Program

National Votes for Women Trail

Subject

Event

Location

402 Buffalo Ave, Niagara Falls, NY 14303, USA

Lat/Long

43.082536303905, -79.05742170418

Grant Recipient

National Collaborative for Women's History Sites

During October of 1910, the New York State Woman Suffrage Association (NYSWSA) held their annual convention in Niagara Falls at the Shredded Wheat Biscuit Company Auditorium. The NYSWSA was founded in 1869 after a gathering in Saratoga Springs, organized by Matilda Joslyn Gage, and included over a hundred interested men and woman from across the state. The NYSWSA went on to become a leading organization in the fight for women’s suffrage in New York by utilizing a grassroots approach, banding together political equality clubs and organizations from smaller communities. A key component of the NYSWSA’s activism was their annual convention, which gathered activists and organizations fighting for women’s suffrage from across the state. This marker commemorates the site of the 42^nd NYSWSA annual convention, held in Niagara Falls in the fall of 1910.

The President of the NYSWSA at the time was Ella Hawley Crossett from Warsaw, New York, who called the convention to order at 2:00 pm on Tuesday, October 18^th. It would continue until Friday the 21^st. During the four day convention, speakers delivered talks, committees presented reports, and association business was discussed by its members. An important organization that brought together activists throughout the state, the NYSWSA used their annual conferences to connect women’s suffrage organizations together, helping establish a state-wide organization committed to women’s suffrage.