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FIRMLY
ROOTED IN THE PAST, If Burns films it, they will come. The directors of tourism attractions in Seneca Falls expect that the community where Elizabeth Cady Stanton lived and worked for women's rights will experience an increase in visitors following the broadcast of Ken Burns' most recent documentary "Not For Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony". The documentary aired nationwide last November, and will be rebroadcast on WXXI, channel 21 in Rochester, NY on March 12 at 7:00 p.m.. "When people are touched by documentaries like these, they want to connect to the real places where history took place," said Josie Fernandez, superintendent of Women's Rights National Historical Park. "I have no doubt that people will come to Seneca Falls to connect to Elizabeth Cady Stanton by standing in her living room and feeling her presence there." Fernandez said the number of visitors to National Park sites featured in Burns' documentaries on the Civil War and explorers Lewis and Clark has more than doubled. "They will come to Seneca Falls because we have the real thing - the Stanton House, the Wesleyan Chapel where the Convention took place and the M'Clintock House where the Declaration of Sentiments was written," said Fernandez. At the National Park, visitors may view a year-long exhibit, "Elizabeth Cady Stanton: An Extraordinary Woman," featuring Stanton family treasures never before exhibited to the public The historic meeting of Stanton and Anthony is recreated in a grouping of life-size bronze figures on East Bayard Street. Reproductions of their clasped hands are available for purchase through the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Foundation. Visitors can trace the footsteps of the great women's rights leaders who have walked the streets for the past 155 years, living the legacy of Stanton and Anthony.
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