Seneca Falls, NY, Women's Rights

The movement for Women's' Rights began in Seneca Falls in 1848, at a convention held in this chapel.  The chapel has been saved and renovated by the National Park Service to become part of a park documenting the history of the struggle for Women's Rights.

A new building has been constructed just west of the chapel to house the exhibit.  Leaders in the Women's Rights movement are depicted in a mural on the side of the park building.  Notable, one of the portraits is not of a woman, it is Fredrick Douglas.  Douglas is noted in history as an abolitionist, working to end slavery, but he is not thought of in terms of Women's Rights.  His participation in the Women's Rights Convention could be argued as the beginning of the Women's Suffrage movement.

In addition to documenting the first Women's Rights Convention and the early struggles, the National Park documents the continuing struggles through current times.

Women's Rights and Civil Rights have some overlap.  Sojourner Truth traveled the country bringing recognition to the ravages of slavery with a focus on the disrespect to Motherhood.  Most of her 13 children were taken from her to be sold to other slave owners.

Biography at National Park Service

Education in the U.S. for women and minorities was designed to erase their culture and keep them in their proper place, serving the privileged.




























One of the exhibits is simply a window on the second floor overlooking the Wesleyan Chapel where the Women's Rights Convention was held.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was one of the women who drafted the Declaration of Sentiments, the document outlining the demand for recognition.
When she was leading the discussion about the Declaration before the convention, most attendees argued that asking for the right to vote was too radical, that if it were included no man would recognize their requests as having any validity.  Frederick Douglas, the only African American in attendance, gave an impassioned plea that without a voice in selecting the representatives to government, their voices would never be heard.  He changed the minds of enough of the participants that the right to vote was left in the document.

The first link below leads to the speech given by Ernestine Rose at the convention to explain the Declaration of Sentiments to the participants.  The second link leads to the wording of the document itself which was signed by 100 of the attendees - 40 men and 60 women.

Declaration of Sentiments Speech

Declaration of Sentiments

Not all of the exhibits in the Park where of a serious nature.  There was some humor displayed in a manner to make the point.




























To have a National Park dedicated to the 170-year struggle for Women's' Rights is a true privilege of living in the United States.  It also points out that 170 years has been insufficient time to accomplish the goals of equality.  This one of many reasons to visit Seneca Falls is sufficient reason alone to make the trip.  For more information on this National Park, click on the link below.

Women's Rights National Park

Equal Rights on Display

This blog has been a photojournalistic record of interesting places along the Great Loop to share with family and friends.  Politics certainly has not been a focus.  And, it is a topic that is often avoided in group conversation, more so now than in the past.  We came face-to-face with the topic of equal rights on display at multiple stops on the summer 2018 journey, at museums along the waterway and at automobile museums on the drive south.  Those experiences call to be shared.

In the Gilmore Auto Museum, the cars are displayed with reference to the social times with fashion, important events, and period music playing.  Above, the display has a Buick, but the theme is the difficulty of travel by automobile in the United States during the Jim Crow era.

Throughout the US, the vast majority of gas stations, restaurants, and hotels would only serve white customers.  Often, the only opportunity that Black travelers had to get a meal or have a place to spend the night was in the home of another Black person.

To aide Black people traveling by car, Victor Green, a New York City mailman, began publishing a book that listed the few establishments serving Blacks.  When first published in 1936, it was titled as the Negro Motorist Green Book.  The Esso Corporation became a sponsor and sold it at some of their gas stations.  The main distribution was by mail order.

The places listed as a Tourist Home were not what a Bed and Breakfast is today.  It was a person's home where the owner would rent a couple of rooms to travelers, with no other option for overnight housing.

With Liberty and Justice for All

The Henry Ford Museum has an exhibit that focuses on the search for freedom for all.  The Revolutionary Era, the Antislavery Movement and Civil War Era, the Woman's Suffrage Movement, and the Civil Rights Movement each have an area with high-quality displays depicting important events including artifacts such as the chair in which President Lincoln was sitting when he was assassinated and the bus in which Rosa Parks was sitting when she was ordered to stand and let a white man take her seat.

The exhibit creates a feel for the struggles and difficulties people have endured to obtain basic human rights in the United States.

