Everyone's Talking About Statues

- August 27, 2020

This week, as I reminded you, we saw the unveiling of the Women's Pioneers Monument in Central Park. An officer of the Fire Department, and I wish I could remember her name, sang America the Beautiful amending one line to be

"And crown thy good with sisterhood."

On a day like this, we can take a little license.

I'll give credit here as I should have done a few weeks ago; the Women's Pioneers Monument is by Meredith Bergman, Frederick Douglass is by Ivan Schwartz.

I began drawing New York's statues a long time ago. If I had to choose a favorite among my drawings this would be high on the list. It's the New York Chamber of Commerce with as many statues as I could fit in.

This combines my love of New York's beautiful architecture with its outdoor sculpture and I really had fun doing it. do you recognize anyone? There are some favorites and some you may not know. All but two reside in Manhattan. If you can identify all of them let me know and I'll send you a prize.

Right in the middle is Augustus St. Gaudens' Sherman Monument, no relation; William Tecumseh Sherman, led by the Spirit of Victory, with a branch of a Georgia pine beneath the horse's feet.

At the unveiling, a southern visitor was heard to comment,

"Well, isn't that just like a Yankee, to ride while the lady walks." Here they are in their close-up.

When we were expecting our firstborn I considered naming her Georgia for Georgia O'Keeffe, but my Kentucky friend, David, said, "You can't name a child Georgia Sherman, she won't be welcome below the Mason-Dixon line!" So we named her Jessie, after my great-grandmother, Jessie Lewis Brown, because of this story my mother told me.

Grandpa said to her, "I know you think of Grandma as an old lady who walks with a limp but you should have seen her when she was young...you should have seen Jessie running, with her long black hair flying out behind her."

Here are Sherman and his lady friend visiting the library.