Leif Eriksson
The statue from the west in 2019
ArtistAnne Whitney
Year1885 (1885)
MediumBronze sculpture
SubjectLeif Erikson
LocationBoston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Coordinates42°20′56.5″N 71°5′29″W / 42.349028°N 71.09139°W / 42.349028; -71.09139

Leif Eriksson is an outdoor statue by Anne Whitney at the west end of the Commonwealth Avenue Mall in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.[1] Installed in 1887, it was the first public sculpture to honor the Norse explorer in the New World.[2]

Description

The bronze is 102 in (260 cm) tall and stands on a red sandstone pedestal 108 in (270 cm) high, with a small stonework boat at the base.[3] The granite around the sculpture originally served as a fountain, but has since been converted to a flower bed.[4] The work contains runes as well as the English inscription "Leif the Discoverer, Son of Erik, who sailed from Iceland and landed on this continent, AD 1000."[2] It depicts Leif as a young man lifting his left hand in front of his brow.[5] In a letter to the Boston Art Commission, the sculptor described the posture as a "man of the old world shading his vision against the glare of the new."[3]

History

The memorial was commissioned by the baking powder magnate Eben Norton Horsford, prompted by conversations with Ole Bull and others, to promote the idea of Norse exploration of North America.[4] Its dedication in October 1887 included a big parade through Boston Common to Faneuil Hall, where Governor Oliver Ames and other dignitaries spoke.[6][7]

Whitney corresponded with Frederick Law Olmsted about the placement of the monument and its landscaping.[8] The monument was moved, soon after November 1917, to allow for the realignment of Commonwealth Avenue.[9][10] The site was surveyed as part of the Smithsonian Institution's "Save Outdoor Sculpture!" program in 1993.[10] Corrosion was treated in 2007 and an acrylic protective coating was applied.[11]

Copies

Late in 1887, a copy, Leif, the Discoverer, was placed in Juneau Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.[12]

Bertha Palmer requested the plaster cast of the statue for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. This was bronzed and displayed there, then later at the Smithsonian Institution, until it was placed in storage.[13] Eventually the bronzed plaster was incorporated into the collection of the National Museum of Women in the Arts.[14]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Burr, Ty (June 4, 2017). "Do Boston's statues honor the truly honorable?". Boston Globe. p. A10. Leif Eriksson (1887, Anne Whitney, Commonwealth Avenue Mall near Charlesgate)
  2. 1 2 Kjaergaard, Thorkild (2010). "An Unnoticed Example of how the Black Death Altered the Course of History: Why America Was Discovered from Spain and not from Scandinavia". Economic and Biological Interactions in Pre-industrial Europe, from the 13th to the 18th Century. By Istituto internazionale di storia economica F. Datini. Settimana di studio, Simonetta Cavaciocchi. Florence: Firenze University Press. p. 269. ISBN 9788884535856. The Mirage from the North: Leif Eriksson in America
  3. 1 2 Headley, Janet A. (Summer 2003). "Anne Whitney's Leif Eriksson: A Brahmin Response to Christopher Columbus". American Art. 17 (2): 41–59. doi:10.1086/444690. S2CID 161558612.
  4. 1 2 Greis, Gloria Polizzotti (2004). "Vikings on the Charles (OR, The Strange Saga of Norumbega, Dighton Rock, and Rumford Double-Acting Baking Powder)". Needham History Center & Museum. Archived from the original on 2019-11-17. Retrieved 2019-10-25.
  5. ↑ Klein, Christopher (November 23, 2013). "Uncovering New England's Viking connections". Boston Globe. Archived from the original on January 25, 2021. Retrieved September 18, 2023.
  6. ↑ McCleary, Mary (October 12, 2015). "Columbus and Erikson: the North End and the Southern beginning". New Boston Post. Boston Media Networks. Archived from the original on 2019-10-25. Retrieved 2019-10-25.
  7. ↑ Torgrim Sneve Guttormsen (2018). "Valuing Immigrant Memories as Common Heritage: The Leif Erikson Monument in Boston". History and Memory. 30 (2): 79–80. doi:10.2979/histmemo.30.2.04. JSTOR 10.2979/histmemo.30.2.04. S2CID 166186978. Archived from the original on 2023-05-28. Retrieved 2023-09-18.
  8. ↑ Frederick Law Olmsted (October 31, 2013). The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted: The Early Boston Years, 1882–1890. JHU Press. p. 326. ISBN 978-1-4214-0926-9.
  9. ↑ "Ericson Statue to go to Charlesgate". The Boston Daily Globe (Morning ed.). Boston. November 13, 1917. p. 2.
  10. 1 2 "Leif Eriksson, (sculpture)". Smithsonian Institution. Archived from the original on May 28, 2023. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
  11. ↑ "Boston's Adopted Statues: Leif Eriksson Statue". Arts and Culture. City of Boston. Archived from the original on 2019-10-26. Retrieved 2019-10-25.
  12. ↑ Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). "Whitney, Anne" . Encyclopedia Americana – via Wikisource.
  13. ↑ Tufts, Eleanor (1992). "An American Victorian Dilemma, 1875: Should a Woman Be Allowed to Sculpt a Man?". Art Journal. 51 (1): 55. doi:10.2307/777254. JSTOR 777254. Archived from the original on 2023-05-28. Retrieved 2023-09-18.
  14. ↑ Goudsward, David (2006). Ancient Stone Sites of New England and the Debate Over Early European Exploration. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-7864-2462-7.
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