Pack your bags and hitch up your horseless carriage! Plan a fall trip to see the colorful fall leaves and put Seneca Falls, NY on your radar as the place to go this year. Sign up now for Seneca Falls Dialogues in October, find out about special programs at the Women’s Rights National Historic Park (see below). Find out about exhibits at the National Womens Hall of Fame. And NOW for the first time: the opening of the Richard P. Hunt papers to the public. 

To celebrate Richard Hunt’s 217th birthday, the Women’s Rights National Historical Park has opened, for research, a set of personal and business papers held by the family and private owners for more than 140 years. It’s a special event to celebrate Richard Hunt’s 217th birthday. Remember that the Hunt House in Waterloo is around the corner from Seneca Falls. That’s where the 1848 Declaration of Sentiments was conceived of…over cups of hot tea with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others, including Jane C. Hunt.

The Hunt papers include a thousand separate pieces dating from 1828 to 1856.  Some examples include plans and contracts for workers’ housing, Waterloo Woolen and Cotton Mill records, letters of condolence, Richard P. Hunt, Jr.’s school essays, farm and store records. “Richard Hunt is an example of ’do everything and do it right,’” notes Ami Ghazala, park superintendent.  “Though the women’s movement was not built with bricks and mortar like his buildings in Waterloo, Richard P. Hunt, his family, and his business associates created a foundation of support that made the first Women’s Rights Convention in 1848  a success.  I invite everyone to take a look at his papers to find the man who boosted women.”

Use the Hunt Family Papers weekdays by appointment from 9 to 4 at the park visitor center, 136 Fall Street, Seneca Falls.  A finding aid/guide is available on the park website at http://www.nps.gov/wori/historyculture/upload/HFP-Finding-Aid.pdf.  Contact Vivien Rose, Chief of Cultural Resources, at 568-2991 ext. 5000 or vivien_rose@nps.gov to make arrangements to see the papers. All sites within Women’s Rights National Historical Park are free and open to the public. Follow the park’s social media sites for Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/womensrightsnps) and Twitter (http://twitter.com/#!/WomensRightsNPS) to learn more about our upcoming programs.

Follow the Suffrage Wagon for news and views of the suffrage movement. Celebrate women’s freedom to vote.