In Washington, Monuments and Museums Honor American Women

Most of the celebrated sights of Washington, D.C., have to do with men, such as the beautiful monuments to presidents Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln, and the White House itself--never yet the home of a woman president. Even the giant panda enclosure at the National Zoo is a male domain, occupied by Hsing-Hsing, alone since the demise of his mate, Ling-Ling, in 1992.

I’ve seen all the great monuments and given Hsing-Hsing my condolences. But I’ve also learned that you can find plenty of things to see in Washington that have to do with women.

Two of my favorites are the bronze monument on the grounds of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial dedicated to the 265,000 women who served their country during the Vietnam War, and the Neil Estern statue of dauntless Eleanor Roosevelt, in a modest cloth coat, that stands in the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial, between the Tidal Basin and the Potomac River. Nearby, another woman made her mark: the stripper Fanne Foxe, who landed in the Tidal Basin while on a joy ride with the powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Wilbur Mills, in 1974, resulting in scandal and the congressman’s retirement. Across the 14th Street Bridge on Old Columbia Island, there’s a little park dedicated to Lady Bird Johnson. After the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, Jackie Kennedy retired to a townhouse at 3017 N St., NW. And to see the inner workings of the Washington Post, captained for many years by the influential Katharine Graham, all you have to do is call to arrange a free tour of the facility at 1150 15th St., NW, telephone (202) 334-7969.

Three residences in the D.C. area have been named National Historic Sites by virtue of their association with women: The Mary McLeod Bethune Council House at 1318 Vermont Ave., NW, tel. (202) 673-2402, was the home of a daughter of former slaves who became the first president of the National Council of Negro Women. The Sewall-Belmont House at 144 Constitution Ave., NE, tel. (202) 546-3989, has been headquarters of the National Women’s Party since 1929. And the Clara Barton National Historic Site at 5801 Oxford Road in Glen Echo, Md., tel. (301) 492-6245, served as both Barton’s home and the headquarters of the American Red Cross. Then there’s the Mary Surratt House at 604 H St., NW, lately home to a Chinese restaurant, but in the mid-1800s a boarding house where a group of disaffected southerners met to plot President Lincoln’s assassination. They included the establishment’s genteel owner, Mary Surratt, who was hanged for her involvement in the crime.

I like hunting down obscure sights like these. But the list doesn’t stop there, and features some places of greater renown:

The National Museum of Women in the Arts took occupancy of a handsome Renaissance Revival building at 1250 New York Ave., NW, tel. (202) 783-5000, in 1987. The collection now encompasses 2,000 works by more than 600 women artists, including Mary Cassatt, Georgia O’Keeffe, Helen Frankenthaler and Frida Kahlo. This year special exhibits will be devoted to Berenice Abbott (through Jan. 19) and the California painter Joyce Treiman (through July 5).

The DAR Museum, located in the headquarters of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution at 1776 D St., NW, tel. (202) 879-3241, contains one of the foremost collections of American decorative arts, displayed in 33 period rooms. Don’t miss Dolley Madison’s earrings and the extraordinary quilts.

The National Museum of American History, which is part of the Smithsonian Institution, tel. (202) 357-2700, on 14th Street and Constitution Ave., NW, mounted a display entitled “First Ladies: Political Role and Public Image” in 1992. Today it remains on the second floor as part of the permanent collection, exploring the evolving “job” of the nation’s first ladies.

Everyone knows Mount Vernon, George Washington’s graceful home above the Potomac River eight miles south of Alexandria, Va., tel. (703) 780-2000. But few are aware that the reason it stands there in such good repair and surrounded by exquisite period gardens is because of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Assn. of the Union, America’s oldest national preservation organization. In 1853, after the government declined to buy the then-decaying estate, the association’s first regent, Ann Pamela Cunningham, started a drive to raise the $300,000 purchase price. So the next time you visit, think not only of the Father of the Nation but of the women who saved and still maintain his home.

The Women in Military Service for America Memorial stands at the threshold of Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, tel. (703) 533-1155. It honors the 1.8 million women who have served in the military since Mary Hays McCauley (“Molly Pitcher”) is said to have taken her husband’s place at his cannon during the Battle of Monmouth in the Revolutionary War. Current special exhibits explore the role of women chaplains and the effects of the Armed Services Integration Act of 1948.

Two last stops are part of the Smithsonian Institution, tel. (202) 357-2700. The first is the National Portrait Gallery at F and 8th streets, NW, where you can view a painting of Pocahontas in formal court attire, Gilbert Stuart’s likeness of Martha Washington and a beautiful portrait by Ginny Stanford of the late California food and travel writer M.F.K. Fisher. Finally, the American Treasures exhibition at the Library of Congress, 101 Independence Ave., SE, contains Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s scrapbook and Beverly Sills’ 1939 application for a part in a show called “Major Bowes’ Amateur Hour.”