Women on Pedestals

Sojourner Truth

These are monumental women! Because of their achievements, their likenesses have been carved in stone for all to see and remember.

• Who: Katharine Lee Bates, author of “America the Beautiful”
• What: Six-foot-two-inch bronze statue showing her at the top of Pikes Peak, where she was inspired to write the song.
• Where: Falmouth, Massachusetts, her birthplace.

• Who: Mary McLeod Bethune, educator
• What: Seventeen-foot bronze statue with arms outstretched to two young children and inscribed with the words, “I leave you love, I leave you hope…I leave you racial dignity.”
• Where: Washington, D.C.

• Who: Mary Ann Bickerdyke, Civil War relief worker for the North
• What: A stone statue of “Mother Bickerdyke” giving a drink to a wounded soldier with an inscription of the base of the statue which says: “'She outranks me'—General Sherman.”
• Where: Galesburg, Illinois.

• Who: Alice Cogswell, first student at the first school for the deaf in the U.S.
• What: A bronze statue of young Alice shows her signing the letter A with her teacher Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet.
• Where: Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C.

• Who: Jane Delano, founder of the Red Cross Nursing Service
• What: A statute representing all nurses, named the Jane Delano Monument.
• Where: Washington, D.C.

• Who: Mary Dyer, martyr for religious freedom
• What: A statue of Mary Dyer by Quaker artist Sylvia Shaw Judson.
• Where: Boston, Massachusetts

• Who: Amelia Earhart, pioneer aviator, called the “Golden Girl of Aviation”
• What: A seven-foot-tall statue covered with gold leaf, with airplane propellers embedded in the base.
• Where: North Hollywood, California

• Who: Laura Haviland, Quaker abolitionist, founder of the Raisin Institute for fugitive slaves
• What: A statue showing her seated with her book, A Woman's Life Work.
• Where: Adrian, Michigan

• Who: Mary Jemison was captured by Seneca Indians and then chose to stay with them. When she was 80 years old, she told of her adventures in the best-selling book The Life of Mary Jemison.
• What: A life-size bronze statue.
• Where: Castile, New York

• Who: Mother Joseph, who established more than two dozen hospitals, schools, and orphanages in the Northwest.
• What: A small bronze statue showing Mother Joseph kneeling in prayer.
• Where: Vancouver, Washington

• Who: Annie Louise Keller, who in 1927 risked her life to save a classroom full of children from a tornado.
• What: A pink marble sculpture of her protecting a child.
• Where: White Hall, Illinois

• Who: Queen Liliuokalani, last queen of Hawaii
• What: An eight-foot tall statue of her holding the constitution of Hawaii in one hand and a page of the traditional Hawaiian farewell song, “Aloha Oe,” which she wrote, in the other.
• Where: Honolulu, Hawaii

• Who: Sybil Ludington, 16-year-old Revolutionary War hero
• What: Bronze statue showing her on horseback to portray her nighttime ride to warn soldiers.
• Where: Carmel, New York

• Who: Edith Graham Mayo, wife of the cofounder of the Mayo Clinic and its first nurse.
• What: Small bronze statue showing Edith in her nurse's uniform.
• Where: Rochester, Minnesota

• Who: Annie Moore, 15-year-old from Ireland who was the first immigrant to pass through the receiving room at Ellis Island when it opened in 1892.
• What: Bronze statue showing Annie with a satchel in her hand and a hopeful expression on her face.
• Where: Ellis Island, New York Harbor, New York

• Who: Esther Morris, who helped make Wyoming the first state to grant women the right to vote.
• What: A shiny brass statue showing her as a young woman carrying flowers and a portfolio.
• Where: Entrance to the Capitol Building, Cheyenne, Wyoming

• Who: Annie Oakley (Phoebe Anne Mozee), famous Wild West sharpshooter
• What: A life-size bronze statue showing her standing, holding her rifle by her side.
• Where: Greenville, Ohio

• Who: Lottie Holman O'Neill, first woman elected to the Illinois legislature.
• What: Statue installed in a niche in the Capitol Building rotunda.
• Where: Springfield, Illinois

• Who: Pocahontas, who at the age of 10 helped the Jamestown colonists and saved the life of their leader, Captain John Smith.
• What: A life-size outdoor statue showing her with open, helping arms.
• Where: Jamestown, Virginia

• Who: Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady, humanitarian
• What: Eight-foot bronze statue of her as an older woman leaning against a rock.
• Where: Riverside Park, New York City

• Who: Florence Sabine, pioneering physician and advocate of public health laws
• What: Replica of the bronze statue in the national Statuary Building which depicts her sitting on a lab stool with a microscope close at hand.
• Where: Denver, Colorado

• Who: Sacajawea, guide and scout for the Lewis and Clark expedition.
• What: Twelve-foot bronze statue showing Sacajawea with her baby strapped to her back.
• Where: Bismarck, North Dakota

• Who: Maria Sanford, pioneer, educator, and civic leader
• What: Seven-foot bronze statue with an inscription on the base calling her “the best known and best loved woman in Minnesota.”
• Where: Statuary Hall, U.S. Capitol Building, Washington, D.C.

• Who: Samantha Smith, ambassador for peace between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. when she was 10 years old. She died at age 13 in a plane crash while returning to Maine from Europe.
• What: Bronze statue showing her posed with a dove of peace and proclaiming her “Maine's young ambassador of goodwill.”
• Where: State Capitol, Augusta, Maine

• Who: Statue of Liberty, the most famous symbolic statue of a woman, modeled after Marie Bartholdi, the sculptor's mother.
• What: 151-foot copper figure of a woman draped in a loose robe, holding a torch in her uplifted right hand and a tablet with the date of the Declaration of Independence in Roman numerals in her left. Installed in 1886.
• Where: Liberty Island, New York Harbor, New York

• Who: Gertrude Stein, author
• What: Bronze statue showing her seated in the way she once described herself as looking “like a great Jewish Buddha.”
• Where: Bryant Park, New York

• Who: Sojourner Truth, abolitionist
• What: Bronze statue depicting her as an orator. She gave passionate speeches against slavery and for women's rights.
• Where: Florence, Massachusetts, her home from 1843–1857

• Who: We-no-nah, Indian woman who, according to legend, drowned rather than marry a warrior of her father's choice.
• What: Bronze likeness showing her in a long dress with buckskin fringe and a traditional sun ornament on her left shoulder.
• Where: Winona, Minnesota, the city named after her.

• Who: Phillis Wheatley, famous slave poet
• What: Bronze statue by Elizabeth Catlett, dedicated by black female poets.
• Where: Jackson, Mississippi

• Who: Emma Willard, women's educator.
• What: Statue depicting her seated in her favorite chair with a book in her right hand.
• Where: Outside the Emma Willard School, Troy, New York

• Who: Women's Rights Leaders
• What: A grouping of nineteen life-size bronze statues of women and men who attended the world's first women's rights convention. Among them are Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Jane Hunt.
• Where: National Historical Park, Seneca Falls, New York

• Who: Vietnam Women's Memorial
• What: A sculpture portraying three Vietnam-era women, one is caring for a wounded soldier, another kneels with her head bowed, and the third searches the sky for airborne help.
• Where: Washingtron, D.C.