Every woman in America can claim this house in Rochester, NY, as her heritage. Because this was the home of the leader of the first women’s movement. In other words, Susan B. Anthony slept here.

You may know her only as the face on the $1 coin, and a rather prim profile at that. But Anthony was an eloquent, witty, powerful celebrity, who devoted her entire adult life to winning women equal rights; above all, the right to vote.

Why, you might ask, was the female half of the population banned from the ballot box? Beats me. But the founding fathers kept that privilege and most others for themselves, until Anthony and her colleagues demanded a change.

This house was the nerve center of her suffrage organization. And here you can see the gold wire glasses that framed her radical vision of women as partners in democracy; the inkwell that fueled a barrage of letters to congressmen, senators, and presidents.

And it was from this house more than a century ago that Susan B. Anthony set out on her gutsiest move ever.

From Susan B. Anthony Slept Here, produced for ABC Television, 1995.

Credit: Used with permission of Lynn Sherr.