Location: Riverside Park, New York
Artist: Penelope Jencks
The monument, honouring humanitarian and First Lady Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), is the first public statue of a president’s wife in the nation and only the second public statue of an American woman in New York City. It was dedicated in 1996, by then-First Lady Hillary Clinton, a great admirer of Mrs. Roosevelt, who gave a memorable keynote speech.
Created by American artist Penelope Jencks, the eight-foot statue is constructed of bronze and stone and is located inside Riverside Park. It depicts Mrs. Roosevelt in heroic scale half-seated against a boulder, and features a summary of her achievements, as well as a quotation from her 1958 speech at the United Nations advocating universal human rights. Today, a Riverside Park Fun Grassroots Volunteer works to keep the area surrounding the monument clean and attractive.
