The Tennessee Woman Suffrage Memorial is commemorating the women who campaigned for women’s right to vote in Tennessee, the last state to ratify the 19th Amendment. The life-size bronze statue, made by the sculptor Alan LeQuire, depicts three pioneers of the women’s suffrage movement in Tennessee: Elizabeth Avery Meriwether, Lizzie Crozier French, and Anne Dallas Dudley. Each of them represents one of Tennessee’s three grand divisions: East Tennessee, Middle Tennessee, and West Tennessee. The quotations of the suffrage movement campaigners are engraved on the base of the sculpture to inspire the visitors. The memorial was unveiled on August 26th, 2006, at Market Square Mall. After 11 years of effort led by the Suffrage Coalition, whose mission is “to preserve the important history of Tennessee’s role in the woman suffrage victory.” Among the coalition’s achievements are the Burn Memorial, dedicated to Harry Burn (who was the last to sign pro the 19th amendment ratification), and his mother, Febb Burn, who pushed him for signing the approval, as well as leading the efforts to declare Febb Burn Day on August 18th. Read more...

Amid the fourteen statues at the Valiants Memorial, commemorating leading figures from the military history of Canada, stands the bust of Georgina Pope, a notable nurse and the first Matron of the Canadian Army Medical Corps. The statue was created by Marlene Hilton Moore and John McEwen and unveiled at the memorial dedication on November 5th, 2006. Georgina Pope (1862-1938) was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. At 19, she traveled to NYC to study nursing. After completing her training, she was appointed superintendent of the Columbia Hospital for Women in Washington, DC, and founded a new nursing school. In October 1899, on the outbreak of the Second Boer War, she returned to Canada to volunteer for the nursing service and serve as the commander of the first group of Canadian nurses to go overseas, in charge of operating the military hospital. For her accomplishments and distinguished service in the field, she received the Queen’s South Africa Medal and became the first Canadian to be awarded the Royal Red Cross. In 1908, at 46, she was appointed first Matron of the Canadian Army Medical Corps, training civilian nurses to operate in the field in case of war; her work was credited with creating the position of military nursing as a fully-integrated role for women. Pope’s enterprise proved critical when WW1 broke out, and Pope’s nurses were dispatched to the European battlefields. In 1917, at 55, she joined her crew of nurses and ran field hospitals in England and France until the war ended. On her return to Canada, she retired from the service. She died at the age of 76. Read more...

Mary Dyer was a Quaker who fought for religious freedom. In 1660 these beliefs were considered a crime, and she was persecuted for practicing Quakerism and eventually hanged for it. Mary Dyer’s death influenced religious freedom legalization and the Constitution’s Bill of Rights. Her statue has stood near the Massachusetts State House entrance, not far from where she was executed, since July 9th, 1959. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts commissioned the famous Quaker artist Sylvia Shaw Judson to create it, depicting Dyer sitting peacefully on a bench wearing Quaker clothes, looking at her hands as if praying. The inscription on the stone pedestal reads: “MARY DYER QUAKER WITNESS FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM HANGED ON BOSTON COMMON 1660 MY LIFE NOT AVAILETH ME IN COMPARION TO THE LIBERTY OF THE TRUTH” Replicas of this statue stand at the Friends Center entrance, a Quaker hub in Philadelphia, and Stout Meetinghouse at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana.Nearby the Mary Dyer statue, on Massachusetts State House grounds, stands the statue of another religious freedom fighter, Anne Hutchinson. Read more...

The Women of Steel bronze statue commemorates the women of Sheffield and South Yorkshire steel towns who kept the local steelworks alive during WW1 and WW2. During both wars, while men entered the armed forces and were dispatched to fight in the front, thousands of women from South Yorkshire took on the vacant positions in the factories and steel mills. Those women, most of them in their teens and early 20s, rolled up their sleeves and worked in physically demanding and dangerous jobs that were essential for the war effort, such as producing artillery shells, crankshafts for Spitfires and Hurricanes, tank treads, and camouflage nets. At the end of the workday, they returned to their families to fulfill their domestic duties. When the war ended, they were dismissed from their jobs and expected to resume their old roles in their households. In 2014, four women of steel – Ruby Gascoigne, Dorothy Slingsby, Kathleen Roberts, and Kit Sollitt, launched a grassroots campaign to preserve their story and legacy. The £102,000 cost of the statue was primarily funded by the £150,000 the public and local businesses donated. The extra funds went toward awarding Medallions to 100 Women of Steel and their families. The statue, created by the British sculptor, Martin Jennings, was unveiled on 17 June 2016 in front of 3,000 locals, among them 100 surviving women of steel. It depicts two steelworkers standing arm in arm, wearing their working clothes. The two figures’ position reflects the friendship and solidarity between the women who worked in the plants and workshops. Martin Jennings also created the magnificent statue of Mary Seacole, which stands on the grounds of St Thomas’ Hospital in London. The Women of Steel statue stands close to many monuments and sites, such as the Sheffield War Memorial, Sheffield Town Hall, the Sheffield Cathedral, the National Emergency Services Museum, Graves Art Gallery, and the Millennium Gallery. Read more...

