Final Designs Selected For Central Park's First Statue Of Women

CENTRAL PARK, NY — Central Park is one step closer toward the creation of its first monument honoring historic women. Four designs have been named finalists for The Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Woman Suffrage Movement Monument, the statue's fund announced Wednesday.

The designs named finalists Wednesday were four of 91 submissions to a design competition. The designs were reviewed by a mix of art and design professionals, historians, representatives from the city Parks Department and members of The Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Statue Fund, the fund said in a statement.

"Today marks another step in The Statue Fund's effort to move history forward: the announcement of the finalists in our design competition," Pam Elam, president of The Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Statue Fund, said in a statement. "Our Woman Suffrage Movement Monument, honoring all the women who won the right to vote for over half this country's population, will break the bronze ceiling in Central Park after 164 years."

The sculptors behind the final designs are Meredith Bergmann, Jane DeDecker, Ann Hirsch and a joint submission by Victoria Guerina and Lloyd Lillie. The winning design will be announced in July, the statue fund announced Wednesday.

The Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Woman Suffrage Movement Monument will be the first new commemorative monument in Central Park since 1965. Of the city parks system's 850 monuments, only four currently commemorate the achievements of historic women, according to city Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver.

The statue will grace the Central Park Mall in 2020, just in time for the 100th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment, which extended the right to vote to women nationwide. While the monument will depict Stanton and Anthony, it will honor all the women who fought for the right to vote and continue to fight for rights such as equal pay for equal work.

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