Why am I passionate about this?

I have always been passionate and outspoken about fairness. This passion evolved into my attention to words and laws and a belief that they could affect behavior. This passion evolved into my passion for social change. Finally, it evolved into a passion for public service, where I could make things happen that I believed would help people. My first action as Chief Ranger for Legislation in the Boston office of the National Park Service was proposing a new park for women’s history, which eventually became the Women’s Rights National Historical Park.


I wrote...

A National Park for Women's Rights: The Campaign That Made It Happen

By Judy Hart,

Book cover of A National Park for Women's Rights: The Campaign That Made It Happen

What is my book about?

Judy proposed a national park in Seneca Falls, New York, honoring the first convention calling publicly for the right to…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Restoring Women's History through Historic Preservation

Judy Hart Why did I love this book?

I wish I could have read this book as I struggled to promote the sites in Seneca Falls to become a new national park. The US Congress directed the National Park Service to seek out and preserve sites that tell “nationally significant” aspects of our country’s history. Naming a place and its remaining structures nationally significant brings notice, interest, visitors, and support. Severely limiting parks focused on women might suggest that women’s history is not nationally significant.

I found the 19 chapters describing the benefits and challenges of selecting, preserving, and promoting the sites, structures, and stories of women’s trials and achievements heartening and inspiring. Each chapter provides valuable insights into the complex process of protecting historical places that reflect women's contributions to our nation's history. These stories highlight the importance of giving due recognition to sites connected to women's experiences and struggles.

Dr. Judith Wellman’s chapter, in particular, is a well-researched and well-told story of bringing the sites in Seneca Falls into the Park Service. It details the efforts to elevate these historic places, preserving their significance for future generations. The chapter serves as a great example of how critical it is to ensure that women’s history is recognized and honored through national parks.

By Gail Lee Dubrow (editor), Jennifer B. Goodman (editor),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Restoring Women's History through Historic Preservation as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Historic sites are visited by millions of people every year, but most of these places perpetuate the public notion that men have been the primary agents of historical change. This book reveals that historic sites and buildings have much to tell us about women's history. It documents women's contributions to the historic preservation movement at places such as Mount Vernon and explores women's history at several existing landmarks such as historic homes, as wells as in a wider array of cultural landscapes ranging from nurses' residences in Montreal to prostitutes' quarters in Los Angeles. The book includes essays on six…


Book cover of National Parks and the Woman's Voice: A History

Judy Hart Why did I love this book?

I was awe-struck with Polly Kaufman traveling the country and interviewing women in the Park Service, including myself. Her book dramatically documented the resistance to women’s history, women rangers, and women in leadership, affirming my frustrations throughout my 28-year career in the Service.

Polly began by researching the early history of the Park Service, a time when women were forbidden to be hired as rangers. She traced the drawn-out saga of decades of struggle women faced to become “real rangers” and earn the right to wear the official hat and uniform.

Polly also describes the histories of early women who rose to become park superintendents and other leaders in the Service. Additionally, she includes the astounding visit of Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Yosemite Valley in 1871.

By Polly Welts Kaufman,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked National Parks and the Woman's Voice as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A decade has passed since the publication of the first edition of ""National Parks and the Woman's Voice: A History."" Polly Welts Kaufman thought it time to revisit the subject of activism of women citizens in preserving national parks and to learn how far the promise of the inclusion of career women in the Park Service hierarchy has progressed. Kaufman discovered the staff in a national park can no longer fulfill the Park Service mission without outside support. Both this new reality and the acceptance of women as leaders have affected Park Service culture, making it more collaborative, more inclusive,…


Book cover of The Road to Seneca Falls: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the First Woman's Rights Convention

Judy Hart Why did I love this book?

I knew nothing of the history of Seneca Falls, or the 1848 convention, or really the struggle for women’s rights. When I first proposed the simple idea of “a new park about women’s history,” I had never heard of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a forceful leader in the struggle for women’s rights for decades.

Judy Wellman was researching her book when I opened the Women’s Rights National Historical Park in 1982. I hired Judy as the park historian in the opening year and was graced with her wisdom as we developed the first exhibits and programs. I and the park benefitted greatly from her research through my six years as the founding superintendent of the park.

By Judith Wellman,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Road to Seneca Falls as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Feminists from 1848 to the present have rightly viewed the Seneca Falls convention as the birth of the women's rights movement in the United States and beyond. In The Road To Seneca Falls, Judith Wellman offers the first well documented, full-length account of this historic meeting in its contemporary context.

