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Seneca Falls, NY–Women’s Rights National Historical Park is pleased to announce the digital availability of a set of personal and business papers held by the Jane and Richard Hunt family and private owners for more than 140 years. The Hunt Family Papers includes over 1,100 plans, contracts, essays, store records, and correspondence dating from 1828 to 1856. “This collection gives us a window into the…

On August 26 top musicians, changemakers and activist icons put on an amazing virtual concert and rally to increase votes by and for women. Now you have another chance to see Women Take the Stage if you missed it then! Join Gloria Steinem, Dolores Huerta, Alicia Garza, Vanessa Williams, Lily Tomlin, Billie Jean King, Judy Gold, Sweet Honey in the Rock, The Chicks, Indigo Girls, BETTY, the…

Tuesday, March 23 5pm-6:30pmFulton Co. Chamber of Commerce2 N. Main Street in Gloversville-NY Local women’s groups organized contributions for the display, which include original artwork, local history and Memorabilia. ECSHA is unveiling for the public the Women of Influence Quilt made by the BBGs, a local quilting group, who donated it to ECSHA for a raffle, proceeds benefitting our Student Scholarship Fund. Tickets are $5…

Twenty foreign-born U.S. residents took an oath of allegiance and became American citizens in a naturalization ceremony at Women’s Rights National Historical Park on August 13, 2009. This was the fourth such ceremony held at the Wesleyan Chapel. Friends Finger Lakes chapter executive committee members Adriene Emmo, Fran Wenderlich and Helen Kirker (L-R) with Citizenship Judge Marian W. Payson at the reception following the naturalization…

Adriene Emmo (center) was presented with the New York State Liberty Award by Senator Michael Nozzolio (left) for her longtime contributions to Seneca Falls. Mayor Diana Smith (right) was on hand to offer congratulations. Finger Lakes chapter president and national board member Adriene Emmo was recognized for her longtime contributions to Seneca Falls when she was presented with the New York State Liberty Award by…

In the spring issue of the National Parks Conservation Association magazine, Coline Jenkins, Friends member and great, great granddaughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, wrote about Stanton’s legacy, and her hopes to pass the story on to future generations . The article can be accessed online at: http://www.npca.org/magazine/2009/spring/american-woman.html Jenkins was a special guest and speaker at last summer’s 160th anniversary of the first Women’s Rights Convention…

As a result of the federal government’s economic stimulus program, the National Park Service will receive $750 million for nearly 800 projects, one of which will be the installation of energy efficient lighting in the Park Visitor Center, which opened in 1993. This project is budgeted for $105,000. In making the announcement, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said the NPS projects are “an investment in…

Members of Friends of the Women’s Rights National Historical Park attended the celebration of Susan B. Anthony’s 189th birthday at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center on February 11, 2009. Guest speaker Lynn Sherr, award-winning journalist and author of two books on Susan B. Anthony, related stories and anecdotes about the suffragist leader and talked about the gains that women have made in recent years and…

Seneca Falls Mayor Diana Smith, a member of Friends of the Women’s Rights National Historical Park, served as M.C. for the First Biennial Seneca Falls Dialogues at the New York State Chiropractic College October 11 and 12, 2008. This weekend of “Leadership, Learning and Celebrating Women’s Human Rights” was held in conjunction with the 160th anniversary of the first Women’s Rights Convention, the signing of…

Nan Johnson, founding President of the Friends of the Women’s Rights National Historical Park, appeared before the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands in Washington on September 11, 2008 to advocate on behalf of HR 3114, a bill to authorize the establishment of a “Votes for Women History Trail” in New York State in connection with the WRNHP. To read Nan’s testimony, click…

Coline Jenkins (center), great great granddaughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, is the first to sign the Book of Rededication of the Declaration of Sentiments of 1848 at the 160th anniversary of the Declaration and the first Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls. Jene Radcliffe-Birch (left), organizer of the ceremony, and Seneca Falls Mayor Diana Smith join in the signing. The Book of Rededication will be…

“Heroic Girlz” Emma Parrish Post, Thea Ezinga, Devyn Yurko and Elon Michaud (clockwise from top left) were honored at Friends 10th anniversary celebration July 19, 2008. The four girls who researched and portrayed famous women as 11-year-olds in the stage play and film “Heroic Girlz” were presented with  Friends’ “In Her Footsteps” award during the celebrations of the 160th anniversary of the first Women’s Rights Convention July…

In her recently published book “Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would be President,” prize-winning legal historian Jill Norgren recounts, for the first time, the life story of one of the 19th century’s most surprising and accomplished advocates for women’s rights. Lockwood was Washington’s first prominent female lawyer and ran for President in 1884 and 1888 as the National Equal Rights Party candidate. In celebration of…

