Enid Yandell
The Kentucky Woman’s Confederate Monument Association created a system of impartial judging for the design contest for the Louisville Confederate Monument. Enid Yandell won the initial bid on September 19, 1894 over twenty other submissions. Yandell was a rising female sculptor in the late nineteenth century. Before designing the Confederate monument design, Yandell spent time creating sculptures for Chicago’s World’s Columbiana Exposition in 1893. Her unusual Confederate monument design consisted of a red granite pillar with a grey granite pedestal, a wide white limestone base, and a female bronze figure at the top. The female liberty sculpture held a wreath in one hand and a Confederate flag in the other. The pedestal contained inscriptions and inverted torches for decoration. Five bronze candelabras also flanked the base of the monument. Louisville and Nashville papers reported that Yandell won the monument contest unanimously in a committee vote, but the plan still needed to be ratified by the Association.
