Citizen Memorial: Benjamin Franklin Wade - Feeding Hills, MA

Benjamin Franklin Wade

Feeding Hills, MA

N 42° 04.510 W 072° 39.151

Short Description: 

A monument honoring the man who was one vote away from becoming President of the United States, Benjamin Franklin Wade, is tuck away in Wade Park, a small neighborhood park on Franklin Street, in Feeding Hills, MA.

Long Description:

A small, neglected plaque reveals an unusual bit of history about the man who was one vote away from becoming President of the United States. The plaque is inscribed:

IN HONOR OF

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE

BORN OCTOBER 27, 1800

IN FEEDING HILLS

PRESIDENT PRO TEMP

UNITED STATES SENATE

DIED MARCH 2, 1878

IN JEFFERSON, OHIO

Benjamin Franklin Wade was born in Feeding Hills, MA, moved to Jefferson, Ohio, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1828. He became the senator from Ohio in 1851 and rose to become the President Pro Tempore of the senate as a Radical Republican.  After the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln,  Vice President Andrew Johnson became President. That meant that Benjamin Franklin Wade was next in line to become President, since there was no Vice President. . 

When  President Andrew Johnson was impeached by the House of Representatives in 1868,  a trial was held in the senate. If Johnson was convicted Wade would then become President. Even though most senators thought Johnson was guilty, the vote to convict Johnson failed by one vote. Many senators considered Wade as being too radical. 

Fictional Figures: Daphnis and Chloe - Williamstown, MA

Daphnis and Chloe

Clark Art Institute

Williamstown, MA

N 42° 42.483 W 073° 12.901

Short Description: 

Daphnis and Chloe are the protagonist of an ancient Greek novel written in the second-century AD by Greek novelist Longus. The sculpture is on permanent display at the Clark Art Institute at 225 South Street, Williamstown, MA.

Long Description:

Daphnis and Chloe is a 55" by 29" by 22" marble sculpture created in 1874 by French artist Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux. The assertion in the novel by the Greek writer Longus is: “no one has ever escaped love, nor ever shall, so long as beauty exists and eyes can see.”

Both Daphnis and Chloe were abandoned and left to die by their parents at birth. They were separately rescued and raised by shepherds. Being naive, they fall in love but do not understand what is happening to them. The shepherds are of no help. After a series of misadventures they find their birth parents and marry, happily.

A sign near the sculpture is inscribed:

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
French, 1827-1875

Daphnis and Chloe
1874
Marble

Daphnis caresses Chloe’s neck, tenderly leaning 
toward her as if to whisper in her ear or brush her 
cheek with his lips. Carpeaux became famous, even 
notorious, for his dynamic sculptural compositions, 
which some of his contemporaries considered 
indecent. This marble group was inspired by Longus’s 
Daphnis and Chloe, an ancient Greek narrative that
asserts: “no one has ever escaped love, nor ever shall, 
so long as beauty exists and eyes can see.”

Acquired by the Clark 2013
2013.5

Fresh Paint Mural: GeoUtopia - Springfield, MA

GeoUtopia

Springfield, MA

N 42° 06.267 W 072° 35.490

https://kimcarlinoart.com/public-art

Short Description: 

"GeoUtopia" is a large mural located on Worthington Street behind the currently unoccupied building at 8-12 Stearn Square in the dining district Springfield, MA.

Long Description:

Fresh Paint Springfield took place in early June 2019. The City of Springfield commissioned nine artists to paint murals at various locations around the downtown area.

"GeoUtopia" is a 50' long by 25' high abstract mural painted by Easthampton artist Kim Carlino. The artist describes herself as an "... interventionist, mining the space between painting and drawing. I explore the evolutionary nature of mark making and relationships between color, geometry, line and form."

The focus of this abstract mural are central, yellow, oval forms against a red and black background. The form is criss-crossed by a series of black line segments, white circular arcs, and light blue and gravy wavy curves. She includes a black spiral design, which is seen in many of her works, throughout the yellow form.

Fresh Paint Springfield Mural: Beast in the Paint - Springfield, MA

Beast in the Paint

Springfield, MA

N 42° 06.172 W 072° 35.631

Quick Description: 

"Beast in the Paint" is a massive mural located at the corner of Columbus Avenue and Worthington Street in downtown Springfield, MA.

