The Eleanor Roosevelt Monument is a memorial located in New York City's Riverside Park, whose centerpiece is a statue of Eleanor Roosevelt, said to be the first monument dedicated to an American president's wife.[1] Hillary Clinton (First Lady at the time) gave the keynote address at the monument's October 1996 dedication.[1]
Design
the landscape architects Bruce Kelly and David Varnell designed a circular, elevated bed of oak trees as a setting for a bronze statue of Roosevelt leaning against a granite boulder, both sculpted by Penelope Jencks. The architect Michael Dwyer designed two granite medallions, set into the surrounding bluestone paving, inscribed with quotations, one from a 1958 speech of Roosevelt's; another with a quotation from Adlai Stevenson's 1962 eulogy for her). He designed a bronze plaque, located in the tree bed, summarizing her many achievements.[2]
Jencks, who was chosen by a nationwide competition, took four years to complete the work. Douglas Martin, reporting for The New York Times in 1995, wrote that she took so long because she "was determined to do everything just so." According to Martin,
The first step was finding the rock for Mrs. Roosevelt to lean on, a key feature of Ms. Jencks's award-winning design. That took months before she realized she would have to create the shape of the rock herself. Then, she fought to get the proportions of the body right, doing copious geometrical calculations. Solutions came more easily when she found the perfect model, at least for the upper body. (Other models were used for other parts.) It was Phoebe Roosevelt, Mrs. Roosevelt's great-granddaughter, who is 5 feet 11 inches tall, an inch shorter than Mrs. Roosevelt.[3]
Gallery
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The Eleanor Roosevelt Monument designed by landscape architects Bruce Kelly & David Varnell. -
The bronze statue of Eleanor Roosevelt seen from the south. -
The statue of Eleanor Roosevelt seen from the northeast. -
The statue of Eleanor Roosevelt seen from the northwest. -
The bronze statue, granite boulder and footstone, sculpted by Penelope Jencks. -
Granite medallion inscribed with Adlai Stevenson's quote, designed by Michael Dwyer. -
Eleanor Roosevelt Biographical Plaque, designed by Michael Dwyer.
References
- ^ a b Martin, Douglas (October 5, 1996). "Eleanor Roosevelt Honored in Hometown Today". The New York Times. Retrieved 2019-03-13.
- ^ Jean Parker Phifer, Public Art New York (New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Co., 2009).
- ^ Martin, Douglas (October 5, 1996). "Eleanor Roosevelt Honored in Hometown Today". The New York Times. Retrieved September 22, 2023.
40°46′50″N 73°59′09″W / 40.78065°N 73.98579°W
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