Hidden Attic Provides Window Into Women's Suffrage Past

GENEVA, NY — David Whitcomb was hoping to buy a new home for his law practice in Geneva, New York. What he didn't expect was to also get a window into the early women’s rights movement in America.

In an interview with the Democrat and Chronicle, Whitcomb said he was inspecting the building with a friend when they noticed the ceiling had wood inconsistent with the roof.

It turned out the building had a hidden attic.

And inside was a treasure trove of artifacts from the suffrage movement.

“We climbed on chairs, stuck our heads up and … we saw photo frames all in a row, and they were golden and shiny,” Whitcomb told the newspaper.

In addition to the frames, he said the attic was filled with an “enormous volume of stuff” including photography equipment, letters and photographic portraits.

Whitcomb and his friend recognized one of the portraits of famed women’s rights leader Susan B. Anthony taken by James Hale in the early 1900s. It turned out Hale was a famed photographer during the movement and the building was once his studio.

Geneva also happens to be down the road from Seneca Falls, birthplace of the women’s rights movement.

“It’s a mystery that’s kind of fun to try and unravel,” Whitcomb said. “You got the height of the women’s right-to-vote push, the height of these iconic leaders … and he’s right there with them.”