a statue in the Virginia Women's Monument on Capitol Square in Richmond also honors Martha Washington
Source: Wikipedia, statues of Martha Washington and Clementina Rind
After the mother of George Washington died in 1789, the US Congress proposed to erect a monument in her honor. There was no funding provided, though George Washington placed a marble headstone at her grave on the Kenmore plantation.
In 1830, the city of Fredericksburg raised $2,000 and a wealthy New Yorker philanthropist contributed $10,000. President Andrew Jackson laid a cornerstone at Marth Washington's grave on May 7, 1833. That ceremony was followed by a "a barbecue in the old Virginia style" reportedly attended by 5,000 people. A base was built with Doric columns, but the shaft to complete the monument was left lying on the ground and work ceased. During the Civil War, bullets and cannon fire damaged the stone.
When a 12-acre parcel including Martha Washington's grave was sold in 1889, soon after celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the American Revolution, there was a strong public response. The Mary Washington Monument Association of Fredericksburg and the National Mary Washington Memorial Association were organized. When the Daughters of the American Revolution organized in 1890, the first resolution was to complete the monument.
Fundraising was successful. The National Mary Washington Memorial Association contracted for a new monument after concluding the existing stone was too damaged to use. President Grover Cleveland dedicated the completed monument, with its 51.5' tall obelisk, on May 10, 1894. The Mary Washington Monument Association of Fredericksburg and the National Mary Washington Memorial Association maintained it until 1966, when the City of Fredericksburg took ownership and the two organizations dissolved. The memorial was then maintained by the George Washington Foundation and the Garden Club of Virginia, and today is the responsibility of the Washington Heritage Museums.
The monument to Martha Washington is the first memorial to be funded by women, in honor of a woman, in the United States.
A statue of Martha Washington is included in the Virginia Women's Monument on Capitol Square in Richmonder. Her distinctive accomplishment is to be the "mother of the father of the country," which stands in contrast to the personal achievements of others honored at the Virginia Women's Monument, but she also was a central symbolic figure in galvanizing the womens movement in the 1890's.1
a statue in the Virginia Women's Monument on Capitol Square in Richmond also honors Martha Washington
Source: Wikipedia, statues of Martha Washington and Clementina Rind