SUSAN B. ANTHONY
February 15, 1820
March 13, 1906
There is an unassuming gravestone in the Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York—the unadorned rounded-top white marble marker for Susan B. Anthony.
On Election Day, as a tribute to Anthony’s efforts to secure voting rights for women, voters trek to her grave to place their “I VOTED” stickers on her gravestone. Even though women could not legally vote, Anthony actually did in 1872. She was arrested for that act of defiance, but it did not dampen her mission of gaining suffrage for women. Anthony devoted her energy and her life to it. Unfortunately, she died fourteen years before the 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote in 1920. However, she is still recognized and remembered for that fight.
I wonder what she’d think of this election?
The cemetery officials post signs asking visitors to her grave to not place the stickers on her grave, though, some years her entire marker has been covered with them anyway. Now some paste their stickers on the post close to her grave.
Gravely Speaking 
Thank you for this site, and this post! A recent article notes that the gravestones of Susan and her sister are now covered in plexiglas so the stickers don’t damage the stone. https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/11/04/susan-b-anthonys-grave-stickers-election-day-in-rochester-ny/76048808007/
In exciting news this year, Susan’s house became a polling place for the first time. Some of my cousins voted there. https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2024/10/28/susan-b-anthony-house-a-polling-place-for-first-time-in-rochester-ny/75891517007/
Thank you for those updates. I visited Anthony’s gravesite last summer and the cemetery officials had not yet covered her gravestone in plexiglass. I think that is a really good idea to preserve her stone.
Very nice.