Some years ago, I heard a radio interview with Lynn Sherr and Jurate Kazickas about their book about famous women. Of of the things mentioned in the inteview was that there were very few monuments (as in statues) to women in this country. There were any number of various “symbolic” women’s monuments (like the Lady on Liberty Island), but very, very few to actual women.
So, does anyone know of any statuary monuments to women?
(This might be more of an IHMO, but I didn’t forsee many responses.)
There’s a monument to four feminist leaders from the nineteenth century in the Capitol building. Everyone hates it.:
It is a monument to FOUR women, not just one.
It only has them from the waist up. People say it looks like they’re in a bathtub.
It’s ugly. I think they’ve stuck it in the basement.
I don’t even remember which four they are. Susan B. Anthony may be one of them.
They just erected a statue of Eleanor (sp?) Roosevelt in a west side park in Manhattan a few (2 or 3) years back. I’ll try to think of more.
There’s also a statue of Golda Meir in New York.
Do the statues of Mary Pickford, Ethel Barrymore, Rosa Ponselle and Marilyn Miller in niches on the I. Miller Shoe Building count?
There’s Savannah’s “Waving Girl” statue on the waterfront, of an actual woman.
A statue of Eleanor pops up in the new Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, DC.
Of course, FDR appears numerous times in it, and you don’t get to Eleanor until after you’ve been past the bread line, the guy listening to the radio, and the indigent farmer couple. And Fala, the president’s Scots terrier.
I guess they figured if they were gonna have his dog, they better have his wife too.
Did anyone watch The West Wing last night? It was a rerun, but one of the plotlines was about this issue. It was alleged that of the thousands and thousands of monuments built with public money, only 50 or so are to women. At the urging of his wife, pres. Bartlet promised to do something about this in his weekly radio address. This show attempts to use real information when they can (and when it fits the story they’re doing), but I wonder where they got the figures they used.
There is a statue honoring women veterans at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington.
Vietnam nurses, actually. And they’re generic Women (like the statue of the generic Male Soldiers that’s also a part of the Vietnam memorial complex), not people being specifically honored.
Slightly off-subject, stuyguy, Eve, what’s the Straight Dope on that great 1920s statue that was supposed to go in City Hall Park in lower Manhattan?
It was called “Civic Virtue” or something, and it depicted a big burly naked guy armed with the Sword of Virtue fighting off and stomping down two or three evil, duplicitous, wanton, debauched, depraved, succubus-like…(snicker)…women.
Frederic (Lincoln Memorial) MacMonnies was the sculptor, I think. And when it was unveiled in 1923 or thereabouts, such a ROAR of protest went up from the women of New York that it was quickly veiled again and railroaded out to the Queens Courthouse, or Borough Hall, I’m not sure which, where it is mouldering to this day.
Yeah, good ol’ Civic Virtue. Keep dem wimmins under your heel (literally) were they belong! [smilie here]
Yup, it’s out in front of Queens Borough Hall. Let me consult my Blue Guide and I’ll have more dope in a flash
We worship you every day, and you want a monument? :rolleyes: Sheesh!
Okay, summarizing the Blue Guide blurb:
CV was built in 1922.
It offended people’s modesty because its central, muscular male figure is very scantily covered with only seaweed and foam.
It also offended the Women’s Temperance Union and the prexie of Harvard – among others – who felt it was an insult to womanhood.
MacMonnies defended the work by pointing out that Virtue’s foot does not actually tread upon the two trampled, writhing female forms.
Related to Uke’s inquiry and the OP, I should mention the controversy surrounding another Queens, NY statue, the one of Queen Catherine (???) something-of-other of Portugal (???) for whom the borough/county was reputedly named.
Apparently, even though the thing’s been sculpted (though, I don’t think it’s actally been cast yet), no one wants to erect it because of the protests it has attracted; the queen, it seems, supported the slave trade way back when. Well, talk about a third-rail issue in the Big Apple. Whisper the word “slavery” in NYC and every politician within twenty miles dives into a taxi bound for JFK. Bottom line: the Queen has no place to go. (Latest news: recently someone suggested building a Tolerance Museum in Queens where she could reside.)
Thank you, stuyguy! Man, I got to schedule a trip out to Queens Boulevard and Union Turnpike sometime soon…I understand Civic Virtue is decaying badly, and it still inspires such loathing in NYC women that there is NO movement to refurbish it. Too bad…another bit of our urban folklore falling to pieces.
I’d love to see the Queen Catherine controversy settled. The idea of a fifty-foot golden statue with masses of curls flying from her head, lurching out of the Queens side of the East River, waving her sceptre at the East Side Drive, appeals to my fondness for the grotesque.
[Hijack below…]
Hey, Ukulele Ike, now that I’ve done all this research at your request, would you email me already?!? I made you (and Vix) a tape after the NYC Doperfest and yours is collecting dust on my desk.
[Resume.]
I found a picture, but it’s hard to see the women at the base. Does anyone have a better picture?
What? NOt even a statue to Rosa Parks? I could’ve sworn I heard there was one, at a bus stop or something like that…
Go figure – lots of responses.
Off to IMHO.
there is a joan of arc statue about 4 blocks from my house.
OK, I’m blowing the tanks on my own thread because I accidentally came across this monstrosity. It was removed from the basement, where it had been safely hidden for over half a centure, and into public view at a cost of about $75K.
Old thread. But I used to live in Carmel, NY and there’s a statue of Sybil Ludington in the town park (the linked article shows a picture of the statue).
I’m wondering if this poster lived in New Orleans 12 years ago - because the first statue I thought of when I saw this thread was Joan of Arc, Maid of Orleans which is located right near the French Market in Nola.
I know Ottawa has Laura Secord and The Famous Five.
