Even if you do not live in New York, or have never been there, you probably know this identifying landmark of the city. Created in 1857 on 78 acres in the middle of the city, Central Park was designed by one of the leading landscape architects of the day, Frederick Law Olmstead. It was the beginning of a movement that fostered green spaces in the middle of cities.
But the park fell on hard times in the 70s and became synonymous with danger and crime. A group of citizens took the problem in hand, raised three million dollars, and brought the park back to the original planner’s ideal. In addition to the well thought out vegetation, there are a number of statues spread out over the park, 23 of accomplished men (Christopher Columbus, Alexander Hamilton, William Shakespeare, and Sir Walter Scott among others.) There are no statues of women unless you want to count Mother Goose or Alice in Wonderland. But a sled dog named Balto made the cut.
Now in order to rectify this imbalance, three new statues of women are being commissioned for placement in the park. The women chosen are Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Sojourner Truth. These pioneers for women’s rights across the racial divide are shown seated around a table in earnest conversation. While I admire these three woman and what they accomplished, in spite of the fact that none of them ever saw the fruition of their labors, I am a little put off by their bronze representations. They spent a lifetime working tirelessly for the rights of women and African Americans, gaining the most recognition for their tremendous work towards to end of their long lives.
In their bronze representations they are young and slender with a prominent chin smoothed out, a wrinkled face eased, and a double chin gone. These women lived hard lives. Sojourner Truth beginning hers in slavery, escaping to a not always welcoming world in the North, Susan B. Anthony choosing spinsterhood and a life of relentless travel and speeches, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton tied at home with seven children writing and writing and writing for those speeches.
I would have liked to have seen a statue of those three woman with the magnificent years resting on their amazing shoulders instead of the airbrushed version. They grew old, wrinkled and fat in the service of mankind and should be honored for it. And here they really are as I will always see them --- three grand, older women.
