The first women’s rights convention met in 1848 at the site preserved by Women’s Rights National Historical Park.
The Seneca Falls Convention took place in Seneca Falls, New York, on July 19–20, 1848. Organized by local Quaker women and activists including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, it brought together more than 300 people to discuss women’s social, civil, and religious rights.
The convention produced the Declaration of Sentiments, modeled on the language of the Declaration of Independence. Its resolutions included a controversial demand for women’s suffrage, which Frederick Douglass supported during the debate.
The National Park Service preserves the Wesleyan Methodist Church site, Stanton’s home, the M’Clintock House, and the Richard Hunt House. Congress established Women’s Rights National Historical Park in 1980, more than a century after the convention.