1848 Seneca Falls Woman’s Rights Convention Declaration read by U.S. Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro

July 20, 2020

By Michael Morand

The first Woman’s Rights Convention, held at Seneca Falls, New York, July 19 - 20, 1848, set forth a Declaration of Sentiments, modeled on the United States Declaration of Independence. In 2020, the centennial year of the passage of the 19th amendment, guaranteeing and protecting women’s constitutional right to vote, the Beinecke Library asked our representative from New Haven, U.S. Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro, to do a reading of the 1848 Declaration on its 172nd anniversary.

The Beinecke Library holds a first printing of the report of the Seneca Falls convention, with the Declaration of Sentiments, printed in 1848 at the North Star Office, owned by Frederick Douglass, a signer of the Declaration.

You can read the text and find out more about the Declaration of Sentiments and the Woman’s Rights Convention at the Women’s Rights National Historic Park.