Women's Rights National Historical Site (4/10/2023)

Monday, April 10, 2023
Now on the way home from Buffalo, NY, a stop in Waterloo before Seneca Falls, NY.

The National Memorial Day Museum is housed in the
William Burton House (1830s in Federal style, 1870
modified to Italianate style) commemorates the
recognized birthplace of Memorial Day (KSS)

The town's pharmacist, Henry Carter Welles, came up with the idea to honor those who died in the Civil War in 1865. After meeting with General John Murray, they were able to organize the community event for May 5, 1866, calling it Decoration Day. There was a parade, banners and flags were draped across buildings, and the wreaths were laid on fallen soldiers’ graves. Afterward, a community picnic featured speeches by veterans, politicians and ministers. The town has continued the event every year since. 

In 1868, General John Logan, head of the Grand Army of the Republic (the largest veterans organization of the time) issued an order that Decoration Day be renamed Memorial Day, and be celebrated on May 30th.

Small statues of representatives of the branches of
the United States military

A plaque (1959, Daughters of the American
Revolution) on the Museum house honors
men and women from the county who served
this country; however, the purpose of
Memorial Day is to honor those who have
died in war for the United States (KSS)

M'Clintock House (1836) was home to Quakers
Thomas & Mary Ann M'Clintock, which they used as a
station on the Underground Railroad; Mary Ann also hosted a
planning session for the First Women's Rights Convention
where the Declaration of Sentiments was drafted

Hunt House (1829) was home to Richard and Jane Hunt,
where earlier Jane had hosted a social gathering honoring
Lucretia Mott, and those present decided to organize
the first women's rights convention in the country

It's A Wonderful Life Bridge in Seneca Falls, NY,
claims to have inspired director Frank Capra's bridge in
the 1946 film of the same name, and his fictional
town of Bedford Falls resembles Seneca Falls

Actually named Bridge Street Bridge (1915, steel truss bridge)

In reference to the movie, bells can be urchased from the
nearby It's A Wonderful Life Museum, marked with
the name of a lost loved one, and hung on the bridge

An Italian canal worker is honored for saving a
woman who had jumped off the bridge in 1917

The Women's Rights National Historical Site
Visitor Center (est 1980)

Women's Rights Multi-color Mural (2017, by
Blake Chamberlain) depicts Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
Lucretia Mott, Martha Coffin Wright, Jane Hunt,
Mary Ann M'Clintock, and Frederick Douglass (KSS)

Kent joins the figures of The First Wave, a group sculpture
(1993, by Lloyd Lillie, Victoria Guerina, and Hilary
Hutchinson); from the left are Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
Frederick Douglass, two unnamed participants, and
Martha Coffin Wright who was pregnant with her seventh

Tamiko with James and Lucretia Mott;
James, along with other husbands
Richard Hunt and Thomas M'Clintock,
were supportive of their wives

Kent and Tamiko at an interactive choose-
your-career display

A tapestry comparing Elizabeth Cady Stanton on the left
giving her public speech at the Women's Rights Convention,
and Táhirih unveiling her face at a Bahá’í conference
held in Badasht, Persia, both taking place in July 1848;
Tahirih was subsequently imprisoned and executed

Waterfall Wall at Declaration Park; the waterfall was
turned off for the season, but usually cascades down
the 100-foot long bluestone wall

The entire Declaration of Sentiments is
etched on the wall, with the neames of the
signers and important supporters

The Declaration of Sentiments was modeled on the Declaration of Independence, and was discussed and approved at the First Women's Rights Conference, July 19-20, 1848.

Wesleyan Chapel (1843, reconstructed 2009) was
the site of the First Women's Rights Conference

Plaque commemorating the site of the
First Women's Rights Conference

Wesleyan Chapel interior (KSS)

Elizabeth Cady Stanton House (c 1830, addition 1840)
at 32 Washington Street in Seneca Falls, NY

When Anthony Met Stanton (1999, by Ted Aub) depicts
Amelia Bloomer introducing Susan B Anthony (left)
to Elizabeth Cady Stanton (right)

Ripples of Change Monument (2020, by Jane DeDecker)
depicts four women whose contributions to the
suffrage movement have been neglected, from the left:
Laura Cornelius Kellogg, of the On^yota'a:ka Nation
and advocate for the Haudenosaunee Confederacy;
Harriet Tubman, Martha Coffin Wright, and Sojourner Truth

The women of Seneca Falls were familiar with the matrilineal traditions of the indigenous Haudenosaunee people, and realized the freedoms that their women had as compared to themselves.

Let's not leave out the men who supported the women:
Max Eastham (no info), James Mott, and Frederick Douglass

From The Spiedie & Rib Pit, an Endwell Spiedie with
marinated chicken chunks with mushrooms and cheese;
spiedies are a Binghamton and central NY specialty

We also had the Fried Brussel Sprouts, reportedly
deep-fried so they retain the oil, and these seem to
have been particularly well done

Next: Bundy Museum of History and Art.