News Release from
The Susan B. Anthony House
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, March 13, 2003
Media Contact: Mary E. McCrank, Public Relations Manager, (585) 279-7490, ext. 17
The Susan B. Anthony House displays wreath in honor of anniversary of Anthony’s death
Rochester, NY - The Susan B. Anthony House will display a wreath of violets on the front door of Anthony’s Madison Street home today (Thursday, March 13, 2003) in commemoration of the 97th anniversary of the suffragist leader’s death.
Anthony died at the age of 86 in her home on March 13, 1906. The day she died, her friends and supporters decorated the door at 17 Madison Street with violets.
After returning to Rochester from to Washington, D.C., where she gave her final speech on her 86th birthday, Anthony climbed the steps of her Madison Street home for the final time. Less than a month later, she died in her bedroom with her sister Mary and friend Anna Howard Shaw at her side. Devoted followers around the nation and the world mourned Anthony, but the people of Rochester grieved most of all. A visitor to the Susan B. Anthony House shared this recollection: Although she had no children of her own, Susan B. Anthony loved all children, especially the neighborhood children who regularly came to the house for homemade cookies. As was their custom, the children came on the morning after Anthony died, but they were turned away empty handed with these words: "There will be no cookies today. Miss Anthony died last evening."
Another visitor recounted that his grandmother scolded him once for taking Anthony’s cookies because, in his grandmother’s opinion, that woman won’t be happy until she has us all wearing pants and smoking cigars!
The wreath of violets will be hung on the door at 17 Madison Street until the House closes for the day at 5 p.m. Violets on the front door of a home was a symbol during the Victorian era that a family was in mourning for the loss of a family member.
"Every year we observe the anniversary of Susan B. Anthony’s death as a way to continue to honor the woman who spent her life working to gain equality for women," said Lorie Lachiusa Barnum, Executive Director of the Susan B. Anthony House. Anthony lived in the red-brick Victorian home from 1866 until 1906. When she was not traveling the country campaigning for women’s rights, she was here, writing and organizing.
Susan B. Anthony worked tirelessly to champion universal suffrage for women. During her last suffrage speech, a month before she died, Anthony told her friends and supporters that "Failure is Impossible." Fourteen years after her death, in 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified. In honor of Anthony’s work, the law was nicknamed the Susan B. Anthony Amendment.
The Susan B. Anthony House was Anthony's home during the most politically active period of her life and the site of her famous arrest for voting in 1872. Anthony's story of courage and determination has been told and re-told to visitors for more than 50 years. The Susan B. Anthony House, a National Historic Landmark Museum, is supported primarily through the contributions of its members.
