Lucy Brown, Frances Perkins Statues to be Unveiled This Month
by Carol K. Kammen
Photos: Statues of INHS co-founder Lucy Brown (left) and FDR Labor Secretary Frances Perkins (right) will be unveiled in mid-August. Credit: INHS
In 1894, Anna Howard Shaw spoke at the first meeting of the Tompkins County Political Equality League held at Library Hall in Ithaca. She commented that “there is no monument to women as big as the palm of your hand in this country.” Shaw compared attitudes about women in the past to those of the 1890s, as suffrage campaigns across the country—and in Tompkins County—ramped up. She noted that many men opposed suffrage because they did not “wish to drag woman from the lofty pedestal upon which she is supposed to stand,” down to the level of politicians, an attitude that was slow to die and seems to be in a current revival among some.
Shaw, born in 1847, was both an ordained minister and a medical doctor.
She was also a leading suffrage activist, though she died in1919 without being able to cast a ballot. She observed that “girls today” [in the 1890s] were not “content to remain at home and live a sort of aimless life.They desire to earn for themselves,” and she insisted that women should also become equal citizens with the right to vote.
Shaw’s comment about women not being seen in public monuments was true for many years. Those women who appeared in statuary tended to be generic—the pioneer mother, for example,or, locally, the Yarb Woman by Elfreda Abbe, in the Cornell Herb Garden.
However, this August sculptures of two women will become prominent pieces of our public statuary. Seated on benches, as if anxious for companions to join them in contemplation or conversation—or just to have their picture taken together—people in Tompkins County will encounter two figures significant in our national and local lives.
Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor in President Franklin D.Roosevelt’s administration, is known as the architect of the New Deal. She was responsible for legislation creating Social Security, child labor laws, unemployment insurance, a minimum wage and the 40-hour work week. She came to Ithaca in 1957 to teach at Cornell, and she lived in Telluride House until her death in 1965.
She is shown seated, holding her To Do list, all of which she accomplished except for National Health Insurance. This is something we should attempt to complete.
Lucy J. Brown was born in Ithaca and worked to advance racial justice, educational opportunity and especially affordable housing. She was the co-founder of Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services.
The statues were created by noted American sculptor Meredith Bergmann.
The unveiling will occur on August 17, 2024, beginning at 10:00 a.m. in the parking area behind Breckenridge Place Apartments at 100 West Seneca Street. After brief remarks, the Perkins statue and bench, located on North Cayuga Street, will be unveiled. There will be a short walk to the corner of Clinton and Geneva streets, where the Lucy Brown statue will be revealed. All are welcome.
I think Rev. Anna Howard Shaw would be pleased.