| Boston Women's Memorial | |
|---|---|
 | |
  Boston Women's Memorial Location in Boston | |
| Artist | Meredith Bergmann |
| Year | 2003 |
| Type | bronze and granite |
| Location | Boston, Massachusetts, United States |
| 42°21′02″N71°05′00″W / 42.35052°N 71.08329°W | |
The Boston Women's Memorial is a bronze and granite grouping of three figurative sculptures on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall in Boston, Massachusetts, commemorating Phillis Wheatley, Abigail Adams, and Lucy Stone.
The idea of a memorial to women was first discussed in 1992 in recognition of the under-representation of women among Boston's statues. [1] A collaboration between the Boston Women's Commission, the Commonwealth Avenue Mall Committee and the Massachusetts Historical Society, [2] supported by Angela Menino, the mayor's wife, developed it over the next twelve years. [3] [4] Three women from Massachusetts history were eventually chosen for their impact on society through their writing.
The design competition was won by New York sculptor Meredith Bergmann. The memorial was unveiled on October 25, 2003, by the mayor of Boston, Thomas Menino. [2] [5] Despite having taken longer than 12 years to be developed and created, the monument was criticized at the time as a quick-fix attempt to address the lack of female representation in Boston's public art, grouping together three historical figures who merit recognition as individuals. [6] "The memorials to men around town don't herd heroes together; neither should a memorial to women," Christine Temin wrote in the Boston Globe. [6]
The statues present the women at street level, rather than on a pedestal, although pedestals are used as part of the artwork to refer to the ways in which women’s liberation has brought women down off their pedestals. Stone, for example, is positioned using her pedestal as an editorial desk, working on the Woman's Journal , which she founded. [2] Quotations from the women are inscribed on their plinths.
The monument has proved to be popular. Local people regularly leave items at or on the statues — scarves around the figure's necks in winter, a Boston Red Sox cap on one's head when the team won the World Series in 2004. [2] Notes of apology were tucked into the statues’ hands after the 2016 election. [7]
For the 20th anniversary, recordings of Congresswoman Ayanna Presley reading Wheately, Attorney General Andrea Campbell reading Adams, and Mayor Michelle Wu reading Lucy Stone were added to the memorial via QR code as part of the Talking Statues program.
The memorial is featured on the Ladies Walk of the Boston Women's Heritage Trail. [8]
John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum was an American sculptor best known for his work on Mount Rushmore. He is also associated with various other public works of art across the U.S., including Stone Mountain in Georgia, statues of Union General Philip Sheridan in Washington D.C. and in Chicago, as well as a bust of Abraham Lincoln exhibited in the White House by Theodore Roosevelt and now held in the United States Capitol crypt in Washington, D.C.
Faneuil Hall is a marketplace and meeting hall located near the waterfront and today's Government Center, in Boston, Massachusetts. Opened in 1742, it was the site of several speeches by Samuel Adams, James Otis, and others encouraging independence from Great Britain. It is now part of Boston National Historical Park and a well-known stop on the Freedom Trail. It is sometimes referred to as "the Cradle of Liberty", though the building and location have ties to slavery.
The Back Bay Fens, often called The Fens, is a parkland and urban wild in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1879. Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted to serve as a link in the Emerald Necklace park system, the Fens gives its name to the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood.
Alice Stone Blackwell was an American feminist, suffragist, journalist, radical socialist, and human rights advocate.
Thomas Michael Menino was an American politician who served as the mayor of Boston, from 1993 to 2014. He was the city's longest-serving mayor. He was elected mayor in 1993 after first serving three months in the position of "acting mayor" following the resignation of his predecessor Raymond Flynn. Before serving as mayor, Menino was a member of the Boston City Council and had been elected president of the City Council in 1993.
Commonwealth Avenue is a major street in the cities of Boston and Newton, Massachusetts. It begins at the western edge of the Boston Public Garden, and continues west through the neighborhoods of the Back Bay, Kenmore Square, Boston University, Allston, Brighton and Chestnut Hill. It continues as part of Route 30 through Newton until it crosses the Charles River at the border of the town of Weston.
