Magical history tour: Sally Roesch Wagner stands with the artifacts that had been buried within the walls of the Matilda Joslyn Gage home since the late 19th century. MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTO
“We made a decision not to do the typical historic house: this is where they ate, this is where they slept,” explained Sally Roesch Wagner, executive director of the foundation that studies and puts forth all things Gage. “This is what’s happening in museums now, moving away from artifacts and into ideas, and we’re at the forefront of that in creating a new center that’s built on that rather than a typical historic-home tour.”
There’s a simple reason for that decision, Wagner said. “Gage really wanted to be remembered for her work and her ideas. When she would be interviewed she would say, ‘I consider it an impertinence when someone asks about my husband and my children. This is my work.’ That’s a fairly clear directive from the grave. But the other thing is, the mission of the Gage Foundation is to work with the relevance of Gage’s ideas today and her ideas are so on the edge even today, which Mimi’s play will so clearly demonstrate.”
“Mimi” is actress Mimi Kennedy, perhaps best known for playing the hippie mother on the 1990s ABC sitcom Dharma and Greg. She also has become quite the Gage booster, and has written a play, Waking Matilda, which she will perform as the keynote at the upcoming Wonderful Weekend of Gage, taking place in and around Central New York.
“Mimi sees Gage as such a visionary,” Wagner said. “There will be two showings of the play because we want to make sure everybody has a chance to see it. Mimi has been working on this play at least five years.” In between will be a reception with Kennedy, for which Wagner urges patrons to reserve $95 tickets early. “We anticipate it will be sold out.”
Most events are scheduled at Auburn venues because of their historic importance, and because the city is that much closer to Seneca Falls, where the National Women’s Hall of Fame holds its induction weekend on Saturday, Oct. 10, and Sunday, Oct. 11. “We moved it to Auburn so that people could get a sense of the Underground Railroad connection in this region,” Wagner noted. “We made room in the schedule for people to visit the Seward House and the Tubman House. A lot of people from Syracuse have never visited those houses, and we want to give people a sense of the heritage tourism in our own area. We also timed our events so that people could come to Mimi’s play at 3 p.m. and then the reception, and then go to the {Hall of Fame} reception in Seneca Falls. In terms of heritage tourism, this weekend is like a dream.”
Heritage tourism is the rage in the museum world, and attaching the Ruth Putter Welcome Center to the back of the Gage house hacks into that trend. “We really want to be a welcome center for heritage tours in this region,” Wagner stressed. “We cover all of the social justice issues, that whole spirit of the 19th century, so there’s a logic that we turn this home into that.” Furthermore, while a lot of folklore surrounds the Underground Railroad, the Gage house boasts the real thing.
“This will be the only home open to the public in Onondaga County that was offered as a station on the Underground Railroad,” Wagner added. “We’re one of 30-something official designated sites in the state of New York and we’re also on the national Network to Freedom trail, which has 300 or so nationally designated sites.”
Part of that designation includes having to prove the home provided shelter to escaping slaves, and the evidence in the basement of the Gage home is being preserved during the gutting, rehabilitation and renovation. During that remodeling, Wagner, who works out of the foundation office across the street at 109 Walnut St., received a pleasant surprise on Sept. 14. While workers Sean Gallagher and Bill Whalen were tearing out a stairwell, a shower of debris fell onto them. Among the detritus was a letter in Gage’s handwriting about a dress, half of an envelope postmarked Nov. 21, 1877, with an intact 3-cent stamp, and a tin cup.
“This is the garbage, the crap that fell down out of the heavens,” Wagner said, describing how most folks view papers and the like found during home renovations. “It was insulation and other stuff you don’t want to get your hands on. But because Sean and Bill know the importance of the house, when that stuff came down they started going through it carefully. They came running over to the office with it; they had saved every single thing. With less attentive eyes, that stuff would have been thrown out.” All the artifacts can be seen through October at the Fayetteville Free Library, 300 Orchard St., Fayetteville. “We thought it would be fun to have it on display over the weekend for visitors to see.”
Other attractions during the Wonderful Weekend of Gage include: lectures and book-signings, tours of both the William Seward and Harriet Tubman houses and, on Saturday at 1 p.m., a neat take on women’s history. Wagner and Deborah Hughes, the executive director of Rochester’s Susan B. Anthony House, will step into the unresolved 120-year-old conflict between the two women’s rights pioneers and proffer dialogue about a resolution.
“People can get a sense that these weren’t individual women who were doing isolated work. They were really part of a movement,” Wagner noted. “It’s fun to take on the clash that Anthony and Gage had, which really was a battle for the direction of the movement. It was over whether to bring in conservative women who wanted to create a theocracy, who wanted to put God in the Constitution and create a church state.”
Anthony wanted all women involved since their ultimate goal was suffrage and Gage wanted to preserve religious freedom. “In this historic conflict, Deborah, who is an ordained minister, really recognizes the need for religious freedom,” Wagner said. “She understands why Anthony would want a united front, but agrees with Gage’s concern about losing religious freedom.”
The Wonderful Weekend of Gage takes place Friday, Oct. 9, through Sunday, Oct. 11, at a variety of locations, most of them in Auburn. Ticket sales benefit the Gage Foundation, which is soon to embark on the second phase of a capital campaign to finance the exhibits and programs that will occupy the house. Currently, the foundation is benefiting from a matching grant program from New York state. “Anybody that gives a dollar now,” Wagner said, “$2 goes into the Gage home.” The state is matching donations dollar-for-dollar and the deadline is Dec. 31. For information on how to donate and for a complete schedule of weekend events, visit www.matildajoslyngage.org or call 637-9511.