Artist Katherine Pfeffer Pross presented her new portrait “Elizabeth Cady Stanton, The Seed of Consciousness,” at Elizabeth’s Bloomers Gallery in Seneca Falls on March 8, 2008. The 4′ x 5′ work shows Stanton sitting at the desk where she wrote the Declaration of Sentiments in 1848 with a suffrage banner in the background. The original portrait will be hung permanently in the National Women’s Hall…

In a New York Times feature, Mark Leibovich analyzed the relationship between the women’s rights and civil rights movements in American history and implications for the 2008 Presidential race. Leibovich wrote: “Breakthrough politics can be a zero-sum game, with distinct groups striving for a finite piece of the change pie. It brings to mind that the civil rights movement and the women’s movement have a…

Richard Deys of Macedon carries an old wagon jack down the stairs as he works to stabilize the 1816 Quaker Meetinghouse in Farmington. (Photo courtesy Democrat and Chronicle) The Friends of the 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse announced in 2008 that stabilization of the site had been completed and fund-raising would begin to restore the historic structure, which played a significant role in the 19th century…

Nan Johnson (center) with members of Friends Finger Lakes Chapter (L-R) Helen Kirker, Adriene Emmo, Mary Luckern and Fran Wenderlich at June 23 kick-off reception. The Nan Johnson Legacy Project was launched at the American Association of University Women House in Rochester, NY on June 23, 2008. The project is an endowment fund established in honor of the founding President of Friends of the Women’s…

Professor Kate Clifford Larson of Simmons College in Boston highlighted the Memorial Day weekend program at Women’s Rights National Historical Park with an inspirational talk on Underground Railroad hero Harriet Tubman on May 24, 2008 at M’Clintock House in Waterloo, NY. Author of the 2004 definitive biography, “Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero,” Larson pointed out that Tubman has…

Workshop Coordinator Rick Kollins with (L-R) presenters Cindy Parrish, Elizabeth Cady Stanton (Eleanor Stearns), Meg Agnew and Judy Wellman. In photo at right, workshop participants and presenters enjoy an Italian buffet lunch at Buon Amici restaurant in Seneca Falls. Friends of Women’s Rights National Historical Park all-day workshop on Friday, November 2, 2007, was attended by 20 elementary and middle school teachers, who gave high…

Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and 20 other women attorneys visited the Women’s Rights National Historical Park on October 21, 2007. O’Connor, first female Supreme Court Justice (1981-2006), was presented with copies of Judith Wellman’s book “The Road to Seneca Falls” and Melina Mara’s photographic collection “Changing the Face of Power: Women in the U.S. Senate” by Friends President MarilynTedeschi and the visitors…

Friends were in attendance at the New York Chiropractic College on October 7, 2007, for the induction of nine new members into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls. Among the inductees was Martha Coffin Wright, one of the five organizers of the first Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls in 1848, who was represented at the ceremony by her great-great grandson James…

Four historical site administrators from Russia were guests of Friends and the Rochester chapter of the American Association of University Women in Seneca Falls on September 24, 2007. The delegation visited the Women’s Rights National Historical Park and the National Women’s Hall of Fame and were given a tour of Seneca Falls by Richard Burtless. One of the visitors made a presentation of her work…

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rep. LouiseSlaughter have introduced the National Women’s Rights History Project Act to create a Votes for Women’s History Trail linking sites in New York State significant in the struggle for women’s suffrage and civil rights. The auto route would be part of the Women’s Rights National Historical Park and would include signage, exhibits and interpretive programs. The Act would also expand the National…

Historian and Friends member Judy Wellman (center) announced the establishment of “Roads From Seneca Falls” at the Women’s Rights Historical National Park on July 19, 2007, the 159th anniversary of the nation’s first Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls. The website was developed by SUNY Oswego and Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies to make web-based materials related to women’s history and leadership easily accessible…

Author Fergus Bordewich with Helen Kirker, Coordinator of Park Volunteers for Friends Finger Lakes Chapter.   Noted journalist and author Fergus Bordewich discussed his recently published book “Bound for Canaan”  at the Women’s Rights National Historical Park on July 28, 2007.  The book has been critically acclaimed as the first comprehensive work on the Underground Railroad in more than a century and reveals much previously unknown historical information about…

The National Park Service has released the results of its environmental assessment and preferred alternative for the preservation of the Wesleyan Chapel, site of the First Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. The complete document is available at htttp://parkplanning.nps.gov/ and to receive a written copy of the report, please call 315-568-2262