By Suzanne Benton
Located in Darien, CT
Pioneer Activists is an ongoing series of artworks by Suzanne Benton. Consisting largely of monoprints with Chine collé where the artist references suffragists, feminists, writers and educators from the 19th century and beyond. These works embody the artist’s stellar theme of bringing past to present.
Anna Julia Cooper, monoprint with Chine collé, 27 x 19 3/4 inches, 2020
1858-1964
An educator, administrator, and social reformer, Anna J. Haywood Cooper was born a slave in Raleigh, North Carolina, and spent fourteen years fighting to gain access to Latin and Greek classes reserved for men at St. Augustine's Normal School and Collegiate Institute, from which she graduated in 1877. She married the Reverend A. C. Cooper at St. Augustine's, where each taught, but after his death in 1881, she began the second phase of her education at Oberlin. That year she joined Mary Eliza Church (Terrell) and Ida A. Gibbs Hunt in the "gentleman's"
collegiate course and graduated in 1884. One of the pioneer African-American women who earned a B.A., she returned to Oberlin for an M.A. in Mathematics, which she received in 1887.
Continuing her trailblazing for race and gender issues, Cooper wrote the feminist manifesto, A Voice from the South, spoke at feminist and educational conferences, and achieved many honors such as membership in the American Negro Academy. She was a leader in the National Association of Colored Women. Aligned with DuBois's philosophy, she spoke at the
1900 Pan African Conference in London, arguing for self-determination for African-Americans and an end to colonialism in Africa and apartheid in South Africa.
Anna Cooper received a Ph.D. at the Sorbonne in 1925 after a decade of study while she also maintained a full-time teaching load. Her thesis was on French policies during slavery. She had been shaping Frelinghuysen University in Washington, D.C., an interdenominational Bible college, and became its president in 1930, at the age of 72. She died in 1964 at the age of 105.
In preparation for this ongoing series the artist received images from Legacy Magazine’s photo archive of 19th Century women writers, understanding that she’d obtain permission from each source to use the photos in her artworks. Permissions were received and she began the series in 1992. The Harvard/Radcliffe Schlesinger library then offered Suzanne access to relevant microfiche images that were employed in subsequent works. In addition, the library exhibited the in 1992. The collector Vivien Leone purchased and donated one to the library, and the library subsequently purchased two more.
The Women’s Rights Historical Park in Seneca Falls, NY, exhibited the growing series in 1995 during the 75th anniversary of women’s suffrage. The Oberlin College...
Category
2010s Feminist Laid Paper Art
MaterialsMonoprint, Laid Paper
