Tennessee Monument to Confederate Women, Nashville

Tennessee Monument to Confederate Women, Nashville

Tenneessee Monument to Confederate Women

The Women's monument was funded by the United Daughters of the Confederacy with the aid of their president Mary Lou Gordan White, the United Confederate Veterans, and approval by the Tennessee government. The idea for the monument came from letters being submitted to the Confederate Veteran wishing for the memorialization of the wives and mothers who supported Confederate soldiers during the war. Confederate women began the process of memorialization after the war to show their love and appreciation to their loved ones who fought for their beliefs. Confederate veterans and daughters of Confederate women saw the opportunity to thank the women who began the memorialization process by, in turn, giving a monument dedicated to them. In 1909, plans for the monument took place. The monument's location was an issue, along with funding such a monument. In 1915 the Tennessee legislature appropriated the funds to erect a monument; the monument would be placed on the grounds of the State Capital in Nashville. A contest began to look for a design. After many submissions, the winner was sculptor Belle Kinney Scholz, the first female competition winner to design and sculpt the monument in 1926. Her Tennessee heritage fit what the United Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy wanted. The plaque on the monument reads: "Erected by the State of Tennessee to commemorate the Heroic Devotion and Self-Sacrifice of the Women of Tennessee During the War Between the States. Dedicated October 10, 1926 Belle Kinney, Sculptor" The Tennessee Historical Commission placed the plaque. October 10, 1926, the Tennessee Monument to Confederate Women was dedicated. The monument is still standing on the Tennessee State Capitol grounds.

Belle Kinney Scholz 1926

Sada F. Richmond, "The Southern Mothers' Scholarship." Confederate Veteran 15 August 1907: 351.

Sallie F. Hunt, "Women Want Building for Monument." Confederate Veteran 17 April 1908: 181.

"Southern Women's Monument," Confederate Veteran 17 July 1909, 312.

Michael H. Frisch, "The Memory of History," in Presenting the Past, ed. Susan Porter Benson, Stephen Brier,
Roy Rosenweig (Philadelphia: Temple 1986), 5-17.

Kayla Rai Cortez (2021)

1926 to present

Kayla Rai Cortez

Bronze Statue sitting on a pedistal

Bronze Statue

402A Fall 2021

Tennessee