Long Description:

Fresh Paint Springfield took place in early June 2019. The City of Springfield commissioned nine artists to paint murals at various locations around the downtown area.

"Beast in the Paint" is a basketball themed mural was created by the legendary, British-American, Bronx resident, graffiti artist who calls himself Wane One. Springfield is the Birthplace of Basketball and the home to the basketball Hall of Fame. Located on the six story East Columbus Avenue Parking Garage, the mural wraps around the northwest corner of the building for 185', covers most of the brickwork at the first two stories of the garage and rises to the top of the six story stairwell.

The title has a double meaning. The beast is the huge parking garage which he painted. The paint is a basketball term for the area in and around the basket. The beast in the paint is then a proficient player in this area. The stairwell is painted with a series of basketballs, of various sizes, against a blue background which rise to the top of the building. Here you will find the name of the mural and his characteristic signature. The rest of the mural is painted with a muticolor array of geometric shapes.

Roadside Attraction: Grave of the Smiley Face Inventor - Worcester, MA

Grave of the Inventor

 of the 

Smiley Face 

Harvey Ross Ball

Worcester, MA

N 42° 14.079 W 071° 50.242

Quick Description: 

The inventor of the ubiquitous smiley face, Harvey Ross Ball, is located in the western edge of the St. Rita section of Notre Dame Cemetery, Worcester, MA.

Long Description:

When the State Mutual Life Assurance Company of Worcester, MA found it necessary to raise worker morale they hired freelance artist Harvey Ross Ball to design a happy image for posters, buttons, and signs. The result was the smiley face. Note: the original smiley face has oval eyes, the left eye is slightly larger, and the smile is asymmetrical.

Harvey Ball took ten minutes to create the image, was paid $45, and never applied for a trademark or copyright for his design. Thus, it entered the public domain and became free for anyone to use. The smiley face then became a world wide icon.

His grave marker contains the original image of the smiley face on both the front and the back.

Human Migration Monument: British Home Children Memorial - Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

British Home Children Memorial

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Canada

N 44° 38.299 W 063° 33.956

Short Description: 

A memorial to the British Home Children who were sent to Canada is located along Marginal Way opposite Pier 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Long Description:

From the late 1869 to 1948, over 100,000 children emigrated from the United Kingdom to Canada. They were sent as indentured farm workers and domestics. Canadians assumed they were orphans, but most came from families that had fallen on hard times. Since there was no social safety net, over 50 charities participated in this program.

The memorial to the British Home Children is 6' high rectangular granite stele inscribed in both English on the front and French on the back. It contains, on top, a coat of arms with the inscription HOME CHILDREN CANADA and the motto SPES IN CANADA (HOPE IN CANADA). Below is the flag of the United Kingdom. The memorial is inscribed:

BRITISH 

HOME CHILDREN

IN MEMORY OF

THE MORE THAN

100,000 CHILDREN

SENT TO CANADA

FROM GREAT BRITAIN

BETWEEN 1869

TO THE MID 1940's

TO WORK AS

FARM LABOURERS AND

DOMESTIC SERVANTS

PETITS

IMMIGRES

BRITANNIQUES

EN MÉMOIRE DES PLUS 

DE 100 000 ENFANTS

DE LA GRANDE-BRETAGNE

ENVOYÉS AU CANADA A

PARTIR DE 1869 JUSQU'AU

MILIEU DES ANNÉES

1940 POUR TRAVAILLER 

COMME OUVRIERS AGRICOLES

OU TRAVAILLEURS

DOMESTIQUES

Disaster Memorial: Bell Tower Memorial For Victims Of The Halifax Explosion - Halifax, Nova Scotia

Bell Tower Memorial 

For 

Victims Of The Halifax Explosion

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Canada

N 44° 39.950 W 063° 36.070

Short Description: 

On December 6, 1917, the biggest man-made explosion prior to the atom bomb occurred in Halifax Harbor.

Long Description:

In Halifax Harbor on the morning of December 6, 1917 the Norwegian ship S.S. Imo collided with the French ship S.S. Mont-Blanc, which was carrying a cargo of high explosives. The resulting explosion devastated Halifax, Dartmouth, and surrounding communities. Every structure in a 1.6 mile radius of the explosion was demolished and many more were damaged. About 1900 people were killed and 9000 were injured.

This bell tower was erected in Fort Needham Park as a memorial to those who lost their lives or suffered injuries and to the survivors who rebuilt the cities or Halifax and Dartmouth.

