Vietnam Women's Memorial, (sculpture).

Vietnam Women's Memorial, (sculpture).

Goodacre, Glenna, 1939-2020, sculptor.

Dickie, George, landscape architect.

Art Castings of Colorado, founder.

Vietnam Women's Memorial, (sculpture).

Commissioned 1991. Copyrighted 1993. Dedicated Nov. 11, 1993.

Digital Reference:

Sculpture: bronze with brown patina; Base: granite.

Sculpture: approx. 80 x 95 x 70 in.; Base: approx. H. 8 x Diam. 116 in.

Glenna Goodacre Sculptor/(copyright symbol) 1993 Vietnam Women's Memorial Project, Inc. signed Founder's mark appears.

The sculpture depicts three female nurses assisting a wounded male soldier on the battlefield. A standing African-American female figure looks towards the sky. Another female figure kneels to her proper right, holding the soldier's helmet. The third female figure sits on a stack of sandbags with the wounded soldier lying across her lap.

History -- United States -- Vietnam War

Figure group -- Female

Occupation -- Medicine -- Nurse

Occupation -- Military -- Soldier

Dress -- Uniform -- Military Uniform

State of Being -- Illness -- Wound

Outdoor Sculpture -- District of Columbia -- Washington

Administered by United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Washington, District of Columbia

Located Constitution Gardens, Washington, District of Columbia

The statue commemorates an estimated 11,500 American women who served in Vietnam. Efforts to put a woman's statue at the Vietnam memorial site began in 1984, with the establishment of the Vietnam Women's Memorial Project. On June 15, 1988, the U.S. Senate approved the addition of a "woman's statue," possibly based on Roger Brodin's model of a young woman in combat fatigues cradling a helmet. The statue was to be sited in Arlington Cemetery. In 1990, a nationwide competition was held, sponsored by the Vietnam Women's Memorial Project. The competition jury was split and, in Sept. 1991, the United States Commission of Fine Arts voted approval on a new design, by Goodacre and landscape architect George Dickie, to be placed 300 feet south of Maya Lin's Vietnam Memorial. Approximately $4 million was raised privately to fund the sculpture. IAS files contain citations to related articles from the Washington Post (dated June 15, 1988, June 29, 1988, Sept. 2 1991, and Nov. 12, 1993); and the New York Times, Nov. 12, 1993. IAS files also contain reprint of article from Southwest Art, July 1994.

Save Outdoor Sculpture, District of Columbia survey, 1995.

America's Battlefields & Memorials (a supplement to newsweeklies published by Army Times Publishing Co, Springfield, VA), June 24, 2002, pg. 43.

Dupre, Judith, "Monuments: America's History in Art and Memory," New York, NY: Random House, Inc., 2007, pg. 153.

Southwest Art, July 1994.

Dupre, Judith, "Monuments: America's History in Art and Memory," New York, NY: Random House, Inc., 2007, pg. 153.

The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.

Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

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