Susan B. Anthony: A Timeline

The following is a chronology of key points in the life of Susan B. Anthony. This timeline will help the user better understand the exhibition, which is organized chronologically by decade.

1820-1860

  • 1820: February 15, Susan B. Anthony (SBA) was born in Adams, Massachussetts.
  • 1826: SBA moves with family to Battenville, New York.
  • 1837: SBA attends Deborah Moulson's Quaker School for Girls in Philadelphia
  • 1838: SBA's father goes bankrupt in economic depression.
  • 1839: SBA begins her teaching career.
  • 1845: SBA moves with her family to Rochester, New York.
  • 1846: SBA heads female department at Canajoharie Academy.
  • 1849: SBA returns to Rochester to run her family's farm.
  • 1849: SBA begins work in the temperance and abolitionist movements.
  • 1851: SBA meets Elizabeth Cady Stanton for the first time. 
  • 1852: SBA attends her first Women's Rights Convention in Syracuse, New York.
  • 1853: With Stanton, SBA founds the NYS Women's Temperance Society
  • 1854: With Ernestine Rose, SBA campaigns throughout New York State to extend provisions of the NYS Married Women's Property Law
  • 1856: SBA becomes an agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society

1861-1870

  • 1861: SBA conducts a "No Compromise with Slaveholders" tour of upstate New York.
  • 1862: With Stanton, SBA organizes National Woman's Loyal League
  • 1862: SBA's father, Daniel Anthony dies.
  • 1866: SBA's mother and her sister Mary Anthony move into the house on Madison Street.
  • 1866: SBA helps found the American Equal Rights Association to advocate for Universal Suffrage.
  • 1867: SBA presents petitions supporting women's suffrage to the NYS Constitutional Convention
  • 1867: SBA canvasses Kansas with Stanton and George Francis Train on behalf of a woman suffrage referendum.
  • 1868: Establishes The Revolution with Stanton and the financial backing of Train. 
  • 1868: SBA attends National Labor Union Association as a delegate of the Working Women's Association.
  • 1868: Woman's Suffrage movement splits over the 14th amendment and tactics.
  • 1869: With Stanton, SBA establishes National Woman Suffrage Association.
  • 1870: SBA and Stanton sell The Revolution and becomes a lecturer on the Lyceum circuit to pay off the newspaper's 10,000 dollar debt.

1871-1880

  • 1871: SBA travels with Stanton to California, Oregon and Washington Territory on Suffrage lecture tour. 
  • 1871: SBA testifies with Isabella Beecher Hooker in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on behalf of federal suffrage amendment.
  • 1872: SBA casts her vote in Rochester to test the theory that the 14th and 15th amendments gave women the right to vote. 
  • 1873: SBA is tried and convicted of committing the federal crime of voting.
  • 1873: SBA becomes embroiled in the Beecher-Tilton Scandal.
  • 1873: SBA's sister Guelma Anthony McLean dies.
  • 1876: SBA presents the Declaration of Rights of Women at Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. 
  • 1877: SBA's sister Hannah Anthony Mosher dies.
  • 1877: SBA campaigns in Colorado for the suffrage amendment.
  • 1880: SBA's mother Lucy Reed Anthony dies.
  • 1880: With Stanton and Matilda Joclyn Gage, begins compiling History of Woman Suffrage. 

1881-1890

  • 1881: SBA publishes volume one of History of Woman Suffrage. Volume two is published in 1882, and volume three in 1886. 
  • 1881: SBA forges a closer alliance with the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and faces criticism from Stanton, Gage, and others who fear the Union's conservative influence. 
  • 1883: SBA tours England and Europe with Rachel Foster Avery.
  • 1885: SBA receives bequest from Eliza Jackson Eddy, and uses the funds to publish the third volume of History of Woman Suffrage.
  • 1886: The U.S. Senate votes for the first time on a proposed woman suffrage amendment, and loses 34 to 16.
  • 1888: SBA helps plan and lead the meeting on the International Council of Women.
  • 1889: Negotiates merger of the National American Woman Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association
  • 1890: Attends first convention of the newly organized American Woman Suffrage Association
  • 1890: Campaigns throughout South Dakota for woman suffrage referendum

1891-1900:

  • 1891: SBA decides to make house on Madison Street her permanent home
  • 1892: SBA elected President of National American Woman Suffrage Association
  • 1893: SBA attends Columbian Exposition and World's Congress of Representative Women in Chicago
  • 1894: SBA leads suffrage campaigns in Kansas and NYS
  • 1896: SBA defends Stanton's Woman's Bible
  • 1896: SBA leads suffrage campaign in California
  • 1897: SBA works with Ida Husted Harper to write her biography
  • 1898: Volumes 1 and 2 of The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony are published; volume 3 is published in 1908
  • 1899: SBA attends International Council of Women in London
  • 1900: SBA resigns Presidency of NAWSA
  • 1900: SBA raises money to admit women to University of Rochester
  • 1900: 80th birthday celebration held in Washington, DC
  • 1900: Brother Jacob Merritt Anthony dies

1901-1906:

  • 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
Susan B. Anthony: A Timeline