Roadside Attraction: Mystery Tower of Newport - Newport, RI

Mystery Tower of Newport

Newport, RI

N 41° 29.150 W 071° 18.597

Short Description: 

he mysterious Newport Tower is located in Truro Park at Mill Street and Bellevue Ave. in Newport, RI.

Long Description:

There has been much speculation about the origin of the Newport Tower. Some believe it is evidence of pre-Columbian visits by Vikings, the Portuguese, the Knights Templar, or even the Chinese. In 1993 carbon-14 dating of the oldest mortar of the Tower indicated a date of 1635 and 1698. Newport was settled by the followers of Roger Williams in 1636 and was incorporated as a town in 1639. The C-14 evidence is consistent with the Tower being constructed in the colonial era.

The best information is that the Tower is the remains of a windmill. Benedict Arnold (December 21, 1615 – June 19, 1678), the first colonial governor of Rhode Island, mentions "my stone built Wind Mill" in his will. The Tower is located near his grave and the site his now demolished mansion.

Statue of Historic Figure: Wendell Phillips - Boston, MA

Wendell Phillips

Boston, MA

N 42° 20.974 W 071° 04.644

Short Description: 

A bronze bust of orator, abolitionist, native American and women's rights activist Wendell Phillips is located in the Bates Reading Room of the McKim Building of the Boston Public Library at 700 Boylston St., Boston, MA.

Long Description:

A life size bronze bust of "abolition's Golden Trumpet" Wendell Phillips rests on a 4' high black pedestal. The bust depicts only the head and neck of Phillips with his head turned to his right.

The bronze plinth is inscribed:

1811 WENDELL PHILLIPS 1884

A metal sign attached to the top of the pedestal is inscribed:

Presented by A. SHUMAN.

THROUGH THE

WENDELL PHILLIPS MEM'L ASSO'N

Rev. JESSE H. JONES President

A sign attached to the wall next to the sculpture is inscribed:

                                                     Wendell Phillips 1869
                                                     Martin Milmore
                                                     American, 1844-1883
                                                     Bronze

                                                     -----------------------------------------------------
                                                     GIFT OF A. SHUMAN AND WENDELL PHILLIPS
                                                     MEMORIAL FOUNDATION, 1899

Wendell Phillips was born in Boston, MA on November 29, 1811. He graduated from Boston Latin School, Harvard University, and Harvard Law School. He believed that that racial injustice was the source of all of society's ills, quit practicing law, joined the American Anti-Slavery Society, and fought for the abolition of slavery. A gifted orator, he earned the nickname "abolition's Golden Trumpet". In 1845 he wrote In 1845, he wrote the essay "No Union With Slaveholders", in which he argued that it was "impossible for free and slave States to unite on any terms".

Phillips was an early champion for women's rights. In 1846, he wrote in William Lloyd Garrison newspaper The Liberator that women should have rights to their property, earnings, and to be able to vote. Phillips was a close adviser to Lucy Stone and a member of the National Woman's Rights Central Committee. He helped organize their conventions and published their Proceedings.

Phillips also argued that the 14th Amendment granted citizenship to Native Americans and was instrumental in the creation of the Massachusetts Indian Commission.

Statue of Historic Figure: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. - Boston, MA

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Boston, MA

N 42° 20.974 W 071° 04.644

Short Description: 

A bronze bust of poet, physician, and author Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. is located in the Bates Reading Room of the McKim Building of the Boston Public Library at 700 Boylston St., Boston,

Long Description:

The life-size bronze bust of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. depicts Holmes from the mid-chest up. He is wearing a bow tie, vest and suit jacket. The bust rests on a 4' high black pedestal. A metal sign attached to the top of the pedestal is inscribed:

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES

1809 - 1894

BY RICHARD EDWIN BROOKS

PLACED IN THE LIBRARY BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BOSTON

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. was a polymath. He was a poet, novelist, biographer, essayist, and a physician. Born on August 29, 1809 in Cambridge, MA, he graduated from the Phillips Academy, Harvard College, and Harvard Medical School. He wrote poetry at an early age and his most famous poem "Old Ironsides" was published when he was only 21, in 1830. The poem was influential is the saving of the USS Constitution, now the oldest commissioned ship in the world.

