Boston memorial pays tribute to three courageous women leaders

On October 25, 2003, the Boston Women’s Memorial was dedicated.  The idea for the memorial was developed by the Boston Women’s Commission.  The memorial, which is located on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall, was sculpted by Meredith Bergmann.  The memorial depicts three bronze sculptures of important women in Boston’s history.  The sculptures pay tribute to the lives and contributions of Abigail Adams, Lucy Stone, and Phillis Wheatley.

Boston Women's Memorial sculpted by Meredith Bergmann

Stone (1818 – 1893) is shown with a pen in her hand and Wheatley (ca. 1753 – 1784) is shown with a quill pen in her hand.  Stone was one of the first women in Massachusetts to graduate from college.  She was an abolitionist, orator and founder of The Woman’s Journal – the leading women’s suffrage publication of the era.  Wheatley was born in West Africa and sold into slavery.  Later she would go on to be the first African American to publish a book – Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral in 1773.

Abigail Adams (1744 – 1818) is the third woman depicted in the memorial.  She was married to President John Adams and she was an advocate for women’s rights.  Adams is shown standing with her arms crossed.  There are inscriptions next to each sculpture with quotes and information about each woman.  “I believe the world grows better because I believe that in the eternal order there is always a movement swift or slow toward what is right and true,” Stone wrote in her last published statement in The Independent in 1893.

The Boston Women’s Memorial honors the courage and visionary beliefs of three successful women writers and thinkers.  The contributions of Adams, Stone, and Wheatley serve as an inspiration to future generations of women.