The award-winning poet, playwright, and novelist Jackie Kay is among the 12 Scottish poets honored in Edinburgh Park with commemorative busts. Jacqueline Margaret Kay was born in Edinburgh to a Scottish mother and a Nigerian father in 1961. As a baby, she was adopted by a white couple and grew up in Bishopbriggs. Her adoptive parents were political activists, and she often joined them in demonstrations against poverty and apartheid. Her early aspiration was to become an actor, so she studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama before transferring to Stirling University to major in English and pursue a writing career. In 1991, at 30, she published her first poetry collection, The Adoption Papers, for which she won the Saltire Society Scottish First Book Award and a Scottish Arts Council Book Award. Her second poetry book, Other Lovers, was published in 1993, and five years later, she published her first novel, Trumpet, which earned her the Guardian Fiction Prize. In many of her writing, Kay deals with autobiographical subjects such as race, identity, nationality, sexuality, and gender. By 2022, she had published over 20 poem collections, novels, short stories, and plays, won more than 15 awards, and served as the Makar, the poet laureate of Scotland from 2016 to 2021, Scotland’s first black national poet. Michael Snowden sculptured the Jackie Kay bust in 2004 as part of a series of 12 portrait busts of Scottish poets. Modeling for the sculptor inspired her 2005 poem collection Life Mask, in which she discusses love, loss, and secret identities. Other poets honored in this series are Liz Lochhead, Douglas Dunn, Naomi Mitchison, and W.S. Graham. Read more...

A bronze bust of Agatha Christie resides outside the Pavilion theatre in her hometown of Torquay, where her first husband, Archie Christie, proposed to her after attending a Wagner concert. Carol Van Den Boom-Cairns created the bust in 1990 as part of the anniversary celebrations of the famous English author. Her daughter, Rosalind Hicks, unveiled it. The bust is a stop on the Agatha Christie Mile – a self-guided walking tour along Torquay seafront. It features various landmarks significant to Christie’s life and works, such as Princess Pier, where she roller-skated, the strand that appears in many of her books, Torre Abbey Garden, which inspired many of the poisons in her novels, numerous memorial plaques, and the Agatha Christie Gallery at Torquay Museum. Soon to join the Agatha Christie Mile is a full-size statue of Christie made by artist Elisabeth Hadley. Agatha Christie (1890-1976) is one of the best-sellers authors of all time and became known as the Queen of Mystery for her many detective novels. She was born in Torquay, England, into a middle-class family. Being homeschooled, she taught herself to read at the age of five, and by the age of ten, she wrote her first poem and has never stopped writing since. After many years of getting rejected by publishers, she published her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, in 1920, introducing the world to her most beloved character – Hercule Poirot. She became known as a distinguished author who wrote 74 novels, 14 short story collections, and 19 plays; her books were translated into over 100 languages and adapted into dozens of films, TV series, and stage plays. Inspired by her own experiences, many of her stories occurred in places she visited, including her hometown of Torquay, archeological sites in the Middle East, and a memorable ride on the Orient Express. At the time of her death, 85 years old Christie held the record of the best-selling novelist of all time. A 30-minute drive south will take you to Greenway house and garden, the summer house of Christie and her family. Nowadays is a museum that provides a glimpse into her life in her home and the surroundings she loved. Read more...

