Portrait of Susan B. Anthony, 1899.

1891: SBA decides to make house on Madison Street her permanent home
1892: SBA elected President of National American Woman Suffrage Association
1893: SBA attends Columbian Exposition and World's Congress of Representative Women in Chicago
1894: SBA leads suffrage campaigns in Kansas and NYS
1896: SBA defends Stanton's Woman's Bible
1896: SBA leads suffrage campaign in California
1897: SBA works with Ida Husted Harper to write her biography
1898: Volumes 1 and 2 of The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony are published; volume 3 is published in 1908
1899: SBA attends International Council of Women in London
1900: SBA resigns Presidency of NAWSA
1900: SBA raises money to admit women to University of Rochester
1900: 80th birthday celebration held in Washington, DC
1900: Brother Jacob Merritt Anthony dies

________________________________________________________________

Photograph of Susan B. Anthony and Mary S. Anthony standing on the porch of their home at 17 Madison Street in Rochester.

After years of traveling, staying in hotels and being a guest in private homes, Susan B. Anthony decided in 1891--at the age of seventy-one--that it was time for her to have a home of her own. Since their mother’s death in 1880, her sister Mary had rented the lower part of the house at 17 Madison Street to boarders. Now, with Susan’s decision to go into housekeeping, the boarders were dispatched and the house was completely redone including the addition of a third floor workroom and the installation of bay windows and fireplaces in the back parlor and her second floor office.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Letter from Susan B. Anthony to Sarah Hallowell, May 21, 1891.

Despite Anthony’s intention to enjoy her new home, she continued to be away much of the time on suffrage business. In this letter to old friends Mary and Sarah Hallowell, Anthony asks them to pass on several suggestions about rugs and woodwork to sister Mary, who was at home dealing with the renovations.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Photograph of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton on the front porch of the Anthony House, 1891.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton stayed with Susan B. Anthony for the month of September 1891. Anthony hoped that Stanton would share her home in Rochester. Stanton, who did not relish the idea of being daily harassed by Anthony to do suffrage work, declined the offer.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Greeting read by Susan B. Anthony on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the First Unitarian Church of Rochester.

On May 1-2, 1892, the First Unitarian Church of Rochester celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. Though born a Quaker, Susan B. Anthony attended the Unitarian Church for many years. Unable to be at the celebration, she wrote this greeting to be read by her sister Mary.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

World's Congress Auxiliary of the World's Columbian Exposition: the Woman's Branch of the Auxiliary, Memorial Art Palace, August 7th to 12th, 1893. Department Congress of the National-American Woman Suffrage Association.

Susan B. Anthony spent much of 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. One of the major events was the week-long World’s Congress of Representative Women attended by 528 delegates representing 126 organizations from 27 countries. The Exposition also hosted several Congresses on various topics and, as part of the Congress on Government, the National American Woman Suffrage Association held meetings between August 7 and12. The afternoon session on August 9 was devoted to a discussion of the upcoming suffrage campaigns in Kansas and New York State.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Newspaper clippings about Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s controversial Woman’s Bible.

In 1895 Elizabeth Cady Stanton published the Woman's Bible. This critical commentary on the Bible was the culmination of Stanton's conviction that religious teachings were a root cause of the prejudice against women. Many suffragists, including Susan B. Anthony's most loyal followers Rachel Foster Avery and Anna Howard Shaw, believed that the Woman’s Bible was too radical and would injure the movement. At the 1896 NAWSA convention, they demanded that the organization repudiate the book. Anthony protested--"I shall be pained beyond expression if the delegates here are so narrow and illiberal as to adopt this resolution"--but she was outvoted.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Reunion of the pioneers and friends of woman's progress, on the eightieth birthday of Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Metropolitan Opera House, New York, Tuesday evening, November 12, 1895.

Program for Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s eightieth birthday celebration at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City on November 12, 1895. Reflecting the strained relationship that existed between the NAWSA and Stanton, the event was sponsored by The National Council of Women. Susan B. Anthony helped organize the celebration and gave a talk on "Suffrage." Others, including Clara Barton, Julia Ward Howe, and Harriet Hosmer, spoke on the progress of women in the professions, philanthropy and the arts.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Fruit knife owned by Susan B. Anthony.

This fruit knife is engraved with Susan B. Anthony’s name. It is perhaps the one given to her as a Christmas gift in 1899 by her niece Lucy.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

To voters! : Assembly constitutional amendment, no. 11 : a resolution to propose to the people of the state of California an amendment to section 1 of article II of the Constitution, in relation to the right of suffrage.

In 1896 a referendum was put before the male voters of California to add an amendment to the State’s constitution that would give women the vote. As she did so often when such referendums were held in various states, Susan B. Anthony spent months leading the campaign in favor of the amendment. Once again she was disappointed when the referendum lost by a substantial majority.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Letter from Susan B. Anthony to Mary Lewis Gannett, August 15, 1898.

Susan B. Anthony writes Mary Lewis Gannett on August 15, 1898 soliciting a letter of endorsement for Ida Wells Barnett and her anti-lynching campaign. Writing during the Spanish-American War, Anthony points out the irony of the United States going to war to protest Spain’s mistreatment of their colonists while allowing American citizens to be lynched.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ida Husted Harper, a suffragist and journalist from Indiana first met Anthony in 1896 during the unsuccessful California suffrage campaign. Harper had been in charge of press relations and Anthony, impressed with her efforts, asked Harper to become her official biographer. The work was done in the third floor attic of the Anthony House using as source material Anthony’s diaries, letters received for over fifty years, and accumulated newspaper clippings. The advertisement states "this is the only authentic biography of her that ever can be written, as the letters and documents will not be accessible to other historians." Harper could make this assertion because many of the letters were burned after the biography was published.

The first two volumes were published by Bowen-Merrill in late 1898; the third volume was published in 1908, two years after Anthony’s death.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Drawing of Susan B. Anthony receiving the "Chautauqua Salute" during her visit to England in 1899.

In May 1899 Susan B. Anthony sailed for London to attend a meeting of the International Council of Women. The July 7, 1899 issue of Rochester’s Post Express reports on the warm reception Anthony received when she spoke at Westminster Hall on "Women in Politics." The article includes a drawing of the audience waving their white handkerchiefs at Anthony in a "Chautauqua Salute."
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Poem written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton for Susan B. Anthony’s 80th birthday on February 15, 1900.

On February 15, 1900 a large reception was held at the Lafayette Opera House in Washington, DC in honor of Susan B. Anthony’s 80th birthday. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who was unable to attend, wrote this poem "to her life-long friend and co-worker" in which she reminisces about their many years together.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Portrait of Ella Salome Wilcoxen, class of 1901.

Ella Salome Wilcoxen, class of 1901. She was the first woman to graduate from the University of Rochester.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________