For the first time, a monument in the National Mall of Washington, D.C. will celebrate a piece of women’s history – and its makers are asking for design inspiration from the public.
The Women’s Suffrage National Monument Foundation is soliciting ideas through July 4 for creative ways to honor women’s fight for the right to vote, which was won just over 100 years ago. In an initiative the group is calling “Monumental Ideas,” folks are being asked to share photos, drawings, poems and more that might inform the look and feel of the upcoming display.
“It gives us an opportunity to listen to the American people and hear what they’re excited about,” Anna Laymon, president and CEO of the foundation, said in a release. “American women and girls deserve to get to be a part of creating this vision from the ground up.”
So far, dozens of people of all ages have heeded this call, sending in drawings, family photos, snapshots of other monuments and other bits of inspiration.
An 11-year-old from South Carolina identified only as Quinn sent in a cheery drawing of a yellow-and-pink flower with “votes for women” written in its center. “‘Votes for Women’ means to me that girls can do anything they put their minds to, and I want the monument to be a place of celebration for me and my friends,” she said.
A woman named Debbie from California shared a composite shot of herself and her great-grandmother, who “marched for women’s suffrage in Upstate New York in the years leading up to the passage of the 19th Amendment.” Debbie added: “Her passion for equality, actions, and voice inspire me everyday.”
The monument itself was approved in 2023 by Congress; last year, a location was formally selected for it at the intersection of, appropriately, 19th Street and Constitution Avenue. It will join roughly 40 other monuments already in place throughout the Mall.
Organizers are excited for women’s history to have its place among the other displays. “It matters whose stories we tell, how we tell them and where we tell them,” Laymon said. “And in this country, we need to show every little girl that our country values who she is and who she will become.”
