Thirty-Ninth NY State Suffrage Convention

The thirty-ninth annual convention of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association (NYSWSA) was held in Geneva. (Nineteenth-century practice was to use the singular, woman's; later practice was to use the plural, women's.) The event was held on Tuesday through Friday, October 15–18, 1907. This was the tenth anniversary of the 1897 convention, which was also held in Geneva. Speakers included prominent regional suffrage activist Harriet May Mills and the nationally prominent suffrage activist Anna Howard Shaw. Shaw was also a physician and one of the first women to be ordained as a Methodist minister in the United States. Carrie Chapman Catt, then president of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, was scheduled to address the convention but was unable to attend.

As it had in 1897, the Hotel Nester served as the convention headquarters hotel. The First Baptist Church, then a socially liberal congregation, made its building at North Main and Lewis Streets available for use by the suffragists. All of the 1907 convention's plenary sessions were held there.

The program began on Tuesday, October 15, with a meeting of the executive committee and the credentialing of delegates. Prominent suffragist Ella Hawley Crossett called the plenary session to order, followed by a welcome address, an address by Crossett, and committee reports. An informal reception was held, followed by an evening program, including greetings from the mayor and city attorney of Geneva and the president of Geneva's Hobart College.

The program of Wednesday, October 16, began with committee reports, a panel discussion on membership promotion, and reports from suffrage clubs catering to young people. A Rochester University student, Allie A. Braggins, delivered the Susan B. Anthony Prize Essay. The evening keynote address was by Harriot Stanton Blatch, daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

The program of Thursday, October 17, began with business matters, followed by tributes to Mary S. Anthony, sister of Susan B. Anthony, offered by Anna Howard Shaw, Eliza Wright Osborne, Emily Howland, and others. On the afternoon of October 17, prominent regional suffragist Elizabeth Smith Miller and her daughter Anne Fitzhugh Miller hosted a reception at Miller's elegant mansion, Lochland. Afterward delegates returned to First Baptist for an evening program that included "Anachronisms," a lecture by Mills.

The program of Friday, October 18, filled only the morning hours with association business, handling of any resolutions adopted by the convention, and an executive committee meeting.

Thanks to John Marks for research assistance.