Holmes, along with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Cullen Bryant, John Greenleaf Whittier, and James Russell Lowell were members of the Fireside Poets. A group of American poets whose works rivaled those of English poets. He often published his works in The Atlantic Monthly.

Poetry:

Old Ironsides 
The Chambered Nautilus 
"Songs in Many Keys 
Poems 

Medical and psychological studies:

Puerperal Fever as a Private Pestilence 
Mechanism in Thought and Morals 

Table-talk books:

The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table 
The Professor at the Breakfast-Table
The Poet at the Breakfast-Table 
Over the Teacups 

Novels:

Elsie Venner 
The Guardian Angel 
A Mortal Antipathy 

Articles:

"The Stereoscope and the Stereograph", The Atlantic Monthly, volume 6 (1859)
"Sun-painting and sun-sculpture", The Atlantic Monthly, volume 8 (July 1861)
"Doings of the sun-beam", The Atlantic Monthly, volume 12 (July 1863)

Biographies and travelogue:

John Lothrop Motley, A Memoir 
Ralph Waldo Emerson 
Our Hundred Days in Europe 

Statue of Historic Figure: Sir Walter Scott - Boston, MA

Sir Walter Scott

Boston, MA

N 42° 20.974 W 071° 04.644

Short Description:

A marble bust of Scottish poet, playwright, novelist, and author Sir Walter Scott is located in the Bates Reading Room of the McKim Building of the Boston Public Library at 700 Boylston St., Boston, MA.

Long Description:

The white marble bust of Sir Walter Scott by British sculptor John Hutchison. It is a replica of the sculpture by Sir Francis Chantrey that is located in the library at Abbotsford, Scotland. Walter Scott is depicted from mid-chest up. He is wearing a kilt wrapped around his upper body as a cape. He is looking towards his left. The bust rest on a circular plinth on top of a 5' high circular polished black granite pedestal

A sign on the wall next to the bust is inscribed:

SIR WALTER SCOTT
copy after Sir Francis Chantrey, 1896-1899

John Hutchison
British, 1841-1911
Marble
-------------------------------------------------
GIFT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE SCOTT MEMORIAL
IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY, 1899

Walter Scott was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on August 15, 1771. He studied law at Edinburgh University. At age 25, while practicing law, he began writing poetry. He achieved recognition as a poet with the publication of the poem, "The Lay of the Minstrel", in 1805. One of his most popular poems "Lady of the Lake" was published in 1810.

Sir Walter Scott is considered to be the creator of the modern historical novel. He wrote the tale of the 1745 Jacobite rising in the Waverley Novels, which was first published anonymously in 1814. His most famous novels include Rob Roy (1817) and Ivanhoe (1820). Scott was also a playwright - MacDuff's Cross (1823) and non-fiction writer The Journal of Sir Walter Scott (1825–1832).

Sir Walter Scott died of typhus on September 21, 1832 and is interred in Dryburgh Abbey, Scotland.

Statue of Historic Figure: Alice Stone Blackwell - Boston, MA

Alice Stone Blackwell

Boston, MA

N 42° 20.974 W 071° 04.644

Short Description: 

A marble bust of women's rights activist Alice Stone Blackwell is located next to her mother, Lucy Stone, in the Bates Reading Room of the McKim Building of the Boston Public Library at 700 Boylston St., Boston, MA.

Long Description:

A 2' high white marble bust of Alice Stone Blackwell depicts the head and shoulders of the editor, author, and women's rights activist.

A metal sign on the plinth of the bust is engraved:

ALICE STONE BLACKWELL

LEADER IN SUFFRAGE FOR WOMEN

EDITOR, "WOMEN'S JOURNAL"

FRANCES L. RICH, SCULPTOR

PRESENTED BY THE

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF BOSTON

A sign on the wall next to the bust is inscribed:

Alice Stone Blackwell 1960
Frances L. Rich
American, 1910-2007
Marble

Social activist Alice Stone Blackwell (1857-1950)
spent the latter part of her childhood in Dorchester,
Massachusetts, where her family members were
prominent participants in the abolition and women's
suffrage movements. A talented writer, Blackwell
graduated from Boston University in 1881 and
eventually became chief editor of the Women's
Journal, an influential publication promoting woman's 
rights. Blackwell applied her activism for the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) and translating texts of underrepresented
immigrant populations, among others. An actress
and sculptor, Frances L. Rich also produced
likenesses of Margaret Sanger, Katherine Hepburn 
and Diego Rivera

____________________________________________________
GIFT OF MRS. STANLEY McCORMACH THROUGH
THE BOSTON LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS, 1960

Alice Stone Blackwell was also active in Woman's Christian Temperance Union and, in 1903, she reorganized the Society of Friends of Russian Freedom in Boston. She was president of the New England and Massachusetts Woman Suffrage associations and honorary president of the Massachusetts League of Women Voters.