Lynching, the killing of a Black man or woman by hanging from the neck, was not considered a crime in America.  It was just a method to keep the "Negros in their 

place."  The practice of lynching occurred into the 1950's with no consequences for the perpetrators.  Lynching is just now (2018) getting discussion in Congress to become a Federal Crime.

The Jim Crow Guide to the U.S.A. details the extent of the laws and customs that kept the non-white races subservient. 

The Women's Rights displays documented the struggle, which began by women in Seneca Falls, NY, in 1848, as well as the Suffrage Movement and Equal Pay Issue.

For more information on the Freedom exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum, click on the link below.

Click for Link to the Henry Ford

Seneca Falls Women's Rights National Park

Tucked away in a small upstate New York village, the park celebrating the beginning of the Women's Rights Movement is rarely seen.  Thus, it holds a story that is little known among Americans. 

click here for National Park site

Interesting that a small village, an antique automobile museum, and a museum on American innovation all have exhibits on Americans struggling for basic human rights, a principle that is often lauded as the underpinning of the US Constitution.  It seems that the fight is still continuing for every American to truly have equal treatment under the law and from their community.


Reading List

The Jim Crow Guide, by Stetson Kennedy, was part of the display at the Henry Ford Museum.  Stetson lived in St. Augustine and the Last Dance crew was fortunate to know him as a friend.  The book is a satirical guide to Jim Crow laws and practices.  Kennedy wrote the book in the early 1950's, but no publisher in the United States would take on this topic.  It was published in France in 1956.  In 1990, the University of Florida Press finally published the book in the U.S.  Not long afterward, shots were fired through Stetson Kennedy's home, killing his dog.  The Sheriff Deputy who wrote the report on the shooting told Kennedy: "Sir, they weren't aiming for your dog."

Kennedy is best known for his efforts to expose the Klu Klux Klan.  One of his strategies was to share the Klan's secret passwords publicly through the scripts on the Superman radio show.  Materials he removed from a Klan waste basket provided the basis for the IRS to levy a large tax bill on the Klan. His book, The Klan Unmasked, details his activities with the Klan.

A more recent book (published 2012) details the story of the racial injustices perpetrated on Blacks in Florida in the case knows as the Groveland Boys - Devil in the Grove.  Four young Black men were falsely accused of rape in the central Florida town, Groveland, in 1949.  Gilbert King began research on Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall for the basis of a book on the career of Marshall.  In his research, he found some letters written to Marshall when he was an NAACP lawyer.  The letters told of the terrible conditions for Blacks in Florida and of the injustices of law enforcement and the courts.  He found more than enough materials for a book on this one aspect of Marshall's career.  This book became the basis of a movement to pardon the Groveland Four, which was successful.  In January 2019, the young men finally received some amount of justice by being pardoned.`

Seneca Falls, NY, It's a Wonderful Life

The movie It's a Wonderful Life is set in Seneca Falls.  The movie was not filmed here, but the town was the vision in the writer's mind when he wrote the book.  Seneca Falls celebrates this heritage in many ways, including an It's a Wonderful Life Museum, pictured above.  Seneca Falls becomes the movie town of Bedford Falls as you step inside the museum, and in many spots as one walks the town.

The movie did not receive the best of reviews when it premiered Christmas Day, 1946, but it has become a Christmas classic, running on multiple TV networks every Christmas.  Seneca Falls bills itself as "The Real Bedford Falls" with an It's a Wonderful Life Festival every December.  A fun aspect of visiting Seneca Falls.

The second bridge in town, at the other end of downtown, has a history that was worked into the story as a major aspect.  In the early 1900's a person jumped off this bridge in an attempt to commit suicide.  Someone else jumped off the bridge to save them.  The rescue was successful, but the Good Samaritan died in the attempt.

Another storyline follows real life, although not a story from Seneca Falls.  Amando P. Giannini founded the Bank of Italy in San Francisco.  He often gave loans to people in need secured only with a handshake.  It was his example of caring about people that Frank Capra used to develop the character of George Bailey at the savings and loan in Bedford Falls.  The Bank of Italy was successful, very successful.  It grew into the Bank of America, much too large and impersonal to give a loan on a handshake.

Many aspects of the movie are documented in the museum, including George Bailey's suitcase which he planned to use on his venture around the world and the cigar cutter from the drug store where he worked as a youth.

Facts about the actors' lives after the movie were documented.  Few probably remember that Donna Reed became a leader in a movement to end war in campaigning for a Cabinet position of Secretary of Peace.

