It was in a "Suffrage Parlor" in Washington D.C. in 1886 when Adelaide Johnson, at the suggestion of a friend, first decided to sculpt Susan B. Anthony. “A "Memory Parlor" is a nod to the earlier “Suffrage Parlors” and to the recognition that we need spaces to cultivate our understanding of history. Memory Parlors are inspired by the Lyceum Movements of the 19th Century, in both the U.S. and Europe. These adult education movements allowed for "social intercourse and the exchange of intellectual products."
2021 marked the 100th anniversary of the unveiling of an important monument to equality and human rights: the Portrait Monument to the Suffrage Pioneers (Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton). Pictured right (or below if viewing this on your mobile), the monument was sculpted by Adelaide Johnson (1859-1955) and completed in 1920. The statue was unveiled in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on February 15, 1921 to mark the passage of the 19th Amendment. The placement of women in the U.S. Capitol - symbolizing the central involvement of women in the political process - had been a goal of Johnson's in the early 1890s. It took her almost 30 years to achieve this vision.