"Wesleyan Chapel 10" by U.S. National Park Service , public domain
![]() | Women's RightsThe First Wave Statue Exhibit |
Brochure about the First Wave Statue Exhibit at Women's Rights National Historical Park (NHP) in New York. Published by the National Park Service (NPS).
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Women’s Rights
National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior
Women’s Rights
National Historical Park
The First Wave Statue Exhibit
The statues in the lobby of the Visitor Center represent the first wave of women’s rights
activists in the United States: more than 300 women and men organized and participated
in the first Women’s Rights Convention. The sculpture includes statues of twenty people:
Mary Ann and Thomas M’Clintock, Lucretia and James Mott, Jane and Richard Hunt,
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frederick Douglass, Martha Wright, and eleven “anonymous”
participants who represent the men and women who attended the Convention but did
not sign the “Declaration of Sentiments.”
The Convention
On July 19 and 20, 1848, more than 300 people
attended the first Women’s Rights Convention in the
Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Seneca Falls, New York.
The guiding theme of the Convention presented in
the “Declaration of Sentiments” declared that “all
men and women are created equal.” The document
went on to demand equal rights for women in
property and custody laws, educational opportunities, and participation in the church, professions,
and politics.
This Convention was the beginning of a seventy-two
year battle to gain the right for women to vote in
the United States. Despite the active leadership of
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and Martha
Wright, many people still do not know who these
women, or their male supporters, were. The bronze
statues executed by Lloyd Lillie are the near life-size
rendition of the first wave of the women’s rights
activists.
The Artist
Lloyd Lillie, Professor Emeritus, Boston University,
and two assistants sculpted the statues out of clay.
Photographs and live models were used to create the
movement, facial expressions, and size of the statues.
In a foundry owned and operated by a woman, the
figures were cast in bronze, an alloy of copper and
tin. The weight process caused the statues to lose
five percent of their size. The sculpture was
commissioned by the National Park Service for
Women’s Rights National Historical Park Visitor
Center, which opened in August, 1993. If you would
like to view the eight-minute video Portrait of a
Sculpture, documenting the making of the statues,
please ask the ranger at the information desk.
Key to the Statues
The statues of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and
Frederick Douglass face the main entrance to the
Visitor Center.
Represented are the five women who organized the
first Women’s Rights Convention and the men who
supported them..
Organizers of the Convention
Men who supported the Organizers
Unidentified Convention Attendees
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Elizabeth Cady Stanton spearheaded the call for the
Convention and wrote the first draft of the
“Declaration of Sentiments” out of a strong sense
of injustice and righteous indignation at the plight
of women. She later became one of the most
important and persistent leaders of human rights in
United States history.
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass, a former slave and prominent
abolitionist lecturer, published the North Star, one
of the few African-American antislavery newspapers
in the United States. At the first Women’s Rights
Convention, he publicly seconded Elizabeth Cady
Stanton’s highly controversial motion for the right of
women to vote.
Lucretia and James Mott
Lucretia and James Mott were influential Quaker
abolitionists and merchants from Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. The Motts refused to sell slave-made
products, including cotton and sugar, in their store.
Lucretia Mott was a respected Quaker minister.
During the Convention, Lucretia presented a lecture
and James chaired one of the sessions.
Mary Ann and Thomas
M’Clintock
Mary Ann and Thomas M’Clintock, leaders in
Quaker reform and abolition, moved to Waterloo in
1836. Mary Ann and Lucretia Mott wrote the Female
Anti-Slavery Society’s appeal in 1832. In response to
the call for women’s rights, the M’Clintocks hosted
a meeting in their home where the “Declaration of
Sentiments” was written for the first Women’s Rights
Convention.
Martha Wright
Martha Wright participated in the Convention
activities while pregnant with her seventh child.
She later embarked on a distinguished career in
human rights, presiding over several conventions
and holding office in women’s rights associations.
She was Lucretia Mott’s sister.
Jane and Richard Hunt
Jane and Richard Hunt were Waterloo
philanthropists who supported human rights
causes. They hosted the tea party that led to the
call for the first Women’s Rights Convention in the
United States.
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