ADAMS, Mass. — The Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum will hold an afternoon tea featuring poetry readings by Nancy Manning and Karen Ciosek. 

 

The event will take place outside on Sunday, Aug. 4, at 3 p.m. with tea, sandwiches, baked goods by Shire Cottage Bakery, and cake. Table settings are being donated by Mary Whitman, flowers by Full Well Farm, and napkins provided by Annie Selkie Outlet. 

 

Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for children. Members of the museum attend for free. In the event of rain the poetry reading will continue indoors, and the tea will be postponed. 

 

How does this relate to suffragist Susan B. Anthony?

 

One could say that women's suffrage started with a tea party. On July 9, 1848, Jane Hunt invited Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Mary Ann McClintock and Mary Wright to her house for tea. During their conversation, they struck upon an idea: a convention for women's rights. Just 10 days later, they held the Seneca Falls (N.Y.) Convention, drafting an organizing document, the Declaration of Sentiments. 

 

 Anthony was not at the Seneca Falls Convention, but met Stanton later through a mutual friend, Amelia Bloomer. She and Stanton's friendship, immortalized in their plaster cast handshake currently on display in the museum, was the lifeline of the early women's suffrage movement. 

 

Tea continued to play a role, with women's groups in California packaging and selling tea to raise funds. Ava Belmont held tea parties for up to 100 in her back yard, featuring "Votes for Women" tableware. Later, the National American Women's Suffrage Association sold "Votes for Women" teacups as another fundraiser.