Here are some of the official photographs by Diana Mara Henry of the First National Women’s Conference in Houston, 1977…and the NY State Women’s Meeting preceding it, in Albany, NY.
Also see Women on the Move website documenting the 35th anniversary celebration event and exhibit and the video about it. There are also, for the conference, 152 images of the FNWC including all the contact sheets that are digitized as part of the 2,041 online for the Diana Mara Henry 20th Century Photographer Collection at UMass Amherst’s Du Bois Library. All photographs Copyright © Diana Mara Henry and may not be copied or distributed without permission. Please refer people here for viewing. Some photographs are straight from the contact sheets and not full, retouched scans. I hope you enjoy them anyway. Can you find the two of yours truly? Thank you.
Email for inquiries about sale of prints: dmh@dianamarahenry.com
Also see other DMH photographs throughout this website.
Also on Saatchi Art: https://www.saatchiart.com/dianamarahenry
Clara McLaughlin and Rinetta
Agnes Dill of the Isleta Laguna tribe
Mary Crisp, Co-Chair of the Republican National Committee
Helvi Sipila the first-ever female Assistant-Secretary-General of the United Nations, speaking at the NY State Women's Meeting plenary
Betty Hamburger, Maryland delegate, Grey Panther
Signer for the deaf watching the closing celebration from the stage
New York delegates celebrating the passage of the Plan of Action
Vinie Burrows performing a monologue she wrote at the Celebrating Women plenary of the NY State Women's Meeting
Delegates in support of the ERA hold up bras with the phrase: We Didn't Burn Them
First Ladies Johnson, Carter and Ford hold up the torch that was run from Seneca Falls to Houston with Congresswoman Abzug for the opening of the First National Women's Conference.
IWY Commissioner First Lady Betty Ford applauding the keynote address by Congresswoman Barbara Jordan
Coretta Scott King, IWY Commissioner
Bus driver for conference delegates
Delegate in wheelchair
Delegate holds up sign with hand-designed and illustrated message: "Keep 'em in the closet."
Delegate with "Politics is My Bag" tote
Delegates wearing anti-ERA "Majority" ribbon crocheting.
Delegate, raising her cane, votes from her wheelchair
Commissioner applauding
Earnest delegate with a hat full of buttons
Learning carpentry skills in the exhibition hall
NY delegate Karen Burstein with her voting plate in her lap
Delegate Freddie Groomes
Young delegate with a lapful of papers, chin in hand
Commissioner serving as a parlementarian
Crocheting "Majority" delegates sit out the celebration of a plank of the Plan of Action
Commissioner Jean O'Leary
GLoria Steinem and Lucy Komisar in discussion of the program with Liz Carpenter foreground right and Commissioner Rita Ellway to her left
Houston policewoman at work at the conference
Delegates stay late in the conference hall to discuss the Rural Women plank.
Linda Johnson Robb
Pro-Era delegate at her needlework
Commissioner Gloria Scott opens the conference with a replica of Susan B. Anthony's gavel from the Women's suffrage convention of 1948 in Seneca Falls, NY
Houston Mayor Fred Hofheinz and Congresswoman Barbara Jordan observing the opening of the conference from adjoining seats onstage.
Bella Abzug, IWY Presiding Officer, delivers The Spirit of Houston, the official report to President Carter in the White House, March, 1978
Delegate Joan Gubbins hols a press conference on the views of those delegates opposed to some of the planks in the National Plan of Action
First Lady Rosalyn Carter holds up her Women on the Move tee-shirt at the White House, March 1978, surrounded by IWY Commissioners
Congresswoman Bella Abzug pledges allegiance to the flag
Bella Abzug and close associate
Presiding Officer of the IWY Commission delivers The Spirit of Houston, the official report on the First National Women's Conference, to Speaker of the House Thomas Phillip "TIp" O'Neill, Jr, March , 1978
Delegates celebrating the passage of the Women, Welfare and Poverty plank of the National Plan of Action
Delegates celebrating the passage of the Sexual Preference plank of the National Plan of Action
Commissioners Lenore Hershey, John Mack Carter and Addie Wyatt palaver at midnight hotel room planning meeting during the conference
Refreshment center and exhibition hall of the Albert Thomas Convention Center during the First National Women's Conference
Sign beyond tree announcing the First National Women's Conference at the Albert Thomas Convention Center
Jean Stapleton at press conference during the FIrst National Women's Conference
Jill Ruckelshaus, First Presiding Officer of the IWY Commission under President Ford, signs the torch runners' scroll held by Peggy Kokernot, right and Pat Kery, center, National Relay Coordinator
Karen De Crow, former president of N.O.W.,at left, still at work during a celebration
Margaret "Midge" Costanza giving a "Lecture from the Top"
Taking pictures at the NASA booth's display: "Picture Yourself as an Astronaut."
Delegate with a brownie camera and flash deciding on her next phtoograph
Phyllis Schlafly and press conference for her "Pro-Family" counter-convention
Photographers came in an out on limited passes to record the action.
Delegation from American Samoa in native dress.
Celebrating the completion of the last mile of the torch relay from Seneca Falls with the arrival at the Albert Thomas Convention Center . Carmen Delgado Votaw, foreground, offers an enthusiastic welcome.
Caroline Bird, historian of the First National Women's Conference, listens to the proceedings on radio.
Many delegates were women of style as well as substance.
Guidance center, booth of Catholic Women at the Exhibition Hall for the conference.
Betty Friedan, author of The Feminist Mystique, at right in the last mile of the torch relay from Seneca Falls to the First National Women's Conference.
Diana Mara Henry signs up for a cause in the exhibition hall.
Official photographer of the First National Women's conference, Diana Mara Henry goes over the schedule, the Haliburton case she borrowed from a photographer friend at her feet.
Kitty Carlisle Hart on stage at the Celebrating Women plenary of the NY State's Women's Meeting.
On the move, left to right: Susan B. Anthony, Bella Abzug, Sylvia Ortiz, Peggy Kokernot and Michelle Cearcy
Two delegates at the Ny State Women's Meeting, supporting the Coalition slate and dyke.
IWY Commissioners Liz Carpenter and Maya Angelou, at right, meeting Sylvia Ortiz, Peggy Kokernot and Michelle Cearcy, who together were to carry the torch's last mile.
Maya Angelou, left, Betty Friedan, in red, Liz Carpenter, center, and Commissioner Sey Chassler
Native American basket weaver at the Art Exhibits area of the NY State Women's Meeting, Empire State Plaza, Albany NY, July 1977
Bella Abzug greetings participants at the Celebrating Women opening plenary of what she called the First NY State Women's Meeting, Albany, July 1977
Taking a delegate's oral history, interviewer and subject share a happy moment.
Parlementarians at work at the outdoor plenary of the NY State Women's meeting
Presenter at the Celebrating Women plenary opening the NY State Women's Meeting
Grand opening of the FIrst National Women's Conference, left to right: Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman, Commissioner, LadyBird Johnson, her daughter Linda RObb, Rosalyn Carter, Betty Ford, Congresswoman and Presiding Officer Bella Abzug, Donna De Varona, Suzy Chaffee, Peggy Kokernot, Michelle Cearcy and Sylvia ORtiz
Delegate writing in her journal at Houston
Delegate invoking Robert's Rules.
Older delegate in a pensive moment.