The convention succeeded by uniting powerful elements of the antislavery movement, radical Quakers, and the campaign for legal reform under a common cause. Wellman shows that these three strands converged not only in Seneca Falls, but also in the life of women's rights pioneer Elizabeth Cady Stanton. It is this…


Book cover of Eighty Years and More: Reminiscences 1815-1897

Judy Hart Why did I love this book?

I found a quote from my father written in 1982 in my tattered copy of Stanton’s biography when I was appointed the first superintendent of the new park. He asked, “How do you know all this?” A perfect question from a well-educated and well-read father who was then 70. He surely never studied women’s history.

I, a graduate of the Arts College at Cornell University just 40 miles away from Seneca Falls, had never heard of Stanton or Seneca Falls until 20 years after my graduation. It’s remarkable how little awareness there was, even in such close proximity, about these historical figures and events that would become so central to my work. My personal knowledge of women’s history was practically non-existent at the time.

I began as superintendent in 1982, and of the very fine books here recommended, only one had been published in 1982: Stanton’s autobiography. Stanton’s descriptions, supplemented with Judy Wellman’s research, were the entire library in my head and guided our early programs in setting up the new park.

By Elizabeth Cady Stanton,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Eighty Years and More as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The autobiography of women's rights pioneer Elizabeth Cady Stanton-published for the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage-including an updated introduction and afterword from noted scholars of women's history Ellen Carol DuBois and Ann D. Gordon.

Eighty Years and More: Reminiscences 1815-1897, is one of the great American autobiographies. There is really no other American woman's autobiography in the nineteenth century that comes near it in relevance, excellence, and historical significance.

In 1848, thirty-three-year-old Stanton and four others organized the first major women's rights meeting in American history. Together with Susan B. Anthony, her partner in the cause, she led the campaign…


Book cover of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: A Friendship That Changed the World

Judy Hart Why did I love this book?

I love this book and so wish it had been available to me, park planners, and the public in 1982. But it was published in 2011. I received it as a gift and did not immediately realize it was intended for young adults. But how significant is it to reach girls and boys while still young and unbiased so they could better understand their lives as they unfolded?

I loved that it was accessible in its words, and very much in its design. Lots of space, largish print, clearly written, all make it also very appropriate for women, and men, of my age, which is 82. Weakened eyesight, shorter attention spans, no base of information to build on, this book is perfect also for seniors who probably had no formal education in women’s history and women’s rights.

By Penny Colman,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 12, 13, 14, and 15.

What is this book about?

In the spring of 1851 two women met on a street corner in Seneca Falls, New York - Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a thirty-five year old mother of four boys, and Susan B. Anthony, a thirty-one year old, unmarried, former school teacher. Immediately drawn to each other, they formed an everlasting and legendary friendship. Together, they challenged entrenched beliefs, customs, and laws that oppressed women and spearheaded the fight to gain legal rights, including the right to vote despite fierce opposition, daunting conditions, scandalous entanglements and betrayal by their friends and allies. Weaving events, quotations, personalities, and commentary into a page-turning…


Explore my book 😀

A National Park for Women's Rights: The Campaign That Made It Happen

By Judy Hart,

Book cover of A National Park for Women's Rights: The Campaign That Made It Happen

What is my book about?

Judy proposed a national park in Seneca Falls, New York, honoring the first convention calling publicly for the right to vote for women. The 1848 convention was shockingly proposed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton at a tea party in nearby Waterloo. The convention attracted 300 to the Wesleyan Chapel. However, by 1978, the Wesleyan Chapel had devolved into a faded laundromat.

Creating the park demanded determination to do something no one else dared to even propose to the Park Service. Hart had to bend and break the protocols and regulations in the battle to create a prominent milestone despite decades of reluctance by the Park Service to showcase women’s history. And the war for women’s rights continues today.

Book cover of Restoring Women's History through Historic Preservation
Book cover of National Parks and the Woman's Voice: A History
Book cover of The Road to Seneca Falls: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the First Woman's Rights Convention

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What is my book about?

I have woven numerous delightful and descriptive true life stories, many from my adventures as an outdoorsman and singer songwriter, into my life as a high school English teacher. I think you'll find this work both entertaining as well as informative, and I hope you enjoy the often lighthearted repartee and dialogue that enhances the stories and experiences.

When I started teaching in the early 1990s, I brought into the classroom with me my passions for nature, folk music, and creativity. This book holds something new and engaging with every chapter and can be enjoyed by all sorts of readers,…

Creativity, Teaching, and Natural Inspiration

By Mark Doherty,

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5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in Women's history, women's rights, and historic sites?

Women's History 20 books
Women's Rights 68 books
Historic Sites 15 books