Matilda Joslyn Gage was born on March 24, 1826 in Cicero, NY to a progressive abolitionist family. A radical human rights activist, Matilda was a prominent figure in the woman’s suffrage movement as well as the abolition movement, and a leading advocate for Indigenous rights, the separation of Church and State, and the contributions of women to science.

Matilda married Henry Gage in 1844, and together they had five children, four of whom lived to adulthood. Their youngest daughter, Maud, married L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Matilda’s influence on Frank’s writing was significant, and while Oz is known globally, Matilda herself was written out of history—a term referred to as the Matilda Effect (Rossiter, 1993).

In 1852, Matilda spoke at the 3rd National Woman’s Rights Convention in Syracuse, NY, immediately becoming a leading figure in the suffrage movement. A skilled philosopher, writer, and organizer, she helped run the National Woman’s Suffrage Association (NWSA), sharing leadership positions with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Matilda edited and published the NWSA’s newspaper, the National Citizen and Ballot Box, (1878-1881), and co-authored the first three volumes of the History of Woman’s Suffrage with Stanton and Anthony.

An outspoken critic of the Church’s teachings on the inferiority of women, Matilda was ultimately pushed out of the suffrage movement. In 1890, she formed the Women’s National Liberal Union, which was the first organization in the United States dedicated to the separation of Church and State. In 1893, she published her seminal work Woman, Church and State, in which she exposed the various ways in which the Church perpetuated women’s oppression and envisioned a regenerated world through the sharing and value of women’s knowledge.

Her home in Fayetteville was part of the Underground Railroad as well as a meeting place for critical work in the suffrage movement. Today, it serves as a Museum and Center for Social Justice Dialogue where local community members come together to continue the work she began over a century ago.