The photo of Edna Buckman Kearns and the phone she used “go together.” It’s a simple matter. Any “deals” or “wishes” my mother made while collaborating with me during the 1980s are null and void if they weren’t endorsed by me. And the old-fashioned phone was also promised to me by my mother. It’s the type of artifact that is symbolic of the women-centered grassroots organizing that’s part of the collection now released to researchers here and around the world.
It is essential in assembling the collection of Edna Buckman Kearns that belongs in an archive dedicated to those activists working for women obtaining the right to vote. Were they expected to wait until injustice had been wiped from the US scene?
No, they rolled up their sleeves and started the long journey to freedom. Even today, I can say with absolute certainty that there have not been women sitting in the nation’s chair of the US Presidency.
I have been fascinated by my maternal grandmother since I was a small child. And I have been working as a volunteer for 40 plus years to bring her story out of the shadows. There is the telephone she used for suffrage activities in the black and white image that’s part of the Edna Kearns collection that was fundamental when telling the tale of Edna and me in the SUNY Press edition released in 2021.
Today, December 25, 1882, is Edna’s birthday. Happy birthday, Edna. You would be 142 years old today. Thank you and others who started the ball rolling. It’s still rolling.
SuffrageCentennials.com has been publishing since 2013. It is now supporting an equal rights amendment to the US Constitution.
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