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The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation was established in 2000 when leading Gage historian Sally Roesch Wagner gathered together a diverse network of people with a common goal: to bring this vitally important suffragist back to her rightful place in history.
The Gage Foundation purchased the home where Gage lived from 1854 until her death in 1898 and after a million-dollar capital campaign, opened the rehabilitated Gage Home as a Museum and Center for Social Justice Dialogue in 2010.
At the heart of our mission is the story of Matilda Joslyn Gage, a progressive visionary of women’s rights and human liberation and the movements of which she was a part.
It is the story of a woman of courage and integrity who was part of an abolition movement that publicly defied 19th century laws that forced complicity with slavery and a suffrage movement that demanded women have the right to their bodies, their voices and their decisions - including the right to vote.
It is the story of Native women whose political and spiritual authority and social equality with men in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy helped convince Gage and her contemporaries that women’s subordination was neither natural nor ordained by God.
It is the story of Gage instructing her son-in-law, L. Frank Baum to publish his Oz stories, and leading and inspiring him to conclude that the path to liberation involves uncovering one’s lost courage, intelligence and compassion and that behind the curtain of tyranny stands a buffoon who has lost his way.
It is the story of a woman daring to challenge the Biblical mandate that wives be under the authority of their husbands and obedient to them which, translated into law robbed women of their autonomy and right to their bodies. This is a woman who lost her place in history for fighting the Christian Nationalists of her day who wanted to tear down the
wall separating church and state to let conservative Christianity dictate law.
It is the story of how a great feminist was once nearly lost to history because her life and ideas retained their power to threaten the forces of oppression.
Lastly, it is our story, the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation, dedicated to celebrating and promoting Gage’s legacy and the continuing significance of her life, her thought, her writings and her inspiration for the present and the future.
As Gage lived consistent with her values, our mission includes honoring her life by restoring, preserving and maintaining her home as a place where people can learn about her and her family and the life of a 19th century activist.
As Gage was an historian and scholar, our mission includes creating and sustaining a library and writings that influenced her and works of authors influenced by her–thereby making her writing and her thought available to as broad an audience as possible and inspiring new generations of feminist thinkers and activists.
As Gage was a passionate campaigner for women’s rights and dignity, our mission includes communicating the conditions of women’s lives in Gage’s lifetime and educating about the 19th century women’s rights movement, its relevance to contemporary life and the continuing work to eliminate all forms of unjust treatment of women.
As Gage was committed to ending slavery, our mission includes conducting educational programs on the abolitionists and freedom seekers of Central New York, the role and experiences of the Underground Railroad and the contributions of African Americans.
As Gage reminded her contemporaries of their special treaty obligations to the first nations of her region and was honorarily adopted into the Wolf Clan of the Mohawk Nation as “She Who Carries the Sky,” our mission includes carrying out projects that advance understanding of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Six Nation culture and the meaning and history of Native sovereignty.
As Gage was part of a much broader community of social activists in the Finger Lakes/Central New York region devoted to abolition, women’s rights, free thought and the separation of Church and State, our mission includes promoting an understanding of our region as a wellspring of progressive social change, advancing the idea that this legacy is something in which to take pride and on which to build our region’s future.
As Gage was the mother-in-law of L. Frank Baum and an inspiration to him, our mission includes promoting an understanding of the Oz legacy and its cultural significance and peace and social justice themes.
Awarded one of the first doctorates in the country for work in women's studies (UC Santa Cruz) and a founder of one of the first college-level women's studies programs in the United States (CSU Sacramento), she currently serves as an adjunct faculty meember in The Renée Crown University Honors Program, Syracuse University and the St. John Fisher Executive Leadership Program.
Dr. Wagner was selected as one of "21 Leaders for the 21st Century" by Women's E-News in 2015. Founder of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation and Center for Social Justice Dialogue in Fayetteville, NY, and author of articles on historic house museums, she received the Katherine Coffey Award for outstanding service to museology from the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums in 2012.
Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation, Inc.
210 E. Genesee St.
Fayetteville NY. 13066
(315) 637-9511
matildajgagefoundation@gmail.com
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