OSWEGO COUNTY- The Oswego Town Historical Society announced it would be receiving a $4,000 grant from the CNY Arts Grants for Regional Arts and Cultural Engagement (GRACE) program to be used to replace the current mural of Dr. Mary Walker located on the side of the river’s end bookstore in Oswego.
The new mural will feature a photo of Dr. Walker from when she was younger. The current mural was originally commissioned by the Greater Oswego-Fulton Chamber of Commerce in 2001 as part of a beautification project of historic murals around the City of Oswego.
Dr. Mary Edwards Walker was a Town of Oswego native, Civil War surgeon, women’s rights activist and abolitionist. She was the second woman to obtain a medical degree in the United States and is the only female recipient to date of the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Many honors have been bestowed on Dr. Walker recently. A U.S. Army Garrison Regional Training Center in Virginia was re-named last year from Fort A.P. Hill to Fort Walker in honor of Dr. Walker’s heroism. She has also been selected by the U.S. Mint for its 2024 American Women Quarters Program, with a quarter featuring her image releasing in June.
Work on the mural is expected to begin in April, with an unveiling slated for late summer.
The mural project is made possible through the CNY Arts Grants for Regional Arts and Cultural Engagement (GRACE) regrant program thanks to a New York State Senate Initiative supported by the New York State Legislature, the Office of the Governor and administered by the New York State Council on the Arts.
For more information, contact Oswego Town Historian George DeMass at [email protected].
missing or outdated ad config
