Central Park Suffrage Statue Designer Named

The Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Statue Fund, Inc. have announced that Meredith Bergmann will be the sculptor for The Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Woman Suffrage Movement Monument Design Competition at The New-York Historical Society.

Meredith’s winning design will be on exhibit at the New-York Historical Society until the end of July. Plans are also underway for her model to be exhibited at the New York State Museum in Albany in late August for Women’s Equality Day.

Examples of Bergmann’s past work includes Boston Women’s Memorial (Abigail Adams, Phillis Wheatley and Lucy Stone), Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA; FDR Hope Memorial, Roosevelt Island, NYC; Marian Anderson, Converse College, Spartanburg, SC; Memorial to Countee Cullen, Bronx Council on the Arts, NYC; September 11th Memorial, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, NYC; and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in collections of Justice Ginsburg and Columbia University.

A total of 91 submissions from artists across the country were reviewed by a diverse jury consisting of art and design professionals, historians and representatives from New York City Parks and the Statue Fund.

The call for sculptors involved a Request for Qualifications and Request for Proposals, in which the Statue Fund invited sculptors to submit illustrations of previous work, curriculum vitae and their approach to the design of the monument in sketch, text form or both. Four qualified finalists were invited to submit models for the monument. Bergmann will work with The Statue Fund, as well as Beyer Blinder Belle, the international architecture firm assisting with the management of the program.

The New York City Parks Department approved both The Statue Fund’s proposal for a statue with the two figures of Stanton and Anthony alongside the names of other suffragists included in the design, as well as the statue location requested by The Statue Fund — the Literary Walk on The Mall in Central Park.

The Girl Scouts of Greater New York and New York Life were early supporters of the movement. New York Life provided the Statue Fund with a $500,000 challenge grant to illustrate the company’s commitment to diversity and women’s issues and honor the historic relationship New York Life had with the Anthony family.

The Girl Scouts of Greater New York’s involvement began when members of Troop 3484 learned about the lack of real women represented in the park and pledged a donation of $1,920 — symbolic of the ratification of the 19th “Votes For Women” Amendment — from their cookie earnings to The Statue Fund.

The troop also rallied in the park to raise awareness of the need for female statues and advocate for the project. As word spread about the initiative throughout the Girl Scouts, more troops joined the effort. Girl Scout Troop 3482 donated $2,000 to the movement, and Troop 3746 helped to announce the finalists of Woman Suffrage Movement Monument Design Competition and presented The Statue Fund with a $5,000 donation.

In addition to The Girl Scouts of Greater New York and New York Life, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer has been among the movement’s earliest and most vocal supporters.

For further information or to make a contribution to match the New York Life Challenge Grant, click here.

Photo of winning monument design by Glenn Castellano (New York Historical Society).