| Leif Eriksson | |
|---|---|
 The statue from the west in 2019 | |
 | |
| Artist | Anne Whitney |
| Year | 1885 |
| Medium | Bronze sculpture |
| Subject | Leif Erikson |
| Location | Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| 42°20′56.5″N71°5′29″W / 42.349028°N 71.09139°W | |
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]
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]
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 on October 29, 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]
Late in 1887, a copy, Leif, the Discoverer by Anne Whitney, 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]
Leif Erikson, also known as Leif the Lucky, was a Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to set foot on continental America, approximately half a millennium before Christopher Columbus. According to the sagas of Icelanders, he established a Norse settlement at Vinland, which is usually interpreted as being coastal North America. There is ongoing speculation that the settlement made by Leif and his crew corresponds to the remains of a Norse settlement found in Newfoundland, Canada, called L'Anse aux Meadows, which was occupied approximately 1,000 years ago.
The Back Bay Fens, often called The Fens, is a parkland and urban wild in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1879. Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted to serve as a link in the Emerald Necklace park system, the Fens gives its name to the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood.
Cyrus Edwin Dallin was an American sculptor best known for his depictions of Native Americans. He created more than 260 works, including the Equestrian Statue of Paul Revere in Boston; the Angel Moroni atop Salt Lake Temple in Salt Lake City; and Appeal to the Great Spirit (1908), at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He was also an accomplished painter and an Olympic archer.
Leif Erikson Day is an annual observance that occurs on October 9. It honors Leif Erikson, the Norse explorer who, in approximately 1000, led the first Europeans believed to have set foot on the continent of North America.
Commonwealth Avenue is a major street in the cities of Boston and Newton, Massachusetts. It begins at the western edge of the Boston Public Garden, and continues west through the neighborhoods of the Back Bay, Kenmore Square, Boston University, Allston, Brighton and Chestnut Hill. It continues as part of Route 30 through Newton until it crosses the Charles River at the border of the town of Weston.
Fenway, commonly referred to as The Fenway, is a mostly one-way, one- to three-lane parkway that runs along the southern and eastern edges of the Back Bay Fens in the Fenway–Kenmore neighborhood of Boston, in the east-central part of the U.S. state of Massachusetts. As part of the Emerald Necklace park system mainly designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in the late 19th century, the Fenway, along with the Back Bay Fens and Park Drive, connects the Commonwealth Avenue Mall to the Riverway. For its entire length, the parkway travels along the Muddy River and is part of the Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston. Like others in the park system, it is maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Anne Whitney was an American sculptor and poet. She made full-length and bust sculptures of prominent political and historical figures, and her works are in major museums in the United States. She received prestigious commissions for monuments. Two statues of Samuel Adams were made by Whitney and are located in Washington, D.C.'s National Statuary Hall Collection and in front of Faneuil Hall in Boston. She also created two monuments to Leif Erikson.
Humboldt Park is a 207-acre (84 ha) park located at 1400 North Sacramento Avenue in West Town, on the West Side of Chicago, Illinois. It opened in 1877, and is one of the largest parks on the West Side. The park's designers include William Le Baron Jenney, and Jens Jensen.
Leif, the Discoverer is a bronze sculpture of Leif Ericson created by American sculptor Anne Whitney. The statue was erected on November 15, 1887 in Juneau Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States.
Thorfinn Karlsefni is a bronze statue of Norse explorer Thorfinn Karlsefni, created by Icelandic sculptor Einar Jónsson. The first casting was located in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, United States, before being toppled by vandals in 2018. A second casting of the statue is in Reykjavík, Iceland, and the original plaster model is located in the Einar Jónsson Museum.
Melzar Hunt Mosman was an American sculptor who made a number of Civil War and Spanish–American War monuments in Massachusetts.
Juneau Park, located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is situated on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. It is popular for its short distance to downtown Milwaukee, lakefront walking path, and vantage point for fireworks displays.
Anne Whitney created two public statues of Samuel Adams. One, made in 1876, resides in the National Statuary Hall Collection in the US Capitol, Washington, D.C. The other, made in 1880, is located in front of Faneuil Hall Plaza in Boston.
An equestrian statue of Joseph Hooker is installed outside the Massachusetts State House, facing Beacon Street in Boston, in the United States.
A statue of Horace Mann by Emma Stebbins is installed outside the Massachusetts State House, in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
A statue of Anne Hutchinson by Cyrus Edwin Dallin is installed outside the Massachusetts State House, in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
A statue of military historian Samuel Eliot Morison by Penelope Jencks is installed along Boston's Commonwealth Avenue Mall, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts.
The Leif Erikson statue is a monumental statue honoring Leif Erikson in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Located in the city's Humboldt Park, the statue was designed by Sigvald Asbjørnsen and erected in 1901.
Leifr Eiricsson, sometimes called the Leif Eiricsson Memorial, is statue of Norse explorer Leif Erikson created by American artist Alexander Stirling Calder. The artwork was commissioned by the United States government as a gift to the Icelandic people for the 1,000th anniversary of the Alþingi in 1930. The statue was unveiled on July 17, 1932, in Reykjavík, Iceland atop a hill overlooking the city.
Leif Eriksson (1887, Anne Whitney, Commonwealth Avenue Mall near Charlesgate)
The Mirage from the North: Leif Eriksson in America
Media related to Statue of Leif Erikson (Boston) at Wikimedia Commons
