Explore the Controversy over the design of this artwork, Tennessee Confederate Women's Monument.
The monument was first suggested by Sumner Archibald Cunningham, the editor of Confederate Veteran, in 1894. However, once the design had been drawn, he objected to it, opining that it failed to convey "the divine qualities of southern womanhood."In 1909, Confederate veteran C. Irvine Walker, a leader of the United Confederate Veterans (UCV), officially proposed that there be a monument in each southern state commemorating the efforts of women in the United States Civil War. The artist was to be paid $25,000. The money to fund the monument would be raised by the UCV and the Sons of Confederate Veterans association.In 1907, after years of fundraising and a failed competition in which almost one hundred designs were rejected, Walker endorsed sculptor Louis Amateis. Amateis’s design showed a woman in classical dress with one hand holding a Confederate flag and the other confidently gripping a sword. The inscription beneath this proposed women’s monument read: “uphold our state’s rights.” This design was not well received. One critic stated that this “design completely missed the point” of what the UCV had intended. Another critic stated that Amateis’s depiction of a southern woman had “not a line of womanly grace or modesty or tenderness…not a hint of the dear home keeper of the Southland, not a reminder of the patient, self-sacrificing, unwearied helper and comforter of the boys in gray.” As a result, the UCV abandoned Amateis’s design and turned to Kinney.188-189Kinney’s design still stands today in Tennessee and Mississippi, but the monument today is not an exact replica of her design that was chosen in 1910. While it cannot be confirmed what prompted the alterations to Kinney's original design, protests against the design likely contributed to the decision. In 1911, Mrs. George H. Tichenor, a United Daughter of the Confederacy from New Orleans, protested against Kinney’s original design in a letter addressed to the presidents of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) as well as the chief of staff of the New Orleans chapter of the UCV. Tichenor stated that he was not against the “chivalrous complement of the Confederate Veterans to the Woman of their glorious Past.”: 19  Unlike other protestors, Tichenor appreciated the UCV’s proposal to erect a statue commemorating women. His argument was instead against Kinney’s design specifically. Tichenor argued that placing Kinney’s monument in all of the southern states would be “stamping a false conception of our Mothers on the youth of the South.”: 19  He disliked the way the monument represented her female, southern ancestors. He argued that the monument did not embody his southern ancestors' courage. Tichenor believed that the monument displayed a false “timid shrinking” and “fearfulness of spirit” that was not representative of southern women.: 19  Elise Smith explains how Tichenor’s feelings culminated later that year when he and others protested the design at a UDC convention in Little Rock. 20-22
Sumner Archibald Cunningham Confederate Veteran United Daughters of the Confederacy United States Civil War Confederate flag Louis Amateis United Confederate Veterans Sons of Confederate Veterans Confederate George H. Tichenor