In honor of Halloween and the upcoming presidential election, the Archives staff dressed our departmental pumpkin as Susan B. Anthony.
The famed woman’s rights campaigner and suffragist visited Champaign on April 2, 1870. She lectured on “Work, wages, and [the] ballot” at Barrett Hall.
The city of Champaign honored her visit with a plaque in 1984. The plaque was officially installed in 1994, when a historic fountain was also returned to the original Barrett Hall site at the corner of Main and Neil.
On Tuesday, November 8, 2016, three local women have invited people to bring their “I Voted” stickers to the Champaign memorial to celebrate the right to vote and to honor the ‘woman’s vote champion’ who died 14 years before the 19th Amendment was ratified.
Can’t make it to Champaign.
The Archives offers its pumpkin as a substitute. Come place your ‘I Voted’ sticker on our pumpkin. Rejoice in your right to have a say in the electoral process, and in the fact that all political advertising will cease and desist in a few sweet days.
- Sherrie, Archives Librarian