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Woman Suffrage Party's Old Safe To Be Unlocked Tomorrow
By
Alice Severs
Published Jun 24, 2013
Modified Jun 24, 2013
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By
Alice Severs
Published Jun 24, 2013
Modified Jun 24, 2013
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A metal safe emblazoned with the words "Woman Suffrage Party" has been locked up tight right here in New York, with its combination long forgotten. That is, until tomorrow, when a locksmith winds its dial to an era long passed and opens the safe, which sits in the Manhattan office of the National Council of Women of the United States, an organization founded by Susan B. Anthony and Clara Barton among others in 1888. Because of limited funds, the safe has gathered dust until this year, which also marks the organization's 125th anniversary.
Scholars and women's rights enthusiasts excitedly ponder the safe's contents and wonder if the locked info could have been top secret, "Will we find the names of 'closet feminists'—secret high-level supporters who felt they could not back the radical group publicly?" asks Catherine Cerulli, director of the Susan B. Anthony Center for Women's Leadership at the University of Rochester.
The black box might provide new insight into notions of community and standing together, which were vital to the suffrage movement—Kaitlin Legg, Program Assistant with the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender and Women's Studies, wonders if the safe could hold, "Letters, or something that illuminates the relationships between the women who were fighting for women's suffrage... We think of suffragists as these strong women who were fighting independently, and it would be nice to see the more nuanced relationships they had together."
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Alice Severs
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