As of December 15, 2022, The Notable Women of Boston mural by Ellen Lanyon is in a new location: The Massachusetts State House. The mural will now reside on the fourth floor adjacent to the Gallery of the House Chambers.
A long-term loan with the owner of the mural, Simmons University, was arranged with assistance of BWHT board member Michelle Jenney who has worked for over 20 years to make sure the mural is on display in a very conspicuous location. The mural was created in 1980 by Workingmen’s Cooperative Bank as part of their 100th anniversary and was given to Simmons in 1985. Michelle’s involvement in locating the mural that she saw in a book about Boston, led to a feature story in the Boston Globe which in turn resulted in a new home at the Boston Public Library for over a decade from 2002 to 2015. At the time of the discovery, the mural was in storage at Simmons while the campus was undergoing renovations. As a volunteer in the BPL’s Art and Architecture, Michelle was well aware that outside of mythical women in murals and statues, the BPL had only two artifacts related to women on display (, the bust of Lucy Stone, the abolitionist and suffragist, and her daughter Alice Stone Blackwell, editor of the Women’s Journal and leader of human rights movement.) Michelle received permission from the Library director, Bernie Margolis, to search for a good spot for the mural and he agreed that the best location was in the lobby of the general library (The Johnson Building – named for architect Philip Johnson). Simmons agreed to a long-term loan to the library.
When the BPL underwent renovations, the mural was returned to Simmons where it was hung in the highly trafficked lobby of the science center. Last fall Michelle learned that the mural would have to go into storage yet again because Simmons was in the midst of a campus wide improvement project, she made the rounds of public buildings in Boston and was thrilled when Susan Greendyke, the Curator of Arts at the State House found a perfect spot.
Anne Hutchinson [1591-1643] proponent for religious freedom
Phillis Wheatley [1753-1784] first African-American published poet
Sister Ann Alexis [1805-1875] founder of the first Catholic hospital
Lucy Stone [1818-1893] incomparable abolitionist and suffragist
Mary Baker Eddy [1821-1910] founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist
Ellen Richards [1842-1911] pioneer of home economics and field of ecology
Mary Morton Kehew [1859-1918] leader for the advance of rights of working women
Anne Sullivan [1866-1936] world famous advocate for rights of the disabled
Melnea Cass [1896-1978] community activist and campaigner for racial equality