Votes for Women
Celebrating New York's Suffrage Centennial
Description:... Chronicles the history of the womens rights and suffrage movements in New York State and examines the important role the state played in the national suffrage movement.
The work for womens suffrage started more than seventy years before the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 when Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and one hundred supporters signed the Declaration of Sentiments asserting that all men and women are created equal. This convention served as a catalyst for debates and action on both the national and state level, and on November 6, 1917, New York State passed the referendum for womens suffrage. Its passing in New York signaled that the national passage of suffrage would soon follow. On August 18, 1920, Votes for Women was constitutionally granted.
Votes for Women, an exhibition catalog, celebrates the pivotal role the state played in the struggle for equal rights in the nineteenth century, the campaign for New York State suffrage, and the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. It highlights the nationally significant role of state leaders in regards to womens rights and the feminist movement through the early twenty-first century and includes focused essays from historians on the various aspects of the suffrage and equal rights movements around New York, providing greater detail about local stories with statewide significance.
The exhibition of the same name, on display at the New York State Museum beginning November 2017, features artifacts from the New York State Museum, Library, and Archives, as well as historical institutions and private collections across the state.
There is something intimate, inspiring, and strengthening about seeing words created by and names in the handwriting of women who fought the earlier stages of the struggle for equality and shared humanity that is so crucial today. Im grateful for this exhibit and catalog that are just the kind of reminder we need to keep going. Gloria Steinem
The New York State Museum has put on an extraordinary exhibit to commemorate the womens suffrage movement and the Nineteenth Amendment, and I hope it inspires a new generation of women and men to raise their voices about all the injustices in their lives. Kirsten Gillibrand, United States Senator for New York State
Congratulations to Jennifer Lemak and Ashley Hopkins-Benton for their wonderful book, Votes for Women.The book, and the exhibition upon which it is based, are great gifts from the authors to all New Yorkers who seek to learn more about the varied and vital role women have played in history. The stories and images included in the book bring the valiant women who came before us vividly to life and challenge us to continue their fight for full equality for women. Pam Elam, President of the Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Statue Fund
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