Wendy Rose (10-ft Wendy the Welder)

Vancouver, Washington, United States

Public art

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Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

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Wendy Rose is a ten-foot stainless steel sculpture by the artist group Women Who Weld on the Vancouver, Washington, waterfront trail. It honours the women who worked in the Kaiser shipyards during the Second World War and stands in the James and Joyce Harder Memorial Plaza.

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Wendy Rose (10-ft Wendy the Welder)

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Approximate location · 45.633° N, 122.670° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

A ten-foot stainless steel woman in work clothes stands on the Vancouver, Washington, waterfront, stepping out of the home and into the shipyard. Wendy Rose honours the women who built ships for the Kaiser yards on this stretch of the Columbia River during the Second World War.

The city of Vancouver asked Women Who Weld, a group of six artists who work in welded metal, to design a waterfront sculpture recognising women's industrial work on the home front. The Columbian reported in 2005 that the group had looked for a standard image of "Wendy the Welder", the shipyard counterpart of Rosie the Riveter, and found none, so it had created its own. The model showed her faceless and handless, little more than work clothes and a welding visor. The Vancouver Business Journal reported that the city installed it in 2008; the Columbian gives its weight as about 1,000 pounds.

The setting is part of the story. The Columbian reported in 2005 that more than 10,000 women were working at the Kaiser Shipyard by November 1944, and that the yard turned out more than 140 vessels during the war, almost one a week. Wendy Rose stands in the James and Joyce Harder Memorial Plaza on the Waterfront Renaissance Trail, east of the Interstate 5 bridge and near the Columbia River waterfront in Vancouver. The Columbian said the plaza is named for the family that founded Thompson Metal Fab, a company on the old shipyard site.

In May 2013 a polka-dot glass scarf that topped the sculpture was reported missing; Oregon Public Broadcasting said vandals had beheaded it. Fort Vancouver High School welding students fitted a head modelled on Bender from Futurama, which the city removed, saying the piece had an original intent. The city said the original artists would make a replacement.

Visit Vancouver USA lists it as a stop on the trail, alongside the old shipyard sites.

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WHAT TO EXPECT

A public sculpture on the Waterfront Renaissance Trail in Vancouver, Washington, one of the trail's listed stops, which also include the Kaiser shipyard sites and the Ilchee Statue. Visit Vancouver USA described it in March 2026 as surrounded by local symbols of the era.

ACCESS

Stands in the James and Joyce Harder Memorial Plaza on the Waterfront Renaissance Trail, east of the Interstate 5 bridge and near the Columbia River waterfront in Vancouver, in an open public setting reached on foot.

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