RI DAILY

Manhattan's little, quieter island and beyond

Stories that matter, from the heart of the East River.

RI DAILY

Manhattan's little, quieter island and beyond

Reporting Roosevelt Island since sunrise.

Women’s Suffrage: Joyful Celebration Now in Four Freedoms Park

Suffrage in Four Freedoms Park, celebrated in a field of sunflowers, marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. Once again, the monumental staircase shouts, “Liberation!” By David StoneRoosevelt Island has plenty of official explanations. Occasionally, one even explains something....

A Different Way New York City Roosevelt Island News

Suffrage in Four Freedoms Park, celebrated in a field of sunflowers, marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. Once again, the monumental staircase shouts, “Liberation!”

By David Stone

Roosevelt Island News

In 2019, Four Freedoms displayed the largest Pride flag ever on the staircase, and this year, Women’s Suffrage gets the honor.

Note: watch the work in a time lapse video below.

Women’s Suffrage in Four Freedoms Park

Installation Celebrating Women's Suffrage in Four Freedoms Park
Four Freedoms Park’s salute to the 19th Amendment.

“We’re proud to join Four Freedoms State Park in this commemoration of the 19th Amendment,” said Valerie Paley.

Paley is senior vice president, chief historian, and director of the Center for Women’s History at the New York Historical Society.

Voting rights were “not instantaneously extended to all women in 1920,” she added. And “…work for full equality continues to this day.”

Joining NYHS in Four Freedoms is the League of Women Voters.

“Four Freedoms Park has found a beautiful way to connect our history of voting rights to the present,” said Virginia Kase, LWV’s CEO.

“The path to equality still begins at the ballot box.”

Ascend with Pride, Four Freedoms Park
In June, 2019, during Pride Month, Four Freedoms Park unveiled the largest gay pride flag in New York history.

FDR Four Freedoms Park’s mission strikes a visual high note again with the 19th Amendment Field of Sunflowers.

This brings Women’s Suffrage to life in Four Freedoms Park.

Field of Sunflowers in Time Lapse

A video shows the installation in time lapse photography…

A 12’ x 100’ field of sunflowers builds on the park’s monumental staircase.

The Park celebrates the Four Freedoms, as pronounced in President Roosevelt’s famous January 6, 1941 State of the Union speech. FDR advocated four essential human freedoms “everywhere in the world” as the basis of a new world sought after the tragedy and triumph of the Second World War.

You Can’t Be All Three

You Can’t Be All Three

Transit for the city, an attraction for visitors, and a liability on the Island’s books. The tram is already part of the MTA system. The only question is whether RIOC is ready to admit it.

April 9, 2026, during the full board meeting of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation, Fay Christian said something that should have landed harder than it did. She wished RIOC were not responsible for the tram. Then she asked what it would look like if it were given to the MTA. That was not a passing comment.

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