SUSAN B. ANTHONY

It's four years away from the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, the amendment that prohibited any United States citizen from being denied the right to vote on the basis of sex. And last Thursday (August 18) the 96th anniversary of this landmark legislation was celebrated at the Susan B. Anthony Museum in Rochester, just a "hop, skip and a jump" away from the Bullis Room.

Again, we remind you that The Life and Works of Susan B. Anthony  by Ida Husted Harper (1851-1931) is on the Bullis Room shelves.  Just ask for help at the library's front desk for help in locating and using this book.  (Just looking through it gives the reader a much greater appreciation of Anthony's accomplishments.)

We also hope you'll click on this link for our 2009 post on this blog, highlighting Nettie Bullis's influence on other women and girls of her generation as well as the work of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton:

http://bullisbookchronicles.blogspot.de/2009/08/womens-equality.html

SUSAN B. ANTHONY

This week Women's History Month arrived and reminded us to look thorough our data base for books on local women of great achievement. Ida Husted Harper's work, The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony: including public addresses, her own letters, and many from her contemporaries during fifty years (Indianapois: Bowen-Merrill, 1899, c.1898) immediately came to our attention.

Harper's dedication states: "To woman, for whose freedom Susan B. Anthony has given fifty years of noble endeavor this book is dedicated." In her introduction, she also states that "...in preparing these volumes over 20,000 letters have been read and, whenever possible, some of them used to tell the story, especially those written by Miss Anthony...." (Vol. 1, p. viii) This is a work of art by a woman, about a woman, and at times in the latter's own words.

There are over a thousand pages and 24 plates in these two volumes. Harper added a third volume to this set, but the Bullis Room has only the first two. All three volumes are available for loan to patrons in the PLS system. We encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to study the life of this great woman.

Harper's dedication states: "To woman, for whose freedom Susan B. Anthony has given fifty years of noble endeavor this book is dedicated." One hundred years later, we are grateful to Susan B. Anthony for her noble endeavors and to Ida Husted Harper for leaving us this comprehensive record of Miss Anthony's accomplishments.

WOME'S SUFFRAGE

The election this week focused our attention on a Bullis Collection book about a local women who played a significant role in attaining voting rights for women: The life and work of Susan B. Anthony: Including public addresses, her own letters and many from her contemporaries during fifty years, by Ida Husted Harper (Indianapolis: Bowen-Merrill, 1899). The title describes the contents, and it is a good read for anyone who wants to learn more about the struggle for suffrage in this country.

We wonder if Nettie Bullis read Ida Harper's book and how she might have been influenced by its message. The latter, we'll focus on in another posting.

Until then, please stop by the Bullis Room when you're in the library. If no one is on duty in the room when you're there, you can still look at the Bullis books displayed in the glassed case to the left of the window.

P.S. We also noticed that on this day in 1872, Susan B. Anthony defied the law by attempting to vote for President Ulysses S. Grant. (She was convicted but never paid the $100 fine give her by the judge.)