THE FOUNTAINS OF THE GREAT LAKES
“Listen to the wind. It talks. Listen to the silence. It speaks. Listen to the heart. It knows.
Native America proverb
My husband and I recently went on a cruise of the Great Lakes. We began in Toronto (see June’s submission) and disembarked in Chicago. It was my hope that along the way I’d encounter dozens of statues of women. But sadly that was not the case, which I realize shouldn’t have come as a surprise to me since I’ve been writing this blog for five years about that very topic-the lack of statues of women. Why does it still hurt my feminist soul to know we still have miles of matriarchal steps to walk before we erase the patriarchal impact on art and history? Because women’s work is never done and we must carry this heavy load. So I pull up my big girl bloomers, as women before me have done, and carry on just as the suffragettes did. Their victory is my beacon of hope.
In Chicago, a lovely yet breezy and drizzly city even in the summer, rewarded me with an exquisitely crafted cluster of women, or rather goddesses, in the form of The Fountain of the Great Lakes. But before I go on, a word about Chicago and it’s faceted array of fountains is needed. Also, the inclusion of fountains in this blog gave me a slight pause which up until this point included statues, monuments, sculptures, historic markers, busts, but never fountains. Would fountains meet the criteria I had imposed on myself? Maybe it was the water that threw me because last year on a trip to the Mediterranean hardly any of the fountains we saw had free-flowing water due to water restrictions. But Chicago, with its easy access to fresh water, displayed these fountains with such pride; they even considered some of them to be “must-see-tourist attractions.” So I made my decision- fountains could be included as long as they highlighted the feminine soul and the spirit of the matriarchy.
The Fountain of the Great Lakes, unlike the Crown Fountain, Buckingham Fountain and the Nicholas J. Melas Centennial Fountain, aren’t visible from the street. You have to enter the south wing of the Art Institute of Chicago, but it’s well worth the extra effort. Created by Lorado Taft, the fountain depicts five female nymphs clustered together so that the water flows through the shells they’re holding in their hands in the same way it passes through the Great Lakes. Lake Superior, the deepest and largest of the lakes sits atop while Lake Michigan flows down into Lake Huron which carries the stream of water into Lake Eris until Lake Ontario where it cascades out to the ocean. The fountain is an allegorical representation of the lakes and while its gorgeous in and of itself, it’s the flow of water that makes it a visually stunning work of art.
But it left me wanting more. Why did the females depicted have to be nymphs? Why couldn’t they have been sculptured as historic women from the region? I found it preposterous than this life-sustaining area was barren of trail-blazing women. I was right- my cursory search led me to five inspirational women (I chose Canadian women but you can do your own research). First off, I selected Kateri Tekakwitha who was called “North America’s First Nation Saint.” Then there was Thanadelthur, a Hudson Bay interpreter, followed by Marie-Madeline Jarret de Vercheres, a homemaker who thwarted an Iroquois invasion. Charlotte Small, a married woman who assisted her husband in the mapping of the uncharted lands, came next. Lastly, I selected Nahnebahwequay, a Christian minister. I felt it was my duty as a feminist to replace the nymphs with fully realized women.
The Great Lakes are a wild and wonderful place and before they were colonized and modernized, it was a tough existence. Just existing in this cold, icy wonderland required grit, determination and a hefty dose of ingenuity. Maybe it was a sign of the times or a gross oversight, but women were left out of the narrative. Surely they played a significant role in the civilization of the Great Lake territories. Women had much more to offer mankind than the beauty of their female figure. Our bodies are not just vessels, as they have been portrayed in the fountain, albeit artistically rendered, they are conduits to all that is good in the world.
Have you found a monument of the matriarchy that while beautiful, tugged at your core as if to say, “something was either lost in translation or women have been overlooked, underappreciated and erased from the story longer than we ever could’ve imagined?
Tell me about it. I want to know. Together we can rally our voices. Women not only rock, they roll, gather momentum till they overcome any obstacle that gets in the way.