing deterioration, and zero economic benefit.

For more than 20 years, the property has remained unused. Now, when real funding is within reach to finally address the problem, we should be rallying behind a practical path forward not creating obstacles based on narrow or unrealistic preferences.

I encourage residents to review the proposal materials and understand what is truly at stake. The Adams Board of Selectmen and Community Development staff have done the hard work to put our town in position for this opportunity. That effort deserves support.

Progress sometimes requires letting go of what a building used to be so that the community can gain what it needs to become.

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