(image via wikipedia)

Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less. – Susan B. Anthony

Susan B. Anthony’s name is rightly synonymous with early feminism and the suffrage movement in America. She campaigned tirelessly for a woman’s right to vote; she was even arrested for casting an illegal ballot in Rochester, NY and refused to pay the fine. Along with her lifelong colleague and friend Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she introduced an early draft of the amendment which, years later after her death, finally gave women the right to vote in the United States in 1920. She was fierce, intelligent, and committed and will forever be one of the most inspirational figures in American History.

Here’s an excerpt from her obituary that first ran in the New York Times on March 13, 1906. As well as highlighting her acheivements, it also mentions the scandal she caused by wearing Turkish trousers! Read it in full here.

Susan Brownell Anthony was a pioneer leader of the cause of woman suffrage, and her energy was tireless in working for what she considered to be the best interests of womankind. At home and abroad she had innumerable friends, not only among those who sympathized with her views, but among those who held opinions radically opposed to her. In recent years her age made it impossible for her to continue active participation in all the movements for the enfranchisement of women with which she had been connected, but she was at the time of her death the Honorary President of the National Woman Suffrage Association, the society which she and Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized in 1869.

Miss Anthony possessed a figure of medium size, a firm but rather pleasing face, clear hazel eyes, and dark hair which she always wore combed smoothly over the ears and bound in a coil at the back. She paid much attention to dress and advised those associated in the movement for women suffrage to be punctilious in all matters pertaining to the toilet. For a little over a year in the early fifties she wore a bloomer costume, consisting of a short skirt and a pair of Turkish trousers gathered at the ankles. So great an outcry arose against the innovation both from the pulpit and the press that she was subjected to many indignities, and forced to abandon it.

For more information and resources, check out the National Susan B. Anthony Museum & House’s site here!