A Monument to Remember: Our Lady of Victories in Downtown Portland

Our Lady of Victories is a piece of public art in Portland, Maine, located in the heart of downtown at Monument Square. This historic monument commemorates the 5,000 Portland residents who lost their lives in the Civil War, representing one-sixth of the city’s population at the time.

In the late nineteenth century, it became customary in America to erect civic monuments to honor significant events and individuals. In 1873, seven years after the Great Fire of Portland, an association led by Brevet Brigadier General John Marshall Brown was formed to create a monument dedicated to the city’s Civil War soldiers.

Renowned nineteenth-century sculptor and Maine native Franklin Simmons was awarded the sculpture commission. He cast the sculpture in his studio in Italy. Simmons had previously created Portland’s Longfellow Memorial. The granite pedestal and smaller bronze sculptures were designed by distinguished New York architect Richard Morris Hunt, who also designed the base of the Statue of Liberty. The total cost of the monument was nearly $36,000, with $20,000 allocated to Simmons.