The Suffragette Memorial Mausoleum

I have created the Suffragette Memorial Mausoleum. The women’s suffrage movement in the U.S. had its beginnings in Seneca Falls, NY in 1848 when like-minded people gathered and Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s "Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions,” was delivered.  Seneca Falls, NY would be the site of the mausoleum.

Interred in the memorial would be the six women who I feel were most important to the suffrage movement-

Susan Brownell Anthony, February 15, 1820 – March 13, 1906

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, November 12, 1815 – October 26, 1902

Alice Paul, January 11, 1885-July 9, 1977

Lucy Burns, July 28, 1879-December 22, 1966

Inez Milholland Boissevain , August 6, 1886 – November 25, 1916

Ruza Wenclawska, d.-1977

The Monument

A beautiful Art Deco monument made of polished grey granite.

 The statue on top of the mausoleum

Inez Millholland on her steed

The round window over the door

Joan of Arc, the suffragettes identified with her.

The door

A pendant created for Alice Paul to commemorate the hunger strikes.

 

The stained glass window on the back wall

 Glass cases on the sides holding-

The ratification flag. A star for every state that ratified the amendment.

A sign from the White House pickets.

The floor will be inlaid with 36 stars that represent the 36 states that ratified the 19th amendment and caused it to pass.

The vaults will be simple with the names of the woman on each vault along with a bronze laurel wreath.

The windows in the cupola will have scenes from the history of the movement-

The Seneca Falls convention of 1848

Force feeding a suffragette.

Unfurling the completed ratification flag.

 

Boothill Graveyard, September 2004 (I think)

Boothill Graveyard is located in Tombstone, Arizona, a place made famous by "The Gunfight at the OK Corral," a fight between members of The Cowboys gang and the Earp brothers, Wyatt, Virgil (sheriff at the time), and Morgan. The three Cowboys killed during the fight are buried at Boothill, so named because a lot of men buried there "died with their boots on."

The town is very much a tourist trap now, with daily reenactments of the famous altercation and places with women dressed as "soiled doves," as prostitutes were often called then. Boothill is no different. Much work was done in the mid-twentieth century to restore what had almost totally returned to nature. New wooden signs were made to replace the rotted ones and new cairns built. They used town records, testimonials and pictures to locate graves and they claim most of the graves are within a few feet of the original graves.

One of the most famous graves because of the epitaph is Lester Moore's. He worked for Wells Fargo and was shot over a dispute over a package. Moore's killer was also wounded and killed by Lester's one shot. This one always makes me giggle.

"Here lies Lester Moore, four slugs with a 44, no Les, no more"

Of course, the surrounding country side is pure Arizona, beautiful and wild.

Thanks to my friend Mel for taking these pics!