Suffragist, politician. Born of abolitionist parents and named after Rev. Samuel J. May, Harriet was a Cornell grad (1879) with a degree in Literature. She helped organize the first New York suffrage conference in Syracuse under the National American Woman's Suffrage Association in 1892, the same year she co-founded the Political Equity Club. She also arranged public meetings in 60 counties in New York for Susan B. Anthony to speak on suffrage. In 1905 she organized the first Suffrage Club in Seneca Falls, the site of the first woman's rights convention in 1848. She led suffrage campaigns in California, Michigan, Ohio, New York and other states and was close friends with Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Carrie Chapman Catt, Lucy Stone and Eleanor Roosevelt. In 1919 she founded the Onondaga County Woman's Democratic Club, the first in New York State and was the president of this organization for sixteen years until her death. She ran on Alfred E. Smith's ticket as Secretary of State (N.Y.) in 1920 which was unsuccessful. In 1923 she was appointed the first female State Hospital Commissioner which was responsible for mental health institutions. She accompanied FDR on his upstate speaking tour and was a member of the 1933 Electorial College which sent FDR to Washington. She advocated for a woman's building at the New York State Fair with Governor FDR in the 1920s and supervised its implimentation in 1934. In the year after her death the building was named for her and a plaque was installed. On the 50th anniversary of the building the plaque was recovered from a storage closet and rehung by First Lady of New York Matilda Cuomo.
Suffragist, politician. Born of abolitionist parents and named after Rev. Samuel J. May, Harriet was a Cornell grad (1879) with a degree in Literature. She helped organize the first New York suffrage conference in Syracuse under the National American Woman's Suffrage Association in 1892, the same year she co-founded the Political Equity Club. She also arranged public meetings in 60 counties in New York for Susan B. Anthony to speak on suffrage. In 1905 she organized the first Suffrage Club in Seneca Falls, the site of the first woman's rights convention in 1848. She led suffrage campaigns in California, Michigan, Ohio, New York and other states and was close friends with Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Carrie Chapman Catt, Lucy Stone and Eleanor Roosevelt. In 1919 she founded the Onondaga County Woman's Democratic Club, the first in New York State and was the president of this organization for sixteen years until her death. She ran on Alfred E. Smith's ticket as Secretary of State (N.Y.) in 1920 which was unsuccessful. In 1923 she was appointed the first female State Hospital Commissioner which was responsible for mental health institutions. She accompanied FDR on his upstate speaking tour and was a member of the 1933 Electorial College which sent FDR to Washington. She advocated for a woman's building at the New York State Fair with Governor FDR in the 1920s and supervised its implimentation in 1934. In the year after her death the building was named for her and a plaque was installed. On the 50th anniversary of the building the plaque was recovered from a storage closet and rehung by First Lady of New York Matilda Cuomo.
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