Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum
Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum

ADAMS, Mass., Aug. 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — The modest home at 67 East Road in Adams, Massachusetts, is decked out this month in purple bunting sashes, white flora, and golden flowers. The home, where visitors are stopping to take selfies, is the birthplace of civil rights icon, Susan B. Anthony.

The colors the suffragists wore and used in their banners — purple, white and yellow — stand for eminence, purity and hope. The house is decorated in honor of the 100th anniversary of the passing of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution giving women the right to vote. Known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, it was finally passed 14 years after her death, in 1920.

The Federal-style house built by Anthony’s father, Daniel, in 1818, is now the Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum.

“The sunflower, the flower of Kansas, represents the state that first acknowledged women’s enfranchisement,” said Carol Crossed, president of the Birthplace Museum. “We’ve covered the grounds of her home with bursts of gold. The home is beribboned in a purple silk fabric, and wreaths hang from every door. An amendment to the U.S. Constitution has never looked so vibrant.”

It is not only 100 years ago that one-half of the population of the United States was recognized but also 200 years, in 1820, that the world’s most recognized feminist, Susan B. Anthony, was born.

Like other galleries and museums, COVID-19 has greatly limited indoor visitations. “We want to bring Susan outside, to showcase the place of her birth,” Crossed said. “Visitors are already taking selfies and sharing them with their friends. Susan would wish communication had been this easy when she traveled the country throughout her life, fighting for the vote for women.”

The Susan B. Anthony birthplace was restored, and opened in the spring of 2010. The two-story Federal-style house at the foot of Mount Greylock depicts family and work life and the Quaker community in the early 1800s, and includes Daniel Anthony’s store, the room where Anthony was born, a portrait gallery, authentic period pieces, ephemera and a detailed timeline.

For more information on the Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum, go to susanbanthonybirthplace.org.