Mary Amelia Hart

In the late eighteenth century, there was an increased interest in maintaining family histories and sharing them with future generations. Mary Amelia Hart is credited with collecting many of the documents shown in the collection, and often communicated with other members of her family, including her aunt Louisa Adelia Nichols and sister Louisa Abigail Hart, to conduct her research. In these letters, Louisa Adelia Nichols and Louisa Abigail Hart express their eagerness to lend their aid to these efforts and emphasize the importance of maintaining the authenticity of their sources.

In addition to these efforts to preserve family records and genealogies, Mary Amelia Hart was also an active participant in many social groups such as the Poughkeepsie Young Women’s Christian Association, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the New York State Woman Suffrage Association. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, these organizations offered an avenue for women to provide services for their communities and formally organize. The efforts of these groups and the relationships formed between their members built the foundation for the women’s suffrage movement, which would open more opportunities for women in society than ever before.