Plaque

This bronze plaque was installed on the southwest corner of the Wesleyan Chapel on May 27, 1908 as part of the observances of the 60th anniversary of the first Woman's Rights Convention held in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. The commemorative plaque served not only as a remembrance of that earlier convention, but as an organizing and public relations tool designed to promote suffrage in New York State. The celebration of the 60th anniversary and installation of the plaque was organized under the auspices of the equality league of self-supporting women, headed by Harriot Stanton Blatch, daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The plaque quotes the words of the Declaration of Sentiments, "That it is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise," thus connecting the suffrage struggle of the early twentieth century with the early women's rights movement of the mid-nineteenth century. The plaque was designed by New York City artist, Elizabeth St. John Matthews and commissioned by a small group of the adult children of signers to the 1848 Declaration of Sentiments. Matthews was active in some of the same women's rights organizations as Harriot Stanton Blatch.

Transcription of text on the plaque:

On this spot stood the Wesleyan Chapel where the First Woman's Rights Convention in
the World's history was held July 19 and 20 1848

Elizabeth Cady Stanton moved this resolution which was seconded by Frederick
Douglass: "That it is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their
sacred right to the elective franchise"

Some of the signers of the Declaration of Rights:
Lucretia Mott ·Jacob P. Chamberlain· Martha C. Wright · Elisha Foote ·
Amy Post· Charles L. Hoskins· Mary Ann McClintock· Richard P. Hunt·
Lavina Latham · Jonathan Metcalf · Mary H. Hallowell · Henry Seymour