State House looks to memorialize a trailblazing woman
Accepting proposals for permanent bust; must have Mass. ties
“This woman’s place is in the House . . . the House of Representatives!” In 1970, Bella Abzug won election to Congress with that famous slogan.
A woman’s place is also in the Massachusetts State House. On March 1, the Senate kicked off Women’s History Month by unveiling a portrait of former first lady Abigail Adams, an early women’s rights advocate, and announcing a statewide call for nominations for the next woman to be permanently memorialized in the Senate, with a bust in the Senate chamber.
The winning trailblazer will shatter something of a marble-and-bronze ceiling by joining a lineup of currently all-male busts in the Senate chamber.
According to a March 4 press release on the website of Senate President Karen E. Spilka, “Nominations should reflect women who have made historic contributions to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; women with national influence will also be considered if they have ties to the state.”
Nominations are being accepted at malegislature.gov/statehouse/ senatebustnominationform.
Massachusetts residents who wish to participate should submit a name by noon April 30, with a brief explanation for their choice. Senator Julian Cyr will consider the nominations along with the recently renewed Senate Art Committee, which was established in 1972 but later became inactive.
“For far too long decisions such as these have been made by a select few,” Spilka said in the release. “I’m excited to hear from our residents across the Commonwealth about women they want to see honored by the Senate. Massachusetts is home to residents from a variety of backgrounds, and everyone should be able to see themselves reflected in the art of the State House.”
Last month, the Massachusetts Senate installed a bust of abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass, the first one of a Black American to be permanently added to the State House, and the first new bust in the
Senate Chamber in more than 125 years. The chosen woman will be honored with a commissioned sculpture destined for the eighth and final alcove in the Senate Chamber, by Douglass.
While the winning selection will be the first woman memorialized in a bust, Adams is the second woman with a permanent portrait in the Senate, the first being former Senate president Therese Murray.
“Centuries after Abigail Adams told the founders to ‘remember the ladies,’ we still have a long way to go to reach full equality when it comes to women’s representation on Beacon Hill,” Spilka said in a statement. “Either by accident or design, the many contributions of women who have shaped our Commonwealth and our nation have been left out of the art here in the State House.”
With the unveiling of the Adams portrait — and now the call for sculpture nominations — “we are taking a meaningful step towards ‘remembering the ladies’ and making it clear that women belong here.”