The city of Rochester NY is known for many things: unique cuisine, infamous weather, several renowned universities, and its fast-growing minority population. Less commonly discussed, however, is the area’s connection to a number of the United States’ most famous historical events, including the abolitionist and women’s suffrage movements. For example, Rochester was the home of Susan B. Anthony, the famous activist who dedicated her life to a variety of important causes throughout the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. Today, her legacy lives on through a permanent exhibit at the Susan B. Anthony House, located at her former home at 17 Madison Street, and at her grave in Mount Hope Cemetery.

Surprisingly, it is her grave that has attracted a significant amount of attention recently, after a simple Facebook post drew the attention of several media outlets: a female voter from Rochester took a picture of several “I Voted Today!” stickers affixed to the famous suffragette’s gravestone and posted it to her social media account, where it quickly drew the attention of local news networks and eventually HuffPost. Currently, the photo has over 13,000 likes and has lead to a Facebook group titled “Thank You Susan B. Anthony,” which gathered 155 likes in three days. More importantly, a number of people have reportedly made their own pilgrimages to Anthony’s grave site: recent photos show that the number of stickers has tripled.

The success of the post itself isn’t so surprising: after all, an estimated 91% of American adults use social media regularly, a fact that has catapulted a number of clever and meaningful images into viral popularity. Yet in the wake of an election marked by low voter turnout across the United States, the success of a picture supporting the right to vote, and women’s suffrage especially, is noteworthy. What lead to the popularity of this image?

While HuffPost traces the post back to Sarah Jane McPike, a Rochester business owner, posts from the “Thank You Susan B. Anthony” Facebook page suggest that two women initially visited Anthony’s grave to leave their voter stickers: McPike and Brianne Wojtesta, explaining the two stickers in the original image. While McPike has a long history of political activism and says she often visits Anthony’s grave for inspiration, she credits Wojtesta with the idea for the picture, as well as the decision to share it on social media. The two women reportedly visited Mount Hope Cemetery early Tuesday morning and left flowers and their voting stickers; a number of people quickly followed suit. By November 5, Rochester’s WHAM ABC 13 News had shared its own version of the image. And by November 6 it was news on HuffPost. Currently, the article itself has over a thousand likes on Facebook, suggesting that it may still have some traction as the country either celebrates or decries the results of the recent election.
Many popular images die out in a number of days, but it is possible that this one social media post could remind more citizens to register before the Special Senate and Congressional Elections in 2015, and encourage more registered voters to participate. If not, the post might at least draw some attention to Rochester’s storied history, of which Susan B. Anthony is a significant part. After moving to the area with her family in 1845, Anthony used Rochester as a base for her activism for the rest of her life, even convincing the University of Rochester to admit female students.

The “Thank You Susan B. Anthony” Facebook page reminds visitors that although Anthony is best known for her work as a suffragette, most of her victories were posthumous: it was only after her death that the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, also known as the Susan B. Anthony amendment, was passed in 1920. Accordingly, Anthony herself was never able to legally vote.

[Photo source: Thank You Susan B. Anthony Facebook page.]