A new campaign launched Thursday urging President Joe Biden to create a national monument in Maine to honor Frances Perkins, the woman who served as Labor secretary under President Franklin Roosevelt.
The proposal would preserve a 57-acre site along the Damariscotta River in Newcastle, a small town in central Maine that was home for the first female Cabinet secretary. The existing Frances Perkins National Historic Landmark, which is managed by a non-profit group, would be partially turned over to the National Park Service.
Perkins served in the post from 1933 to 1945 and became famous for promoting Social Security, the minimum wage, a 40-hour work week and other high-profile initiatives that marked Roosevelt’s New Deal.
Backers want Biden to use his authority under the 1906 Antiquities Act to create the monument before he leaves office in January.
