Susan B. Anthony Statue Unveiled, With Help From Avangrid Foundation

(Photo: From left, Berkshire Gas’ Chris Farrell, Adams Town Administrator Jay Green, Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito and sculptor Brian Hanlon)

By Chris Farrell, Berkshire Gas Manager of Communications and Government Relations

The town of Adams, MA in the Berkshire Gas service territory marked a moment in history last week with the unveiling of a statue honoring suffragette Susan B. Anthony, commissioned in recognition of the 100th +1 Anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gave women the right to vote.

Susan B. Anthony was born on East Road in Adams and lived there until her family moved when she was 6. She died in 1906, 14 years before the final passage of what is often called the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. She frequently returned to Adams to visit relatives whose descendants still live in the area. Her birthplace is now a museum.

The statue was supposed to be installed in the renovated park last year as part of a double celebration of Anthony’s 200th birthday and the centennial of the 19th Amendment.

On hand and offering remarks for the unveiling were Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito and sculptor Brian Hanlon, who created the 8-foot-tall bronze statue depicting Anthony as she delivered the “Declaration of the Rights of the Women of the United States” outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia on July 4, 1876.

The Avangrid Foundation was pleased to join other corporate underwriters with support in the amount of $10,000 toward the $300,000 cost of the undertaking.

Sculptor Hanlon is internationally renowned, having been commissioner by private foundations, universities, state and city art initiatives as well as the National Football League and Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League. He is the official Master Sculptor for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.