Dale Steen: From Kitchen Table to Hall of Fame

By Deborah Alden

In a dramatic mirroring of the events that led Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and the women of Seneca Falls to draft and endorse the Declaration of Sentiments, Dale Steen found herself in a talking circle of women when she was just a young mother raising her children and managing a home. These women recognized the need to galvanize and gather resources to preserve and promote the home of the women’s rights movement. Seneca Falls had fallen into tough economic times; buildings were falling into disrepair; and historic homes were threatened by the wrecking ball. Yet this was where the greatest women of the fight for equal rights had lived, raised their families, and penned the famous Declaration that would serve as the suffragettes’ call to arms. Lest these women, their struggles and achievements, and the women who followed them be forgotten, Steen and her army of volunteers conceived and ushered into being the Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York. It was time, they all agreed, to make a home to celebrate the achievements of women and to sing their praises.

Talking Circles

The first "brainstorming session," as she calls it, took place with Steen, her friend Shirley Hartley, and a group of likeminded women in 1967. "It was just a group of women in the community," Steen says, "women activists or women interested in the vitality of the community. It was a mixture of elderly women, plus younger women, the librarian, teachers, the owner of the Inn." At the suggestion of the Eisenhower College president, John Rosencrantz, for whom Shirley worked, the group banded together around a central idea that Seneca Falls would be a good spot for a national museum dedicated to women’s rights and history.

"In October of 1968, Shirley held a tea — just as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton had in Waterloo, New York, over hundred years earlier — at the Armitage Inn, inviting her friends and the movers and shakers in the community," Steen says. "At that tea she planted the seed of a Hall of Fame for Women. One of the women who attended that meeting, Helen Barker, is now 102 years old and still an active member of the Women’s Hall of Fame." Once the group was formed and had established their mission to create the Women’s Hall of Fame, Eisenhower was the first sponsor to jump on board, donating a room to house the collection and serve as home for the future Hall of Fame.

Putting It All in Place

"It was just thrilling," Steen says of her involvement with the project. The idea carried passion, which helped the group to achieve staggering goals. "I think we were all worried about Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s house being torn down," Steen says. That galvanized the group, and gave them the fire to drum up membership, support, and corporate sponsorship. "We had a membership. People could join. You could have different types of memberships," she says of the fundraising mechanisms. The group held coffees, circulated a promotional packet, and even produced a musical to raise funds. The musical was penned by a Columbia grad student and featured the first nominees to the Hall of Fame. Steen’s first job was as treasurer, but before long the young mother in her twenties was traveling the country in search of artifacts to be used as props or costumes for the musical. She recalls one trip in particular to Phelps, New York, home of Amelia Earhart, to collect her riding leathers and helmet for use in the play and later for display.

Ideas blossomed and the energy flowed. Before long, corporate sponsors were signing on. Corning Glass created and donated the original glass awards that were given to inductees. Avon, Gould Pumps, Eastman Kodak, and Sylvania all contributed. Steen recalls Helen Hayes receiving her glass statuette, thinks of the nominees who were still alive at that time, and marvels at how it all came together. There were juries and procedures to establish, calendars for nominations, judging, and presentation. Finally, just before the opening in 1971, the bank located just across the street from the original suffragette meeting site donated its building for use as the Hall of Fame. "Nelson Rockefeller led the building dedication ceremony," Steen says of that first Honors Ceremony.

A Kitchen Table Idea Goes National

"It’s just amazing," Steen says, thinking back, "to have the National Park there… I would say the Women’s Hall of Fame actually got it started." Steen rattles off the accomplishments of the dedicated group, from saving and restoring the laundromat that was the original chapel, now a designated landmark, to serving as a model for the Susan B. Anthony dollar which was fashioned after the hall of Fame’s commemorative coins. The endeavor was a lasting success on all fronts because they approached it from the positive, Steen says. "I think we really pushed the accomplishments [of women] rather than the barriers in society. It was kind of an easier pill to swallow."

Looking Forward

Steen underscores the magic that happens when women band together to make the necessary happen, just as Cady Stanton, Anthony, and their peers did in 1848. "I’m just amazed that a little idea, a kitchen table idea, would grow to be what it is today," Steen says. The UVM extension professor, granddaughter of a Vermont mason who once worked the homes of Seneca Falls, sees plenty of room for more such kitchen table ideas. "I feel there’s a horrible need for women’s rights on a global level," she says. "I would love to see some real energies go into that." Perhaps as Steen, the grandmother of four young girls, recognizes, it’s time for many more talking circles to form and declare themselves. American women have consistently shown themselves ripe for that challenge. If you have any doubt, just visit the Women’s Hall of Fame.

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