Publications of Alice Stone Blackwell:

Growing Up in Boston's Gilded Age: The Journal of Alice Stone Blackwell, 1872–1874
The Ballot and the Bullet (1897)
Armenian Poems translated by Alice Stone Blackwell (1896)
Songs of Russia (1906)
Songs of Grief and Joy by Ezekiel Leavitt translated from Yiddish. (1908)
Some Spanish-American Poets translated by Alice Stone Blackwell (1929)
Lucy Stone: Pioneer of Woman's Rights (1930)

Statue of Historic Figure: Lucy Stone - Boston, MA

Lucy Stone

Boston, MA

N 42° 20.974 W 071° 04.644

Short Description: 

A marble bust of women's rights activist Lucy Stone is located in the Bates Reading Room of the McKim Building of the Boston Public Library at 700 Boylston St., Boston, MA.

Long Description:

A 2' high white marble bust of Lucy Stone depicts the 19th century abolitionist and women's rights activist from the mid-chest up. She is wearing a V neck blouse and a bonnet.

A metal sign on the plinth of the bust is engraved:

LUCY STONE

A LEADER IN THE CAUSE OF

SUFFRAGE FOR WOMEN

A sign on the wall next to the bust is inscribed:

Lucy Stone 1892
Anne Whitney
American, 1821-1915
Marble

Lucy Stone was a prominent American orator,
abolitionist, and suffragist. She significantly
influenced Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady
Stanton to take up the cause of women's rights;
the three are considered the nineteenth-century
triumvirate of American feminism. This bust
by noted American sculptor Anne Whitney at
one time occupied an obscure spot on the third
floor of the Mckim Building. However, in 1921,
the League of Women Voters lobbied the library's
trustees to relocate it to Bates Hall to mark the
passage of women's suffrage and honor Stone's
contributions. A commemorative portrait of her
daughter, activist Alice Stone Blackwell, is also 
in the collection of the BPL.

____________________________________________________
GIFT OF JUDITH WINSOR SMITH, EDNAH DOW CHENEY,
AND GEORGE A. WALTON.

Lucy Stone was a prominent orator, abolitionist, and suffragist, and a vocal advocate and organizer promoting rights for women. She attended Oberlin College in Ohio and was the first woman from Massachusetts to earn a college degree. She was married to Henry B. Blackwell but retained her own name throughout her life.

She worked as a lecturer for the American Anti-Slavery Society. After the Civil War she became a strong advocate for women's suffrage and formed the Women's Suffrage Association of Boston. She founded and edited the Women's Journal, a weekly feminist magazine. Stone helped form the National Women's Rights Convention held October 23–24, 1850, in Worcester, MA. She also helped form the American Woman Suffrage Association, which built support for a woman suffrage Constitutional amendment by winning woman suffrage at the state and local levels.

Statue of Historic Figure: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - Boston, MA

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Boston, MA

N 42° 20.974 W 071° 04.644

Short Description: 

A marble bust of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is located in the Bates Reading Room of the McKim Building of the Boston Public Library at 700 Boylston St., Boston, MA.

Long Description:

On the second floor of the Boston Public Library is the hugh Bates reading Room. There you will find busts of many famous persons.

The life size, white marble bust of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow rests on a black marble 5' high pedestal. He is depicted from mid-chest up, wrapped in a robe with wide labels. A sign on the wall next to the sculpture is inscribed:

                                            Henry Wadsworth Longfellow c.1879
                                            Samuel James Kitson 
                                            American, 1848-1906
                                            Marble

                                            -------------------------------------------------------------------
                                            PURCHASED BY BOSTON CITY COUNCIL, 1912

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born on February 27, 1807 in Portland, ME then a part of Massachusetts. He graduated Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, ME and became a professor at Bowdoin then Harvard Colleges. He is most famous for is lyric poetry although he also wrote several novels. His most famous poems include:

The Village Blacksmith (1840)
Poems on Slavery (1842)
The Wreck of the Hesperus (1842)
Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie (1847)
The Song of Hiawatha (1855)
The Courtship of Miles Standish and Other Poems (1858)
The Children's Hour (1860)
Paul Revere's Ride (1860)
Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863)
The Masque of Pandora and Other Poems (1875)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, along with Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., William Cullen Bryant, John Greenleaf Whittier, and James Russell Lowell were members of the Fireside Poets. A group of American poets whose works rivaled those of English poets.

