Rights for Women!

In my travels in upstate New York, I passed through Seneca Falls where, in 1848, the Women’s Rights Convention occurred on July 19 and 20 in the Wesleyan Chapel. The church was known as a haven for antislavery activity, political rallies, and free speech events.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Martha Wright, and Mary Ann M'Clintock met in the home of Jane Hunt in Waterloo, New York to plan the First Women's Rights Convention. This was the first meeting to be held for the purpose of discussing the “social, civil, and religious conditions and the rights of woman.” It was the beginning of the women’s rights movement in the United States. 

See the full gallery on Posterous

At the time the convention was held, women were not equal to men in the law, church, or government. They could not vote, hold elective office, attend college, or earn a living wage. If married, they could not make legal contracts, divorce, or gain custody of their children. These hindrances on a woman's person and actions dictated the path of her life and, in the broader perspective, effected the structure of politics and economies, society and culture. 

The Report of the Woman's Rights Convention, a copy of the minutes from the 1848 meeting, was circulated at local and national women's rights conventions. (The text of the report can be read here.) 

The Declaration of Sentiments was presented at the Women's Rights Convention. Based on the Declaration of Independence, it stated that "all men and women are created equal" and demanded equal rights for women and the right to vote. The Wesleyan Chapel, a National Historical Park, displays the entire Declaration of Sentiments in as a monument to this moment in history that changed everything everyone had ever known. 

See the full gallery on Posterous

 

History Through Glass

On my recent vacation to the Finger Lakes District in Upstate New York, I had the opportunity to spend a morning at the Corning Museum of Glass. In addition to beautiful artistic pieces, the Museum houses more than 45,000 pieces tracing 3,500 years of glassmaking history. After traveling through the galleries displaying glass of the Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, Medieval and Renaissance Europe, I found my way to the glass objects from the Baroque to late Victorian periods. There were many examples of English lead glass and chalk glass, which were two improvements to glassmaking in the 17th century.

As I traveled along this timeline, I was fascinated to observe how society and culture across civilizations could be tracked by these artifacts. Early glassmakers used a variety of techniques to shape and decorate vessels, jewelry and sculptures. In the later periods, glass was used to make medallions, furniture, chandeliers and an even an entire mechanical glass theater!

From the Corning Museum Exhibits:

Beibly glass - "The Beilby family painted much of the colorless enameled glass that was made in England during and after the 1760s. William Beilby (1740-1819) and his sister Mary (1749-1797) enameled glasses wiht floral motifs, landscapes, and pictures of architectural ruins. The most famous of their glasses are goblets bearing the royal coats of arms. These goblets mark the birth of the Prince of Wales (later King George IV) in 1762."

See the full gallery on Posterous

"Tea and coffee were imported into Europe in the ealry 1600s. They were first taken as medicines. Both beverages were usually served in porcelain or stoneware cups, but glass cups were sometimes used in the 18th century. Tea is still sipped from glasses in eastern Europe today. The Comte de Mirabeau, a French Revolutionary statesman, said, 'Tea and coffee have been more effective in containing the vice of drunkenness than all the teachings of the moralists and the learning of the Enlightenment.' "

 

Exploring the "Fingers"...

...That is the Finger Lake District in New York, the 11 skinny blue streaks carved by glaciers that meander through the middle part of the state. The region is a pastoral patchwork of lakefront villages, grand Victorian homes, farms, and forests.

A Brief History of the Region

The Finger Lakes region was a central part of the Native American tribe the Iroquis tribes' homeland. As one of the most powerful nations during colonial times, the Iroquois were able to prevent European colonization of the Finger Lakes region for almost two hundred years after first contact. The American Revolutionary War divided the Iroquis tribes as some sided with the British and others with the Americans. The Iroquis' hold over the region was effectively broken in the late 1770s by skirmishes between British-allied Iroquis and American frontier settlers.

On the Itinerary

In addition to touring the small towns, old mansions, cycling, swimming and kayaking in the lakes, I will visit the birthplace of the women's suffrage movement at the Women's Rights National Historical Park (http://www.nps.gov/wori/index.htm), which is located in Seneca Falls and includes the home of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Wesleyan Chapel where she held the first convention on women's rights in 1848.

And there is no stopping me from going to the Corning Museum of Glass, which houses one of the best collections of art and historical glass with more than 45,000 glass objects, spanning 3,500 years of glassmaking history (http://www.cmog.org/default.aspx). Conceived of as an accredited educational institution and founded in 1950 by the Corning Glass Works, the Museum is a non-profit institution that preserves and expands the world's understanding of glass.

 

Pictures and more details of the vacation and ensuing activites to come!