Lexington Women's Liberty Monument

Lexington's historic Town Center contains many monuments that memorialize military battles, war dead, and notable residents.^[5] Before the development of the Lexington Women's Liberty Monument, there were few monuments in Lexington representing the contributions of women, despite many existing records of women's participation in important historical events. During the Lexington Select Board ^[6] meeting to discuss approval of the monument, one member of the Board noted that "Lexington has monuments and memorials naming 227 men – and just six women".^[7] Jessie Steigerwald, founder and President of LexSeeHer, considered this lack of representation in monuments to be evidence of social norms that generally erased women's and girl's stories, particularly the narratives of women of color.^[8]

The monument's implementation can be described as a series of steps: 1) originate and flesh out the concept, 2) fundraising, 3) select an artist, 4) develop the design, 5) acquire approval from town government for the monument's installation on town land, 6) agree to a location, and 7) create and install the completed monument. This overall process took four years.

The idea to create a monument focused on the contributions of women in Lexington was initiated in March 2020. It began with a group who had organized to create a visual tableau of women in period costumes celebrating 100 years of women's right to vote.^[9] In the group's effort to represent these women for the Centennial, an idea began to germinate to address the lack of representation of women in Lexington's monuments.

After an initial fundraising program, LexSeeHer issued a Call to Artists challenge with Meredith Bergmann's sketched ideas eventually being selected. Bergmann was already known as the sculptor of the Boston Women's Memorial on Commonwealth Avenue Mall in Boston, which was unveiled in 2003. Hundreds of hours went into making detailed conceptual sketches leading to the eventual construction of a full-scale clay model. This model was then brought to a foundry where the final bronze monument was created using the lost-wax method.^[10]

Determining an appropriate location for the monument in the Town Center caused controversy.^[11] Some believed that space on the Battle Green should be reserved for war veterans' memorials. LexSeeHer advocates noted that women were involved in helping the wounded and otherwise supporting the Revolutionary War effort. A leader of the Massachusetts Tribal Council pointed out that all of the Battle Green monuments sit on the homelands of the Massachusett tribe who had a matrilineal culture in which women had active and highly valued positions of influence and agency.^[12] The final 5-0 approval of the monument by Lexington's governing Select Board^[7] was for a compromise location across from the Battle Green on the Visitors Center Lawn. This constituted an overruling of a disapproval vote by Lexington's Monuments and Memorials Committee.^[13]

Throughout the process, monument proponents continued to fundraise to support the project. While largely paid for through voluntary contributions, it was conceived as a gift to the Town. Following the unveiling, the monument was turned over to the Town.

42°26′56″N 71°13′46″W / 42.44889°N 71.22944°W / 42.44889; -71.22944