Day 12

After an unnecessarily rushed departure from our Oneonta hotel, we left for a two and one half hour drive to Seneca Falls and the birthplace of women’s rights in the United States.  Our first stop at Women’s Rights National Historic Park was the visitor center and the Women’s rights museum where we found a good mix of historical and contemporary information on women’s issues.  Unfortunately the chapel was closed for renovations because it would have been exciting to see the meeting place of the first Women’s Rights Convention.  We were able to visit the home of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, where several rooms, devoid of furniture and relevance, captured the attention of some, while others wandered the property.  Our final stop pertaining to women’s rights was the M’Clintock House, a symbol of Quaker support for the movement and the place where the Declaration of Sentiments was written and where the first convention was planned.  Some of the information attained today will help me better explain gender issues and literature written in the Nineteenth Century.

Next, we grabbed a box lunch and quickly headed to Auburn where we received a private tour of the home of William Seward, a man known for an extraordinary political career, most notably his position of Secretary of State under Presidents Lincoln and Johnson.  Jennifer Haynes provided a quick introduction to the man and his family before we split into two groups and were led through the home and various exhibits.  The upstairs resembled more of a museum than a house, with rooms dedicated to Seward’s purchase of Alaska and his assassination.  The downstairs was dedicated to the preservation of the Seward home and to demonstrating what life would have been like for his family and the three generations which came after him.  After touring the house, I have a much better grasp of Seward the visionary, and the respect that other men had for him.  This information will greatly improve my discussion of United States territories in my civics and geography classes.

The Harriet Tubman museum was our next stop on this whirlwind tour, where we received a rushed, thirty minute background lesson on Tubman and her relevance on the Underground Railroad.  We were whisked through one building on the property, where a home for the elderly had been established before being loaded back onto the bus for the final stop on our journey.  A quick cruise up a portion of the Erie Canal was a relaxing end to such a hectic day.  Our boat, the Sam Patch, was named after a local daredevil who met his end after jumping from 125 feet into the Genesee River.  The cruise gave us all a better understanding of canal locks and how they operate, and I know that this one subject about which my students are always fascinated.  I’ll appreciate the photos I took even more when they start asking about the Eire, Panama, and Suez Canals in geography next year.

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