Borrowing from Our Foremothers: Reexamining the Women's Movement through Material Culture, 1848–2017 by Amy Helene Forss

Author:Amy Helene Forss [Forss, Amy Helene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SOC028000 Social Science / Women's Studies
Publisher: Nebraska

Conclusion

The Portrait Monument remains a unique historical entity: it was the first American statuary created, financed, dedicated, and rededicated by women for women. A hundred years old as of this writing, the celebrated artwork (nicknamed “The Three Greats,” “Pioneer Suffrage Monument,” “The Woman Suffrage Statue,” and “Three Ladies in a Bathtub”) has outstayed its 1997 one-year installation. Too heavy to relocate, it permanently exhibits in the Capitol Rotunda.142 Sculptor Adelaide Johnson would have been pleased. In her words, the three-suffragist catalyst caused the greatest bloodless revolution in the world: the women’s rights movement.

A floor below, Sojourner Truth’s bust occupies space against a wall in Emancipation Hall.143 Its location in a construction created by slave labor bears emphasis even though the 111th Congress addressed the artwork’s symbolism as “a reminder of our capacity to change and our willingness to endure.”144 NCBW president E. Faye Williams concurs: “This bust of Sojourner Truth is an honor to all women and will forever serve as a part of our history that celebrates the right to vote for all of us. We are grateful to finally see ‘Truth in the Capitol.’ Join us as we take our place in history.”145 An approximately four-ton, nine-feet-tall Mary McLeod Bethune marble statue created by Puerto Rican sculptor Nilda Comas for the state of Florida will be joining Truth in the Capitol.146 Scheduled for 2021 installment, Bethune’s likeness will be the first African American (male or female) sculpture in Statuary Hall.147 Sculptor Artis Lane prefers Sojourner Truth stay separated from Statuary Hall and the Rotunda’s Portrait Monument. Lane views Truth’s bust as a complementary addition to Adelaide Johnson’s statuary rather than a missing link.148 NCBW’s E. Faye Williams appreciates Truth’s emancipation in the Capitol basement rather than encapsulation in Statuary Hall. To Williams, the latter remains overcrowded with male slave owners.149

Today Fearless Girl faces the NYSE building alone. After garnering over a billion Twitter hits within the first twelve hours of her unveiling in 2017, the figure’s status continues as one of the twenty-first century’s most iconic images. While Charging Bull’s creator called the four-feet-tall girl’s placement “an advertising trick,” Fearless Girl’s sculptor, Kristen Visbal, confidently evaluated the politicization of masculine versus feminine artwork and the women’s movement progress in one succinct statement: “Women are here, and we’re here to stay.”150

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