Christine Heller

This 8' x 10' mural was created in September 2017 from charcoal drawn directly on the wall for The History Center in Tompkins County in Ithaca, NY.

Matilda Joslyn Gage, right, was a New York State leader, who was influenced by the matriarchal Native American Haudenosaunee society which believed that women’s subordination to men was neither natural nor ordained by God. Gage was one of women’s rights most visionary leaders but because of her anti-church stance, she was virtually written out of the history of women’s suffrage.

Louisa Lord Riley, left, was determined to organize a suffrage club after she moved from New Jersey to Ithaca, NY in the early 1890s. She founded the Ithaca Women’s Club in 1895, which focused on literature, science and art, domestic economy and education. A section devoted to suffrage met every 4th week.