"Autographs and Timeless Wisdom" SBA Autograph Exhibit Launching August 4th

Autographs and Timeless Wisdom

Original Susan B. Anthony Quote and Signature Exhibit Launching August 4th

The Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum is proud to present its “Autographs and Timeless Wisdom” exhibit set to open on August 4th in honor of the month commemorating Women’s Equality Day, the day women were first given the right to vote in 1920. The exhibit will feature a recently donated Gilded Age era autograph book holding Susan B. Anthony’s authenticated quote and signature.

The hand-written quote may be the only one in existence as it is undocumented in any of Anthony’s archived speeches or correspondence. Dated 1900 in Rochester, New York, the entry reads:

*Whether possessed of the characteristics of the oak, the vine or the flower all truly developed human beings love liberty and demand for themselves and their fellows the possession of equality of rights, privileges and immunities irrespective of sex or any mere accident of birth!*

In addition to Anthony’s salutation, the 5”x9” leather-bound volume holds the signatures and words of prominent American social reformers, scientists, and writers. These include, among others, Booker T. Washington, Mark Twain, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and Hellen Keller.

All pages of the book have been digitized and will be available for viewing on the kiosk in the museum’s kitchen. Also included is an interactive section for children to practice their own signatures.