Susan B. Anthony Revisits the Fight for Women's Voting Rights

Apr 15, 2024 gweber

Reenactor Meg Geffken as ‘Susan B. Anthony’ appeared at the Thomas T. Taber Museum on Thursday, April 11, 2024. The well attended lecture celebrated Women’s History Month at the museum. The lecture was underwritten by a generous grant from VanCampen Motors.

Susan B. Anthony was a key figure in the quest for equal rights. Born into a Quaker family in 1820, Anthony was soon involved in the cause for the abolition of slavery, collecting petitions at the tender age of 17. By the age of thirty-one, she was serving as the New York State agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society.

Meg Geffken as ‘Susan B. Anthony’

In 1851, she met Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who became a lifelong friend. Together, they championed the cause of women’s rights and the end of slavery. During the Civil War period, the two women formed the Women’s Loyal National League and collected approximately 400,000 signatures which urged the abolition of slavery. Anthony and Stanton advocated equal rights for women and African Americans after the war with the formation of the American Equal Rights Association. Influenced by the two women, an amendment was introduced in Congress by California Senator Aaron A. Sargent in 1878. It soon became known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment and was later ratified in 1920 as the Nineteenth Amendment, giving women the right to vote.

Meg Geffken has also portrayed other notable women at the Taber Museum, including Eleanor Roosevelt, Abigail Geisinger, Amelia Earhart, Clara Barton, Marilyn Monroe and Queen Victoria. As always, her portrayal was well researched and realistic.