"A Heroic Life": 1901-1906
Portrait of Susan B. Anthony, 1905.
1901: SBA works with Ida Husten Harper to write volume 4 of the History of Woman Suffrage, which is publoshed in 1902.
1902: Elizabeth Cady Stanton dies.
1904: SBA attends meeting of International Council of Women in Berlin, Germany.
1904: Brother Daniel Read Anthony dies.
1905: SBA attends NAWSA conventional in Portland, OR.
1905: SBA meets with President Theodore Roosevelt to encourage him to publicly support woman suffrage, which he declines to do.
1906: SBA attends her last NAWSA convention in Baltimore, MD.
1906, March 13: SBA dies in her Rochester Home.
1906, March 15: Funeral held in Central Presbyterian Church; buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery.
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Anthony home calendar, 1901, with selections from the letters and speeches of Miss Anthony.
"The Anthony Home Calendar" for 1901 features photographs of the Anthony home taken by Frances Benjamin Johnston and quotations from Anthony’s letters and speeches.
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Report, First International Woman Suffrage Conference held at Washington, U.S.A., February 12-18, 1902, in connection with and by invitation of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.
Carrie Chapman Catt, who in 1900 succeeded Susan B. Anthony as president of the NAWSA, founded the International Woman Suffrage Association. The first meeting was held in Washington, DC in February 1902 with representatives from ten countries attending.
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Rochester Blue Book, 1904.
Being prominent Rochester residents, Susan B. Anthony and her sister Mary are included in the 1904 Rochester Blue Book. Their entry indicates that guests could visit on Monday evenings. Since Susan was often away from home, it was probably Mary who most often entertained any Monday evening callers.
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Letter from Susan B. Anthony to Mary Lewis Gannett, June 17, 1904.
In 1904, at the age of eighty-four, Susan B. Anthony traveled to Germany to attend another meeting of the International Council of Women. In this June 17, 1904 letter to Mary Lewis Gannett, Anthony describes the banquet.
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Photograph of the banquet for the International Council of Women meeting in Berlin, 1904.
Susan B. Anthony at the International Council of Women meeting in 1904 in Berlin, Germany.
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Under the auspices of the Rochester Political Equality Club, a party to celebrate Susan B. Anthony’s eighty-fifth birthday was held in the home of William Channing and Mary Lewis Gannett. Recognition was also given to Mary Anthony who had served for many years as the president of the club. In response to all the tributes, Susan B. Anthony replied, "you may compliment women, pet them, worship them, but if you do not recognize their claim to justice, it is all as nothing."
Program for the Woman's Political Equality Club’s tribute to Susan B. Anthony and Mary S. Anthony on the occasion of Susan’s 85th birthday.
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Gold stick pins and fruit knife owned by Susan B. Anthony.
Gold stickpins and a fruit knife owned by Susan B. Anthony.
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Photograph of Susan B. Anthony, Mary S. Anthony, and the officers of the NAWSA, 1905.
In 1905 Susan B. Anthony, accompanied by her sister Mary, traveled to Portland, Oregon to attend the National American Woman Suffrage Association annual convention where this photograph was taken.
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Thirty-Eighth Annual Convention program, National American Woman Suffrage Association, 1906.
The month before she died, Susan B. Anthony attended the 1906 NAWSA annual convention in Baltimore, Maryland. Already ill when she left Rochester, she was only present at a few sessions, but she did make an appearance at the celebration to honor her 86th birthday. She could not make a formal speech, but she thanked the officers of the national association and then recognized that, "There have been others also just as true and devoted to the cause--I wish I could name every one--but with such women consecrating their lives, failure is impossible." These final three words were the last she would speak in public and they became the rallying cry of those who carried on the suffrage work.
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In memoriam: Susan B. Anthony, February 15, 1820-March 13, 1906.
Susan B. Anthony died at 12:40 AM on Tuesday, March 13, 1906 of what her doctor described as "heart failure induced by pneumonia of both lungs." The funeral was held on March 15 in Central Presbyterian Church (now the Hochstein School of Music), because it was Rochester’s largest church.
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Plaster medallion presented by Mary S. Anthony to Ethel J. Kates, one of the honorary pallbearers at Susan B. Anthony’s funeral.
Ethel J. Kates (Class of 1906) was one the University of Rochester women students who served as an honorary pallbearer at the funeral of Susan B. Anthony. Mary Anthony presented this plaster medallion to Kates as a remembrance of the occasion.
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"Body of Miss Anthony laying in state in church," the Rochester Herald, March 16, 1906.
Before the funeral began the church doors were opened to give people the opportunity to pay their last respects. The newspaper estimated that between 10:00AM and 1:00PM some eight to ten thousand people passed by her casket and after the service hundreds more did so.
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Photographs of the reenactment of Susan B. Anthony’s funeral on March 25, 2006.
The Susan B. Anthony House presented an historical reenactment of the funeral at the Hochstein School on March 25, 2006. As they did at the original funeral, University of Rochester students took part in the service.
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Pastor William Channing Gannett describes the funeral of Susan B. Anthony.
William Channing Gannett participated at the funeral service for Susan B. Anthony. In this letter, written on March 16, 1906 he describes the event.
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