100 years of women’s progress

U.S. 3¢ dark violet Progress of Women stamp commemorates 100 years of women’s progress. The stamp pictures Elizabeth Stanton, Carrie C. Catt, and Lucretia Mott. It was issued on 19.7.1948 at Seneca Falls, NY.

100th Anniversary of the First Women’s Rights Convention. This stamp was issued on the 100th anniversary of the first women’s rights convention in the United States. Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) and Lucretia Coffin Mott (1793-1880) met while attempting to attend the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London – women were kept from attending the conference. Outraged, the two pledged to work for women’s rights.  Stanton and Mott organized the first women’s rights conference in the U.S. in Seneca Falls, New York. Many famous Americans, including Frederick Douglass, attended the two-day event, held July 19-20, 1848.

Carrie Chapman Catt (1859-1947) was the president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from 1900-04 and from 1915-20, when the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote. In 1920, she founded the National League of Women Voters, now the League of Women Voters, to teach women about public affairs so that they could vote wisely. Today, the Women’s Rights National Historic Park stands near the spot where the Seneca Falls Convention was held.

Thank you Merja for this memorable cover which was postmarked at Seneca Falls, NY on the first day of issue.