Developed by the City of Boston's Women's Commission with the support of First Lady Angela Menino, this memorial incorporates three bronze sculptures of important women in history. The first, Abigail Adams, served as confidant and adviser to her husband, President John Adams, and was a strong advocate of women's rights. The second, poet Phillis Wheatley, became the first published African-American after being kidnapped from her family and enslaved as a child in Senegal and then sold as property to a couple in Massachusetts. The final figure is abolitionist and suffragist Lucy Stone, known for being the first woman to keep her own last name after marriage and one of the first American women to earn a college degree - which she personally funded.
Sculptor Meredith Gang Bergmann modeled the figures in dynamic poses that invite viewer interaction. Unlike many of the large commemorative sculptures dotting Commonwealth Avenue, they are not perched upon high pedestals but instead stand at street level. By resisting the typically detached quality of commemorative sculpture, Bergmann pays a fitting tribute to these women and their revolutionary ideas. Courtesy of Boston Art Commission.
