Mary Edwards Walker (1832-1919) was a physician, abolitionist, women’s rights and dress reform advocate, and the first and only woman to receive the Presidential Medal of Honor.
Mary Walker was born and raised by progressive parents in Oswego, NY. At 23, she earned her medical degree, the second woman to graduate from Syracuse Medical College. During the Civil War, she volunteered as a civilian at the Patent Office Hospital in Washington, DC, and established a Women’s Relief Organization that helped the families of wounded soldiers. Later, she treated soldiers near the front lines of Virginia, and in 1863, at 31, she was hired by the Army of the Cumberland and became the first female surgeon to serve in the Union army. The following year, she was appointed assistant surgeon of the 52nd Ohio Infantry, often crossing the battle lines to treat civilians. For her work during the war, Walker was awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor – the first and only woman ever to receive it. In 1917, the medal was revoked but restored after her death.
Since she was young, she preferred wearing men’s clothes rather than the restricting and uncomfortable women’s attire. She only wore a skirt at her wedding. Walker was a loud advocate for various social causes, and after the war, she traveled through the US giving lectures on abolition, temperance, women’s suffrage, and especially women’s dress reform. She died a year before the 19th Amendment was ratified to the US Constitution, granting women voting rights.
The Mary Edwards Walker statue stands at the entrance of the Oswego Town Hall since its dedication on May 12, 2012. The initial idea for the statue came from its sculptor, Sharon BuMann, that learned about Walker while growing up in Oswego. A few years later, the community pushed for its creation, and private people donated money for its commission.
The result is a 900-pound, six-foot-tall bronze statue of Walker, wearing her signature outfit of trousers beneath a mid-length skirt, her medical bag laying beneath her, and her hand gesturing toward her Medal of Honor on her lapel. She is about to give a speech, approaching a podium inscribed with the medical symbol, her biography, and one of her famous quotes. A quill and a copy of her book Hit: Essays on Women’s Rights lay on the podium. Inside the Town Hall, there is an exhibit about her life and many achievements.
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