The child actors still are involved in the celebration of the movie, participating in the It's a Wonderful Life Festival every year.

As one walks through town there are constant reminders that you are in  Bedford Falls.  How's a deli fit that description, you ask?

The menu is dedicated to the characters and places in the movie.

The street that crosses that second bridge is known as Bedford Falls Blvd.

And, the cross street at the base of the bridge is George Bailey Lane.

It's a Wonderful Life integration into the fabric of the town gives a fun, nostalgic feel to Bedford Falls . . . oh, it's Seneca Falls.

Seneca Falls, New York

Seneca Falls is a small New York hamlet that grew up along the Seneca River, whose waters powered many factories and mills.  When the river was dammed and locks added, the water flow decreased to a point that it would no longer power machinery and the locations of the plants were flooded.  The decision had been made to use the waterways to provide transportation rather than power.  Seneca Falls remains as an interesting village, and although small, has so many interesting aspects that deserve multiple posts to share the various features, some quite important to our culture in the United States.

We will begin with the image of the church above.  The first feature of the hamlet (a specific governmental subdivision determined by population in New York) to be seen is this church along the Seneca River and Cayuga Canal.  This church, claimed to be the most photographed church in New York, gives a hint to the interesting architecture of buildings in the community.

Seneca Falls is a most welcoming community for cruising boaters.  They have a canal wall all along both sides of the river in the downtown area.  Power pedestals have been added and boats can be moored and have access to power at no charge.  A two-day limit is enforced to keep people from overusing this privilege.   The welcome center, which has a multiple story museum, also has a boaters lounge on the lower floor with showers and free washers and dryers.  The biggest concern of boaters who stop here is that two days is insufficient time to adequately view the features of Seneca Falls.  Fortunately, Last Dance passed through Seneca Falls twice, allowing two 2-day stays.  For perspective, the church in the first image is located just past the bridge in the background of this shot.

The main street of town parallels the river, located up two stories from the waterfront.  Old brick buildings line both sides of the street, most storefronts are occupied and the town is active.

One store features only products made by women.  This might seem odd to some, but once the history of Seneca Falls is understood, it is most appropriate to be located here.

A poster for sale in the Woman Made Products store.  Respect for all and equal rights is a theme throughout downtown Seneca Falls.

The unique geography of the Finger Lakes Region was displayed at the Seneca Falls Museum.  Part of the welcoming of this community is this three-story structure, with the first floor at waterfront level and the third floor at the main street level, serving boaters on the first level and all visitors on the second two levels.

One can enjoy and appreciate an area when the history is understood.  Seneca Falls makes the history lesson easy through many well-done displays.  This diorama depicted one time period of the hamlet.

For over 200 years, the manufacture of pumps has been a major industry here.  A wide variety of liquids require pumping to get them where they are desired.  From pumping water out of the ground for a single household use to pumping petroleum across the country.  Another education lesson made simple.

Another local manufacturer made wooden rules and measuring tools.  Since they were making rules out of thin pieces of wood, putting a few together allowed them to manufacture a popular home window treatment, the Ventian blind.

The dominant theme of Seneca Falls is equal rights, and in particular, Womens' Rights.  This, too, is on display at the city museum.  More details in another post.

The Seneca River was tamed through the construction of dams and locks, making for transportation via water as a part of the New York Canal System.  The Cayuga Canal connects Cayuga and Seneca Lakes to the Erie Canal and, therefore, to the rest of the world.  A major resource for industry in this area.  So, now there are no falls in Seneca Falls, but a peaceful, slow flowing canal used mainly by recreational boats.  Surprisingly, the Cayuga Canal is home to many Blue Herons, more than seen on most waterways.  They seem to take flight and lead the boat along the canal.  Some Bald Eagles were also spotted and Kingfishers seemed to be populated more densely than anywhere visited.  Their shrill cry always resonates as they fly along the canal.

Along the canal, between the two largest of the Finger Lakes, a familiar boat was spotted.  One that had been seen many times before.

Yes, it is the African Queen from the movie by the same name.  Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn had a great adventure on this boat, now moored behind a private home on the canal.  Or, did they?  Is this the real African Queen?  Or, is the one in the Florida Keys, described years earlier in the blog of Last Dance's first Loop, the real African Queen?

Link to the Florida Keys African Queen