Boston's Old City Hall was home to its city council from 1865 to 1969. It was one of the first buildings in the French Second Empire style to be built in the United States. After the building's completion, the Second Empire style was used extensively elsewhere in Boston and for many public buildings in the United States, including the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C., Providence City Hall in Providence, Baltimore City Hall in Baltimore, and Philadelphia City Hall in Philadelphia. The building's architects were Gridley James Fox Bryant and Arthur Gilman.
Meredith Bergmann is an American sculptor, poet, and essayist whose work is said to "forge enriching links between the past and the concerns of the present."
Femi Emiola is an American actress. She is best known for her roles in the TV series Wicked Wicked Games and in the web series If Looks Could Kill. Her first and last names come from the Yoruba language, and her first name is pronounced "F-eh-mi". Fẹ́mi can mean either "love me", or "marry me". However, the name "Fẹ́mi" is generally translated as "love me" and can sometimes be short for "Olúwáfẹ́mi", which means "The Lord loves me".
Bashka Paeff, was an American sculptor active near Boston, Massachusetts.
William Shakespeare has been commemorated in a number of different statues and memorials around the world, notably his funerary monument in Stratford-upon-Avon ; a statue in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey, London, designed by William Kent and executed by Peter Scheemakers (1740); and a statue in New York's Central Park by John Quincy Adams Ward (1872).
The Salem Women's Heritage Trail was created in 2000 by local historians, curators, librarians, and interested citizens to remember the women who have contributed to the development of Salem, Massachusetts for over four centuries since colonial times and far beyond when Native Americans occupied "Naumkeag," as Salem was originally called. Salem is known the world over for the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, but this walking trail discusses many more women's stories.
The Boston Opera House, also known as the Citizens Bank Opera House, is a performing arts and esports venue located at 539 Washington St. in Boston, Massachusetts. It was originally built as the B.F. Keith Memorial Theatre, a movie palace in the Keith-Albee chain. The chain became part of RKO when it was established just before the theater opened on October 29, 1928, and it was also known as the RKO Keith's Theater. After operating for more than 50 years as a movie theater, it was rededicated in 1980 as a home for the Opera Company of Boston, which performed there until the opera company closed down in 1990 due to financial problems. The theater was reopened in 2004 after a major restoration, and it currently serves as the home of the Boston Ballet and also hosts touring Broadway shows.
Zipporah Potter Atkins was a free African American woman who owned land in colonial Boston, during a time when few women or African Americans owned land in the American Colonies. The purchase of her home, dated 1670, makes her the first African American to own land in the city of Boston, and with Anthony Johnson one of the earliest African-American landowners in what would become the United States.
The Boston Women's Heritage Trail is a series of walking tours in Boston, Massachusetts, leading past sites important to Boston women's history. The tours wind through several neighborhoods, including the Back Bay and Beacon Hill, commemorating women such as Abigail Adams, Amelia Earhart, and Phillis Wheatley. The guidebook includes seven walks and introduces more than 200 Boston women.
An equestrian statue of Paul Revere by Cyrus Edwin Dallin is installed at Paul Revere Mall near the Old North Church in Boston, Massachusetts.
Leif Eriksson is an outdoor statue by Anne Whitney at the west end of the Commonwealth Avenue Mall in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Installed in 1887, it was the first public sculpture to honor the Norse explorer in the New World.
A statue of Christopher Columbus was installed in Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park, in Boston's North End, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. On June 11, 2020, the statue was removed for an undisclosed period after it was decapitated by protestors on the evening of June 9, 2020 during the George Floyd protests.
The Jubilee Memorial, Harrogate, is a Grade II listed building. It is a Gothic Revival stone memorial in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, commemorating the 1887 golden jubilee of Queen Victoria. It was donated to Harrogate by its mayor, Richard Ellis, designed by architect Arthur Bown, and unveiled by the Marquis of Ripon.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
Media related to Boston Women's Memorial at Wikimedia Commons
