AAUW Corner: The Invincible Susan B. Anthony

By Kay Hardy Campbell

The Hingham Journal

April 5, 2007

Mission Statement: AAUW advances equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, and research.

Hingham, MA…Women’s suffrage advocate Susan B. Anthony made a personal appearance on March 13^th at Hingham’s Linden Ponds, courtesy of historical enactor Sally Matson of Andover. Her original one-woman show, Susan B. Anthony…the Invincible!, was sponsored by the American Association of University Women, in honor of Women’s History Month.

In her show, Matson speaks as Susan B. Anthony, following her life through the major events and causes she fought for; temperance, the abolition of slavery, women’s rights and women’s suffrage. At the core of the presentation is Anthony’s famous trial for having voted illegally in the 1872 presidential election, and her many road trips across the country speaking out to rally support for her causes.

As her subject grows older through the show, Matson too takes on the demeanor of an aging woman. She garners laughs from the audience, peppering her dialogue with Anthony’s wry, self-deprecating humor.

She reads a description of Anthony from The New York World, “Susan is lean, cadaverous, and intellectual, with the proportions of a file and the voice of a hurdy gurdy." 

With her trained actor’s voice and pleasant appearance, Matson hardly fits that description, though at 5’10”, she is tall for her generation, much as Anthony was for hers, at 5’5”. Her costume features bloomers, pantaloons that women’s rights advocates like Anthony advocated, as well as a carefully designed two-piece outfit made of antique brown faille. A friend added an authentic flounce to add weight to her skirts. Another made her an authentic period petticoat that she shows off with her bloomers. She wears an antique lace jabot at her neck, pins on her grandmother’s cameo, and wraps herself in a red shawl, Anthony’s signature accessory.

“It gives me the chills sometimes to put all of it on. I get into the mood to perform as I tie my hair into a bun, and as I put on that top with its 23 buttons. It’s such an ordeal to get into the costume, no matter how many times I’ve done it. It takes a very long time.”

Since it takes so long to get dressed for her role, Matson usually drives to and from her appearances in-costume. She wanders through schools and office buildings, often not eliciting a second glance from passers-by.

Once, while waiting in costume to perform at an assisted living facility, she noticed a resident smiling at her. She approached the woman and asked, “Do you know who I am?”

“No,” the woman answered, “But if you go to the Front Desk they can tell you.”

An actor and former high school English teacher, Matson began developing the idea for her one-woman show in 2000. She had been working as a guide at Lowell’s American Textile History Museum where she had immersed herself in the history of the mills and women in Massachusetts. She ultimately chose Susan B. Anthony as her show’s subject, believing that she was important, yet little known, given the great contributions she made to the advancement of women’s rights.

After researching and writing her show for two years, she debuted her presentation at the historical society and library in Andover. She now gives about 30 performances each year in schools, corporations, libraries and senior centers.

Matson recently designed two new programs tailored to elementary school audiences and has begun presenting them on the North Shore. She has simplified the program to suit a younger crowd and has added visuals like maps and posters.

At the end of her shows, she enjoys discussing Anthony’s life with her audiences. She recalls a group of fourth graders in Rockport for whom she performed recently. “They were so curious and focused, listening to every single word and asking all kinds of very interesting questions. That gives me a thrill because I know I did something, I touched somebody.”

“The other thing that moves me is presenting to elderly audiences.” She adds. “So frequently they remember things like marching down 5^th Avenue in New York as a child in a suffrage parade. People give me things too – all kinds of jewelry mementoes from the suffrage struggle.”

Ahead of her time in many ways, Susan B. Anthony died on March 13, 1906, fourteen years before women were finally given the vote. She is famous for the quote “Failure is Impossible” that she gave in a speech on her 86th birthday, shortly before she died. Thanks to a new generation of suffrage advocates who carried on the struggle she began, women finally won the right to vote with the passage of the 19th amendment giving adult women the right to vote. Ratified in August, 1920, it was known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, a tribute to her tireless efforts toward its passage. While she didn’t live to see it, she had won at last.

The Susan B. Anthony Dollar, introduced in the late 1970’s, reflects her fate of being out of step with her time. “Susan B. Anthony failed and failed and failed, but she kept on,” Matson notes. “That dollar was a slap in the face. It could have been this wonderful thing, but instead everyone made fun of it and stopped using it.” Decades later, the Sacajawea Dollar has become more accepted and a new presidential series of dollar coins are coming into circulation. The idea seems to have caught on at last. A true fan of her subject, Matson keeps looking for Susan B. Anthony dollars. She has collected 42 of them so far.

A long-time member of the American Association of University Women, Matson first joined a local branch in Connecticut. “I joined because all the women I most admired in my town seemed to be members. So that gave me a reason to be part of the group.” Now a member of the Danvers-Topsfield branch on the North Shore, she is involved in organizing an upcoming author lunch.

The Hingham Area Branch’s next program, to be co-sponsored with Buttonwood Books and Toys, will feature Author and Executive Coach Ginny O’Brien. She will speak about her new book “Coach Yourself to Leadership”, at 7PM on Tuesday April 10, 2007 at the Hingham Public Library. For more information, contact: kaycam@aol.com or 617-512-8122. We invite all holders of bachelor’s or associate’s degrees from Plymouth to Quincy to join our branch. For more membership information contact: holliebagley@comcast.net or 781-749-6274.

Kay Campbell is a Hingham resident and serves as president of AAUW’s Hingham Area Branch.

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