Ingrid Jonker (1933-1965) was an iconic South African poet who published her work in Afrikaans and English. Jonker started to write poetry before she was six years old. She was a part of Cape Town’s racially mixed literary bohemia during the 1960s, who opposed the National Party’s racial policies and the increasing censorship of literature and the media. She published two books of poetry during her lifetime, and her poems frequently appeared in magazines and newspapers. Suffering from depression, on a cold winter night, she returned to the happiest place she lived in as a child, Gordon’s Bay. She entered the icy water and drowned herself. She was only 31 years old. After her tragic death, she became more famous. Her third book was published, and her poems were translated into many languages. Nelson Mandela read her poem, The Child, in South Africa’s first democratic parliament in 1994. The Cape Town sculptor Tyrone Appollis created the memorial, inspired by her famous song, The Child, in the shape of a child tricycle and a pair of children’s sandals handed from the handlebars. It stands on a white granite pedestal, engraved with quotes from the poem, overlooking the water of Gordon’s Bay. Jonker’s memorial was part of The Sunday times Easter celebrations project that commissioned several sculptures throughout the country of notable South Africans who have shaped the nation. Read more...

On the opening day of the 2019 US Open, the trailblazer African-American professional tennis player Althea Gibson got the recognition she deserved when her statue got dedicated outside Arthur Ashe Stadium, the biggest tennis stadium in the world, named after the pioneer African-American tennis player, Arthur Ashe. Althea Gibson (1927-2003) played tennis as a kid in Harlem, New York City. She started playing professionally in her teenage years and, from 1947 to 1957, won the American Tennis Association women’s titles. In 1950, Gibson became the first African-American to compete in the US Nationals. A year later, Gibson started competing internationally and made her Wimbledon debut. In 1956, she became the first African-American athlete to win a Grand Slam tournament at the French Championships singles event. She also won the doubles title with Briton Angela Buxton. Until her retirement in 1958, Gibson won 56 national and international singles and doubles titles, including 11 majors, and was the first black player to win the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Nationals. Gibson had accomplished all that while struggling financially and suffering from racism in many places she competed. After retiring, she played professional golf for a while, becoming the first Black player to compete on the Women’s Professional Golf Tour and join the Ladies Professional Golf Association. Among those involved in the campaign to place Gibson’s statue were the legendary tennis player Billie Jean King and former president and CEO of the Us Tennis Association, Katrina Adams. The sculptor Eric Goulder created it, depicting Gibson’s bust on five granite blocks. Her quote is inscribed on one of the blocks: “I hope that I have accomplished just one thing: that I have been a credit to tennis and my country.” An augmented reality experience, narrated by Billie Jean King, provides the visitors with information about the life story and accomplishments of Gibson. Another statue of Gibson stands in New Jersey. Read more...

A statue of Dorothy L Sayers, a novelist, poet, playwright, and translator, who created the fictional amateur detective Lord Peter Wimsey, stands in front of her home at Newland Street, Witham. Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957) was born in Oxford in an academic environment. She attended the Godolphin School and later studied modern languages and medieval literature at Somerville College, Oxford. In 1916, at 23, Sayers published her first book of poetry and continued publishing her poems while working at Blackwell Publishing as a teacher in France and as a copywriter in London advertising. In 1923, Sayers published her first novel, Whose Body, introducing her most famous character, Lord Peter Wimsey, who later appeared in more than ten novels and short stories. Three years later, she married Oswald Atherton Fleming. Following her father’s death, Sayers bought the cottage in Newland Street, Witham, to accommodate her mother. In 1930, a year after her mother died, she and her husband bought the house next door and lived there for the rest of her life, publishing dozens of novels, short stories, poem collections, essays, and plays. In addition, Sayers translated Dante’s Divine Comedy and founded and served as president of the Detection Club. She died at the age of 64. The Dorothy L Sayers Society commissioned the bronze statue and chose the sculptor John Doubleday to create it in 1994. It depicts Sayers mid-walk, with her cat next to her. Her sculpture is one of three commemorations of the renowned author in the town of Witham, including a plaque outside her house and a commemorative center for her life and work in the town’s library. Read more...

Our Lady of the Rockies is dedicated to all women and especially to mothers. It is a 90 ft tall (27 meters) statue, the fourth tallest statue in the US, sits on Saddle Rock atop Butte’s East Ridge, at an elevation of 8,510 ft. The tall white figure resembles the Virgin Mary, standing with her arms open, gazing at the mountain’s bottom. The initiative to building the statue was of a local Butte resident, Bob O’Bill, who promised to build a 5 ft statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe if his wife, Joyce, would survive cancer. She did. And on December 29th, 1979, the work on the statue began. Money and material were donated, and all the work was done by volunteers from the community, who designed and created the statue. On December 17th, 1985, a helicopter from the Nevada National Guard team lifted the statue in four sections to its current location. The statue is visible from the road at any time of the day, but if you want a closer look, guided tours during the summer season from Butte. Read more...