Early Feminists Issued a Declaration of Independence. Where Is It Now?
In 2015, the Obama White House put out a call to amateur historians to search their attics and archives for a relic of women’s history: the original, signed copy of the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions from the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention1 in New York, one of the nation’s first organized events for women’s rights.
Back then, about 300 people gathered for the two day convention in upstate New York and more than 100 women and men signed the manifesto, declaring it time for women to claim their rights in society. One, albeit low down on the list, was the right to vote.
But unlike the Declaration of Independence — on which the Declaration of Sentiments was modeled — the original manuscript may no longer exist.
The search yielded a few clues, but no manuscript with either notes in the margin or signatures at the end.
“We found nothing except a couple of bread crumbs,” said David Ferriero, the national archivist of the United States said.