The Eleanor Roosevelt Monument is located at the southeast corner of Riverside Park. in Manhattan It was the first work of public art in New York City to be dedicated to an American woman and, according to the Eleanor Roosevelt Monument Fund, it was the first work of public art to be dedicated to an American president’s wife. (The statue of Eleanor Roosevelt at the FDR Memorial in Washington, D.C. was not dedicated until the next year. The other female statue in that area is of Joan of Arc.) The centerpiece of the monument is a bronze statue of Eleanor Roosevelt. Hillary Clinton (the first lady at the time) gave the keynote address at the monument’s dedication on October 5, 1996.
The landscape architects Bruce Kelly and David Varnell designed a circular, elevated bed planted with oak trees as a setting for a bronze statue of Roosevelt leaning against a granite boulder, both sculpted by Penelope Jencks. Two granite medallions are set into the surrounding bluestone paving, one inscribed with a quotation from a 1958 speech of Roosevelt’s; the other with a quotation from Adlai Stevenson’s 1962 eulogy for her, and a bronze plaque, located in the tree bed, summarizing her many achievements.
Here is the text on the medallions:
Granite medallion 1:
WHERE AFTER ALL, / DO UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS BEGIN? / IN SMALL PLACES, CLOSE TO HOME / SUCH ARE THE PLACES / WHERE EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD / SEEKS EQUAL JUSTICE, / EQUAL OPPORTUNITY, / EQUAL DIGNITY. / — / ELEANOR ROOSEVELT / 1958 /
Granite medallion 2:
SHE WOULD RATHER LIGHT A CANDLE / THAN CURSE THE DARKNESS / AND HER GLOW / HAS WARMED THE WORLD / — / ADLAI E. STEVENSON / 1962 /
Ant the text for the plaques:
Plaque 1:
ANNA ELEANOR ROOSEVELT / 1884-1962 / — / BORN IN NEW YORK CITY ON OCTOBER 11, 1884, SHE WAS ORPHANED AT AGE / TEN AND EDUCATED IN ENGLAND. SHE MARRIED FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT / IN 1905 AND BORE SIX CHILDREN BETWEEN 1906 AND 1916. SHE BECAME A / LEADER IN NEW YORK STATE’S DEMOCRATIC PARTY IN THE 1920’S AND SERVED / ACTIVELY FOR FOUR YEARS AS WIFE OF GOVERNOR ROOSEVELT. FROM 1933 / TO 1945 SHE GREATLY EXPANDED THE ROLE OF FIRST LADY OF THE / UNITED STATES. SHE FOUGHT FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF LABOR, MINORITIES, / THE POOR, WOMEN AND YOUNG PEOPLE. SHE WAS APPOINTED UNITED STATES / DELEGATE TO THE UNITED NATIONSBY PRESIDENT TRUMAN IN 1946. AS CHAIR / OF THE UNITED NATIONS COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS, SHE LED THE / SUCCESSFUL EFFORT THAT SECURED PASSAGE OF THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION / OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN 1948. SHE CONTINUED HER WORK AS TEACHER, WRITER, / ADVOCATE, AND HUMANITARIAN UNTIL HER DEATH ON NOVEMBER 7, 1962. / SHE IS REMEMBERED AS THE “FIRST LADY OF THE WORLD.”
Plaque 2:
THE ELEANOR ROOSEVELT MONUMENT FUND EXPRESSES ITS GRATITUDE / TO THESE INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANIZATIONS FOR THE GENEROSITY AND TALENT / THAT HELPED RESTORE THE SOUTH LAWN OF RIVERSIDE PARK / AND CREATED THIS MONUMENT TO ELEANOR ROOSEVELT. / — / [28 NAMES] / — / PENELOPE JENCKS, SCULPTOR / BRUCE KELLY/DAVID VARNELL, LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS / — / RUDOLPH W. GIULIANI, MAYOR OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK / RUTH W. MESSENGER, PRESIDENT OF THE BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN / RONNIE M. ELDRIDGE, MEMBER OF THE CITY COUNCIL / — / HENRY J. STERN, COMMISSIONER OF PARKS AND RECREATION / MCMXCVI /
