"All Men and Women Are Created Equal:" An Administrative History of Women's Rights National Historical Park

Conard, Rebecca

Women's Rights National Historical Park, located in Seneca Falls and Waterloo, New York, comprises four discontiguous historic sites that total approximately seven acres in size. These sites are the Elizabeth Cady Stanton House (Seneca Falls), a National Historic Landmark since 1965, the Wesleyan Chapel (Seneca Falls), the Thomas and Mary Ann M'Clintock House (Waterloo), and the Richard P. and Jane Hunt House (Waterloo). The latter site is not yet open to the public. The Visitor Center occupies a rehabilitated historic building located adjacent to the Wesleyan Chapel. Park facilities also include two leased buildings in the Village of Seneca Falls: a rehabilitated commercial building, currently used as an education center, and a maintenance building. Both buildings are within walking distance of the Visitor Center. This study covers the origin, evolution, and management of Women's Rights National Historical Park. An opening chapter examines the origins of the Park, followed by four lengthy chapters detailing the Park's history under the first four superintendents: Judy Hart (1982-1989), Linda Canzanelli (1989-1994), Joanne Hanley (1994-1997), and Josie Fernandez (1998-2004). A briefer concluding chapter highlights the achievements and trends in Tina Orcutt's superintendency (2004-2011) and offers a historical perspective on the challenges facing the Park in the future. To varying degrees, the themes of the second-wave feminism, the allure of heritage tourism and economic development, the professionalization of cultural resource management, the increasing cost of managing an ever-expanding system, and the more recent concern with relevancy in the National Park Service are threaded through discussions of park operations, management, planning, interpretation, and development. Also important are the Park's relationships with local civic and cultural organizations, with legislators, and with professional societies and organizations, which have sometimes played key roles in relation to park development and interpretation. In many respects, the major theme of this study is "relevancy." Relevancy, at Women's Rights National Historical Park, has been wrapped in the debate over whether or to what degree the Park is an "idea" park. The language of enabling legislation left considerable room for debate. On the one hand, federal law enabled the preservation of specific properties in Seneca Falls and Waterloo that are associated with specific individuals who were key actors in launching the women's rights movement in the mid- nineteenth century. On the other hand, the law framed the interpretive mandate broadly as "the struggle for equal rights for women" without specifying beginning or end dates. Over the years, debates about interpretation have turned on various points, but almost always the issues related to the preservation and development of park sites: the Stanton, M'Clintock, and Hunt houses, the Wesleyan Chapel, and the Visitor Center. Ongoing debates over interpretation most surely will take another turn with development of the recently authorized Votes for Women History Trail.

"All Men and Women Are Created Equal:" An Administrative History of Women's Rights National Historical Park

Collections