The First Monument of Real Women in Central Park! It is Finally Here!
A 14-foot tall bronze sculpture by the artist, Meredith Bergmann, features Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, & Elizabeth Cady Stanton has arrived!
The monument is located at Central Park's Literary Walk, a tree-lined promenade where you can also see statues of Shakespeare, Scottish poet Robert Burns, Scottish novelist Sir Walter Scott, and American author Fitz-Greene Halleck.
Former Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, was present for the unveiling. “The Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument” has been in the works since 2014. To honor the 100th anniversary of the “19th Amendment” this day was chosen to present this amazing statue. According to the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s 2011 Art Inventories Catalog, just 8% of the 5,193 public outdoor sculptures across the country depicted women. The nonprofit Monumental Women organization, also known as the Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony State Fund” launched its campaign in response to this.
Quick bios on each woman:
Sojourner Truth (1797-1883): A former slave, Sojourner Truth became an outspoken advocate for abolition, temperance, and civil and women’s rights in the nineteenth century. Her Civil War work earned her an invitation to meet President Abraham Lincoln in 1864.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902): Author, lecturer, and chief philosopher of the woman’s rights and suffrage movements, Elizabeth Cady Stanton formulated the agenda for woman’s rights that guided the struggle well into the 20th century.
Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906): Champion of temperance, abolition, the rights of labor, and equal pay for equal work, Susan Brownell Anthony became one of the most visible leaders of the women’s suffrage movement. Along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she traveled around the country delivering speeches in favor of women's suffrage.
One of the most effective leaders in the early years of the women’s movement was Sojourner Truth (above c. 1870), who made the claim women were equal to men in their labor. (NPG)
In 1851, three years after the Seneca Falls Convention, Elizabeth Cady Stanton (above left, by Matthew Brady, 1863) recruited a Rochester, New York resident Susan B. Anthony to the movement. (NPG)
Meredith Bergmann works on the monument of women's rights pioneers ahead of its coming unveiling. Credit: Michael Bergman
"You've heard of breaking the glass ceiling," said Meredith Bergmann, the sculptor of the piece. "This sculpture is breaking the bronze ceiling.”
A little about Meredith Bergmann: she has worked as a sculptor for over 40 years, she is a poet and an essayist. Her mission, in her own words: “I work for social justice and historical redress through my public art.” In 2003, her largest public commission was presented for the Boston Women’s Memorial on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. Her FDR Hope Memorial for New York City’s Roosevelt Island will be unveiled in the near future, and I will be there to see it!
Bergman says: "My hope for little girls who see these statues is that they will be inspired to do serious work for social change with the knowledge that women have been doing this kind of work for centuries," Bergmann said, "and their rights descend from the work these women did."
