4. Joan of Arc, Riverside Drive

The statue of Joan of Arc, on Riverside Drive, was the first statue of a woman to be placed in a New York City park. It was designed by Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington, who received the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the French government for her work on the statue. The statue was commissioned to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the birth of the saint. It was dedicated on December 6, 1915, in a ceremony presided over by the French Ambassador and Mrs. Thomas Alva Edison who pulled the cord to unveil the statue.

The pedestal incorporates a World War I shell-shattered pilaster from the Rheims Cathedral and part of the walls of the prison where Joan of Arc was held in Rouen. (Another piece of which can be found in the Smithsonian Museum and can be seen in the Castle). Copies of the statue can be found in the Garden of the Bishops in Blois, France, the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, Gloucester, Massachusetts and Quebec City, Quebec.

Next check out 9 Sites Associated with Women’s History in NYC.