Statue of Historic Figure: Alice Stone Blackwell - Boston, MA

Alice Stone Blackwell

Boston, MA

N 42° 20.974 W 071° 04.644

Short Description: 

A marble bust of women's rights activist Alice Stone Blackwell is located next to her mother, Lucy Stone, in the Bates Reading Room of the McKim Building of the Boston Public Library at 700 Boylston St., Boston, MA.

Long Description:

A 2' high white marble bust of Alice Stone Blackwell depicts the head and shoulders of the editor, author, and women's rights activist.

A metal sign on the plinth of the bust is engraved:

ALICE STONE BLACKWELL

LEADER IN SUFFRAGE FOR WOMEN

EDITOR, "WOMEN'S JOURNAL"

FRANCES L. RICH, SCULPTOR

PRESENTED BY THE

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF BOSTON

A sign on the wall next to the bust is inscribed:

Alice Stone Blackwell 1960
Frances L. Rich
American, 1910-2007
Marble

Social activist Alice Stone Blackwell (1857-1950)
spent the latter part of her childhood in Dorchester,
Massachusetts, where her family members were
prominent participants in the abolition and women's
suffrage movements. A talented writer, Blackwell
graduated from Boston University in 1881 and
eventually became chief editor of the Women's
Journal, an influential publication promoting woman's 
rights. Blackwell applied her activism for the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) and translating texts of underrepresented
immigrant populations, among others. An actress
and sculptor, Frances L. Rich also produced
likenesses of Margaret Sanger, Katherine Hepburn 
and Diego Rivera

____________________________________________________
GIFT OF MRS. STANLEY McCORMACH THROUGH
THE BOSTON LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS, 1960

Alice Stone Blackwell was also active in Woman's Christian Temperance Union and, in 1903, she reorganized the Society of Friends of Russian Freedom in Boston. She was president of the New England and Massachusetts Woman Suffrage associations and honorary president of the Massachusetts League of Women Voters.

Publications of Alice Stone Blackwell:

Growing Up in Boston's Gilded Age: The Journal of Alice Stone Blackwell, 1872–1874
The Ballot and the Bullet (1897)
Armenian Poems translated by Alice Stone Blackwell (1896)
Songs of Russia (1906)
Songs of Grief and Joy by Ezekiel Leavitt translated from Yiddish. (1908)
Some Spanish-American Poets translated by Alice Stone Blackwell (1929)
Lucy Stone: Pioneer of Woman's Rights (1930)