#TBT to November 5, 1872, when suffragist Susan B. Anthony cast a vote for the first time, though it was against the law for women to vote. Regarding the vote, Anthony wrote to her friend and fellow suffragist, Elizabeth Cady Stanton “Well I have been & gone & done it!!” Anthony was later brought to trial and fined $100 for breaking the law, but that did not stop the suffrage movement. As one contemporary newspaper stated, “If it is a mere question of who got the best of it, Miss Anthony is still ahead. She has voted and the American constitution has survived the shock. Fining her one hundred dollars does not rule out the fact that…women voted, and went home, and the world jogged on as before.”

Susan Brownwell Anthony, 1820-1906. ca. 1870.  1 photographic print : albumen on carte de visite mount ; 4 x 2.5 in. (10 x 6 cm.) from the American Celebrities Album.

Meet Erika Piola, Associate Curator of Prints & Photographs, and Project Manager for Common Touch, an upcoming multimedia exhibition that looks at historical embossed and raised-letter documents for the visually impaired as a starting point for a multi-sensory exploration of the nature of perception. 

Inspired by her research in the Library Company’s Michael Zinman Collection of Printing for the Blind, artist-in-residence Teresa Jaynes will curate Common Touch, which will be on display April 4 -October 21, 2016. The exhibition will combine historic documents with Jaynes’ original work. 

Library holdings related to the life and music of the 19th-century blind musician Thomas Greene Bethune, including his composition The Battle of Manassas, have become points of inspiration for Jaynes.

Thomas Greene Bethune (“Blind Tom”), 1849-1908. Circa 1870. 1 photographic print : albumen on carte de visite mount ; 4 x 2.5 in.

The battle of Manassas for the piano by Blind Tom. Chicago. Published by Root & Cady 67 Washington St, 1866. 11 p. of music, 33 cm.