New York: Women’s Rights National Historic Park, Seneca Falls

I spend a lot of time planning our trips but it is always nice to come across something along the way that hadn’t been included in these plans. 

One such find was the Women’s Rights National Historic Park in Seneca Falls, New York. We were travelling north from Ithaca along the shores of Cayuga Lake when this National Park showed up on the GPS map on Karen’s phone. It piqued our interest, so we decided to do a little detour to find out what this was all about.

The Historical Park is very small and is made up of a visitor centre, a memorial park and several historical buildings. The visitor centre is very small and covers the history of women’s rights in America. The visitor centre is only open Tuesday’s and Thursdays. As well as the buildings the National Park Service has Ranger programmes, and we were lucky enough to catch one of these. We were not raised in America, so we had not studied US history, but we have made efforts to learn as much as we can, yet we had not heard of the ‘Declaration of Sentiments. We were so happy to have discovered this historical park, and the Ranger programme was a perfect way to get a deeper insight into the background of the 1848 convention on women’s rights and the Declaration of Sentiments.

Now for a bit of history for those who are ignorant, as we were, of the Declaration of Sentiments. In early July 1848, five reform-minded women met in Waterloo, New York and decided to hold a convention. They published a call in the local newspaper inviting people to attend “… a Convention to discuss the social, civil and religious rights of women”. Just 10 days later, on the 19^th July 1848, 300 people gathered in the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls. The convention lasted 2-days at the conclusion was the signing of the Declaration of Sentiments by 100 attendees; 68 women and 32 men. Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote the Declaration of Sentiments to dramatize the denied citizenship claims of elite women during a period when the early republic’s founding documents privileged white propertied males. The document has long been recognized for the sharp critique she made of gender inequality in the U.S.

The convention was the clarion for the women’s rights movement in the United States. Incredibly, it took another 70-years for women to get the vote in the U.S., with the ratification of the 19th amendment in 1920.

We are glad we decided to follow our instincts and make the detour to Seneca Falls. The Historical Park commemorates an important chapter in the women’s rights movement in America. This is a battle that continues into the present day!