THEODORA ALICE RUGGLES KITSON, "MOTHER BICKERDYKE MEMORIAL," 1906

cast bronze with granite stone base life-size

Located: Lawn of Knox County Courthouse Galesburg, Ill.

Other works: The Boston artist received commissions and awards from all over the United States and France. Among them was a bronze medal in the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.

One of Galesburg's oldest and most respected Public Art works is the "Mother Bickerdyke Memorial." The monument was purchased in her memory by an appropriation of the Illinois legislature in 1903, two years after her death. She is buried in Linwood Cemetery in Galesburg.

Mary Ann (Ball) "Mother" Bickerdyke was known as the "Cyclone in Calico" for her heroic efforts nursing the wounded during the Civil War. She was well respected by Union Generals Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman, who is said to have declared at Vicksburg, "She outranks me." The statue was dedicated before 8,000 spectators, including Illinois Governor Richard Yates and the sculptress, Theodora Alice Ruggles Kitson.

Kitson's bronzes are described as "filled with patriotic idealism in the realistic style of the times." A deeper analysis of this particular sculpture reveals similarities to Michelangelo's marble Pieta, which too, is of a mother and mortally wounded son.