History Bitches Fieldtrip #6: Meridian Hill Park

Last Sunday, meandering back from lunch with George, he and I took a short-cut through Meridian Hill Park. As we caught-up, I paused to get a photograph of Meridian Hill’s Joan of Arc statue, the lone female equestrian sculpture in Washington, D.C. Paul Dubois’ life-size bronze figure depicts Joan, decked-out in complete body armor, gazing towards the heavens as she urges her charger ahead. Held aloft in her left hand there’s a sword. Taken in 1978, Joan's sword wasn't restored until three decades later in 2011. 

Gifted by Le Lyceum Société des Femmes de France to the women of the United States of America, the effigy is a reproduction of a bronze located outside Notre-Dame de Reims cathedral. An engraving on the pedestal reads:

JEANNE D'ARC

LIBERATRICE

1412–1431

AUX FEMMES D'AMERIQUE

LES FEMMES DE FRANCE

A NEW YORK

LE 6 January 1922

Dedicated January 6, 1922, guests at the ceremony included First Lady Florence Harding and Mme. Elise Richards Jusserand, the American-born wife of France’s ambassador to the U.S.

To read more about Joan of Arc (Dubois), check-out:

Joan of Arc (Dubois)

Places-Meridian Hill Park (U.S. National Park Service)

Then and Now: Joan of Arc Statue in Meridian Hill Park

President, Mrs Harding and Secretary of War, Weeks attend the unveiling of a statue of Jeanne d'Arc at Meridian Hill Park