Convention Days 2025

 
Two women stand and read the names of the signers of the Declaration of Sentiments inscribed on a stone wall; water flows down the wall and runs over the names.
Visitors can explore the park, and learn about the widespread movements that grew around Seneca Falls.

NPS Photo

Join us July 18-20, 2025 as we commemorate the 177th anniversary of the 1848 Women's Rights Convention!

Ripples of Reform

Women's Rights National Historical Park invites visitors for Convention Days 2025, to be held in Seneca Falls, July 18-20. A cherished tradition in Seneca Falls, Convention Days commemorates the anniversary of the 1848 women’s rights convention, where 300 women and men united to assert that “all men and women are created equal.” The convention was the first of its kind in the United States and gave rise to the American women’s rights movement.

In commemoration of the Erie Canal Bicentennial, the theme of Convention Days 2025 is “Ripples of Reform,” which will focus on the movement of ideas and people through Central and Western New York State. Convention Days will include family programming, as well as presentations by historians, park staff, and living history performers. “The Erie Canal transformed the landscape of Central New York, accelerating the movement of goods, people, and ideas, and serving as a fertile ground for transformative movements such as Abolition and Women’s Rights,” says Superintendent Ahna Wilson. “We are excited to collaborate with our communities and partners to highlight some of those stories during Convention Days this summer.”

The nineteenth century saw a rise in progressive movements in New York State, including abolition and women’s rights. A sweeping network of activists populated the Finger Lakes region and allowed ideas of equality and social justice to flourish. Led by luminaries such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, and Harriet Tubman, these movements quickly spread.

Seneca Falls, which took its name from the waterfalls that dotted the Seneca River and connected with the Erie Canal, became a crucible of change in 1848 when the American Women’s Rights Movement was born. Convention Days 2025: Ripples of Reform will commemorate the ways in which the Erie Canal and its waterways played host to social movements that changed the course of American history.

 

 

Featured Programs

Waterway of Change: 200 Years of the Erie Canal

Friday 11am; Saturday 1pm
Meet in front of Elizabeth Cady Stanton House
The Erie Canal is one of the most important transportation routes in American history. When the canal opened in 1825 its effects on New York and the United States were immediate. The Erie Canal changed the map and social fabric of the Nation as people, goods, and ideas moved along its route. Over 200 years of continuous operation, not only has the canal brought change to the nation, but it has transformed through enlargement, mechanization, and more. Join Patrick Stenshorn from the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor for a walking tour exploration of Seneca Falls' own canal locks, and learn all about the ways the Erie Canal has been an instrument of change throughout its history. Please Note: This 1/4-mile walking tour will involve uneven terrain, stairs, and standing along the canal lock.

An alternate, accessible version of this program will be offered Friday at 3:00 at the Wesleyan Chapel, and Saturday at 3:00 at the Stanton House.

Pump-makers at the Seneca Falls Convention and the Discovery of Greenhouse Gas

Friday 1pm-2pm
Wesleyan Chapel
Two professional pump-makers (with the same name) signed the Declaration of Sentiments. Henry Seymour made a fortune in pump-manufacturing and metallurgy. Henry W. Seymour had a career riddled with misfortune and disaster. Join Bill Hunt from the 100 Signers Project to explore how the lives of the two Henry Seymours might have intersected with Eunice Newton Foote, whose experiments with pumps yielded an important scientific breakthrough.

Documentary Screening and Panel Discussion: "Suffrage and Canal Connections"

Saturday 1pm-2pm
Wesleyan Chapel
Susan Goodier and Karen Pastorello offer an introduction to the importance of the Erie Canal during the suffrage campaign. In 1917, New York became the first state east of the Mississippi to pass full suffrage for women. If not for the Erie Canal, it is probable that the battle for women's full enfranchisement would have been even more prolonged. This talk will discuss the past history of the suffrage movement emphasizing the significance of the canal as a form of transportation for those involved in the women's rights movement. We will also commemorate the 2017 Vote Tilla celebration along the Erie Canal to mark the centennial of woman's suffrage in New York State. This program will be followed by a book signing in the Visitor Center.

Opening the Gates to Change: The Erie Canal and Woman's Suffrage - YouTube Permission granted by the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor, Executive Director: Bob Radliff

Displacement and Dispossession: The Haudenosaunee and the Erie Canal

Saturday 3pm-4pm
Wesleyan Chapel
From the time it was built until the present, the Erie Canal has been presented as an engineering marvel, a chronicle of the immigrant story, and a symbol of American progress. What has been left out of this narrative is the toll this took on the Indigenous people who lived in the path of the canal and who were displaced in the name of progress. Join historian Terry Abrams for the story that has been left out of the history books.

 

Family Programs

Crafts and family activities are offered in the Visitor Center daily. Check back here later for more specific program details!

 

Schedule of Events

The schedule below is subject to change, and is being updated regularly. Please check back prior to your visit to determine program times and locations.
 

 

 

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Last updated: July 1, 2025

Contact Info

Mailing Address:

136 Fall Street
Seneca Falls, NY 13148

Phone:

315 568-0024

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