Votes for Women: Celebrating New York’s Suffrage Centennial honors the centennial of women’s suffrage in New York State and raises awareness of the struggle for equal rights up through the present day. The exhibition features over 250 artifacts from the collections of the State Museum, State Archives, State Library, cultural institutions, and private lenders from across the state.

Votes for Women is organized into three areas: “Agitate! Agitate!” (1776 – 1890); “Winning the Vote” (1890-1920); and “The Continuing Fight for Equal Rights” (1920 – Present). The exhibition begins with the stories of countless women and men who worked for equality in the late 18th and early 19th century, the 1848 women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, and the subsequent women’s suffrage movement. Visitors will learn how powerful women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Carrie Chapman Catt, and Alice Morgan Wright helped lead the “Votes for Women” fight in New York and how New York State passed the referendum for women’s suffrage on November 6, 1917. The exhibition concludes with exploring the continuing fight for equal rights since the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1919, including the Equal Rights Amendment and the nationally significant role of New York leaders in regard to women’s rights through the present day.