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.

 

 
A man standing along a canal
Patrick Stenshorn is the Education Program Manager for the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor. He works with teachers and cultural organizations to develop K-12 resources about New York State's canals.

Patrick Stenshorn

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.

Patrick Stenshorn is the Education Program Manager for the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor. He works with teachers and cultural organizations to develop K-12 resources about New York State's canals. He also manages a small grants program called Ticket to Ride which supports school field trips to canal related sites and museums. Patrick has a B.A. in history from SUNY Geneseo and a M.A. in American History from SUNY Brockport. He has previously held positions at Women's Rights National Historical Park and the Albany Institute of History & Art.

 
A head and shoulders headshot of a man with brown hair.
Bill Hunt, Ph.D., is an associate professor of American Literature at Barton College in Wilson, North Carolina.

Bill Hunt

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.

Bill Hunt, Ph.D., is an associate professor of American Literature at Barton College in Wilson, North Carolina. He holds a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. from Duke University. Of late, he has published pieces in The Arizona Quarterly and The Emerson Studies Quarterly. In 2017, he began a digital humanities experiment, www.100signersproject.com, which utilizes archival records to create recuperative biographies for the 100 signers of the Declaration of Sentiments at the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention.

 
A statue of three women, one introducing the other two, who are about to shake hands.
The "When Anthony Met Stanton" statue in Seneca Falls shows a visual connection between suffrage and the canal.

Library of Congress

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

Susan Goodier, PhD, recently held a long-term fellowship at the Massachusetts Historical Society. She is a member of the New York Academy of Historians, a Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lecturer Series, and on the board of directors for the New York History journal. Her first book, No Votes for Women: The New York State Anti-Suffrage Movement appeared in 2013, and her second book, coauthored with Karen Pastorello, Women Will Vote: Winning Suffrage in New York State (2017) won an Award of Excellence from the American Association of State and Local History. She is currently preparing a biography of Louisa Matilda Jacobs, the daughter of Harriet Jacobs, author of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.

Until 2020 Karen Pastorello served as the Chair of the Women and Gender Studies Program and Professor of History at Tompkins Cortland Community College (SUNY). Her books include: A Power Among Them: Bessie Abramowitz Hillman and the Making of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (University of Illinois Press, 2008) and Women Will Vote: Winning Suffrage in New York State co-authored with Susan Goodier (Cornell University Press, 2017). Recently she has helped document local sites on the National Votes for Women Trail. She is currently working on several projects concerning women’s labor and political activism related to the life of Mary Elizabeth Pidgeon, Director of Research at the United States Women’s Bureau and an advocate in the fight for the minimum wage and women’s full equality in the workplace.

 
A man with glasses and a goatee, underneath is the logo for the Niagara History Center.
Terry C. Abrams has been the curator/collections manager for the Niagara History Center since 2018.

Terry Abrams

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.

Terry C. Abrams has been the curator/collections manager for the Niagara History Center since 2018. He began his museum career as an intern at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, and has worked for the Genesee County History Department, the Rochester Museum & Science Center and the WNY Association of Historical Agencies. He is a resident of the Tonawanda Indian Reservation.

A former president of the Tonawanda Reservation Historical Society, he is also a former co-chair of the Conference on Iroquois Research, a member of the Museum Association of NY, a member of the Field Services Alliance and the American Association for State and Local History’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee, a member of the Program Committee for the World Canal Conference to be held in Buffalo in September 2025, and a member of the Archives Advisory Committee for the Indigenous Studies Department at SUNY at Buffalo. His primary areas of interest include Native American history and historic photography.

 
A group of people sitting at a table making crafts
Join us for crafts and other family activities!

NPS Photo

Family Programs

Crafts and family activities are offered in the Visitor Center daily. Check back for program updates!

Junior Ranger Family Program

Saturday, 10am-11am
Declaration Park
Join two historical friends: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Fredrick Douglass (portrayed by Melinda Grube and Nathan Richardson) to learn about the Convention they are planning! This program led by Ranger Michelle will be a family-friendly introduction to Women's Rights National Historical Park and the historical events of 1848, right before the opening ceremony. All children who participate will earn their Junior Ranger badge!

Craft:The Stantons' Cork Boats

Friday and Saturday, 10am-4pm
Visitor Center
Living down the street from the Cayuga-Seneca Canal, Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s children spent a lot of time by the water and experimented with cork to see if it would float. Make your own small cork boat and take it home with you!

“Grandma’s Trunk” and outdoor Victorian games

Friday 2pm-4pm; Saturday 9am-10pm & 12pm-3pm
Declaration Park
Join our friends from the Seneca Falls Historical Society for an afternoon of family fun in Declaration Park!

 

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.

Women's Rights National Historical Park is the proud recipient of a grant from the National Park Foundation, providing American Sign Language interpretation for select programs. All programs marked (ASL) include interpretation provided by Interpretek.
 

 

 

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Last updated: July 9, 2025

Contact Info

Mailing Address:

136 Fall Street
Seneca Falls, NY 13148

Phone:

315 568-0024

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