Free online presentation by historian and author Judy Bentley, hosted by the Woman’s Century Club as part of their May Program Meeting. Open to the public.

To get login information for the zoom program, register on this page: http://www.womanscenturyclub.org/meetings-events/

While walking the sidewalks of Washington cities to research her book, Walking Washington History, Judy Bentley came across some surprising memorials to the past: statues honoring George Washington, Mother Joseph, Abraham Lincoln, Spanish-American War veterans, Wendy the Welder, Dirty Dan, and Jimi Hendrix. She also found a fish story, a boat of discovery, wreaths commemorating Wobblies, and a fruit-picker’s basket.

All of these public sculptures honor some event or person a city wishes to remember or honor. Who decides who should be honored? Whose history is told? Bentley will take listeners on a tour of city statues and memorials and discuss how and why they came to be in public spaces, how history the public values has been set in stone.

This topic is particularly timely now that Washington State is moving to replace a statue of Marcus Whitman in the U.S. Statuary Hall in the capitol in D.C. with a monument to Native rights activist Billy Frank, Jr.

About the presenter: Judy Bentley taught literature, composition, and Pacific Northwest History at South Seattle College for more than 20 years. She is the author of more than fifteen books, including two guidebooks. The second edition of Hiking Washington’s History, the greater outdoors complement to Walking Washington History, will be published this spring.