President Signs Legislation Authorizing Votes for Women Trail Route in New York State

Date: March 31, 2009
Contact: Lee Werst, 315.568.5302

Seneca Falls – President Obama signed into law the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009 yesterday. Included in the Act was the authority to establish a "Votes for Women Trail" route in New York State linking historically and thematically-related properties associated with the 72-year struggle for women's suffrage. The Trail will be a partnership effort administered by Women's Rights National Historical Park (Seneca Falls and Waterloo, NY). Sites on the Trail may be eligible to receive technical and financial assistance.

The Act also authorized the establishment of a National Women's Rights History Project National Registry. The registry will facilitate grants to state historic preservation offices across the country to assist in surveying, evaluating, and nominating women's rights history properties to the National Register of Historic Places. These historic properties could then be listed on the National Park Service website "Places Where Women Made History." A National Women’s Rights History Project Partnerships Network, for the purpose of providing grants and assistance in interpretive, educational, and historic preservation program development could also be established.

"This important legislation will create opportunities for people across the nation to learn more about the history of suffrage in the United States. The 'Votes for Women' Trail will link some very significant sites across New York State together to tell a much richer story of the 72-year struggle for suffrage that was born here in Seneca Falls and Waterloo in 1848," said Women's Rights National Historical Park Superintendent Tina Orcutt.

For more information on Women’s Rights National Historical Park go to www.nps.gov/wori or call 315.568.0024.

Women's Rights National Historical Park exists to commemorate and preserve the story of the First Women's Rights Convention and historical structures associated with it in Seneca Falls and Waterloo, New York. All public tours and programs are free and open to the public.