Longfellow died on March 24, 1882 in Cambridge, MA. In 1884, he was the first and only American poet to have his bust placed in Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey, London.

Statue of Historic Figure: Sir Henry Vane, Boston, MA

Sir Henry Vane

Boston, MA

N 42° 20.974 W 071° 04.644

Short Description: 

A statue of the 6th Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Sir Henry Vane, is located in a niche in vestibule of the Dartmouth Street entrance of the McKim Building of the Boston Public Library.

Long Description:

A 7.8' by 3.5' by 3' bronze sculpture of Sir Henry Vane stands on top of a 3.25' by 2.8' by 2.8' green marble pedestal. Vane is wearing formal 17th attire including shirt with a ruff neck, boots with spurs, breeches, a jacket with large cuffs, a cape, and a hat folded up on the left side. He is holding a coat over his left arm and has a baton tucked into the crook of his right arm. The statue was created by Frederick William MacMonnies in 1893 and cast at Jaboeuf & Bezout Fondeurs.

A bronze plaque on the bronze plinth is inscribed with a quote from the John Winthrop, the 3rd Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony:

           BUT IT PLEASES GOD TO STIR THEM UP SUCH FRIENDS, VIZ.,
           SIR HENRY VANE, WHO HAD SOMETIME LIVED AT BOSTON
           AND THOUGH HE MIGHT HAVE TAKEN OCCASION AGAINST US FOR
           SOME DISHONOR WHICH HE APPREHENDED TO HAVE BEEN UNJUSTLY
           PUT UPON HIM HERE, YET BOTH NOW AND AT OTHER TIMES HE
           SHOWED HIMSELF A TRUE FRIEND OF NEW ENGLAND, AND A
          MAN OF A NOBLE AND GENEROUS MIND.  WINTHROP 

A bronze plaque on the base is inscribed:

SIR HENRY VANE

GOVERNOR OF THE

COLONY OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY 1636

BORN 1612 BEHEADED 1662

AN ARDENT DEFENDER OF CIVIL LIBERTY AND

ADVOCATE OF FREE THOUGHT IN RELIGION

HE MAINTAINED THAT GOD, LAW AND PARLIAMENT

ARE SUPERIOR TO THE KING

THIS STATUE WAS PLACED HERE AT THE REQUEST OF 

JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE, D.D., AN HONORED CITIZEN

OF BOSTON WHO NOBLY LABORED FOR THE ABOLITION 

OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA 

Sir Henry Vane born in 1613 in Essex, England into a noble family. After studying at Oxford and travelling through Europe he adopted Puritan views and joined the Puritan migration to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1637, Vane was elected governor of the colony.

He became a supporter of Anne Hutchinson who espoused Antinomianism, a belief that existing laws and practices were not necessary for salvation. He also supported the freedom of religion, the cause of Roger William, the establishment of the Rhode Island Colony, and founding of Harvard College.

In 1639 he returned to England to become a position as Treasurer of the Royal Navy and was made a knight by King Charles. He supported Oliver Cromwell's position of freedom of religion over that of King Charles. However after the Parliamentary victory in the First English Civil War, the Presbyterian group in the House of Commons introduced legislation hostile to the views on religious tolerance held by Vane.

The Second English Civil War saw the defeat and execution of King Charles and the formation of a Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell. Vane headed the committee that reformed the navy, drafted new Articles of War, and formally codifying naval law. Vane and Cromwell disagreed on many domestic issues and Vane retired and formed a religious teaching group, known as "Vanist". After Cromwell's death in 1658, King Charles II was restored to the throne. Vane was arrested on July 1, 1660 on the orders of the King and imprisoned in the Tower of London. He was transferred to He was transferred to the Isles of Scilly in October 1661. He was returned to the Tower of London and on 2 June 2, 1662 he was charged with of high treason against the King. He was beheaded on June 14, 1662.