Famous Fictional Characters: The Tortoise and the Hare - Boston, MA

The Tortoise and the Hare

Copley Square

Boston, MA

GPS: N42° 20.997; W 071° 04.565

Short Description:

The Tortoise and Hare characters in the fable by Aesop are located in Copley Square in the Back Bay of Boston, MA.

Long Description:

Bronze sculptures of Aesop's characters the Tortoise and the Hare were created by Nancy Schön and placed near the finish line of the Boston Marathon in Copley Square in 1994.  The sculpture is a tribute to all Boston Marathon  participants.  The larger-than-life figures are meant to emphasis the importance of effort and not the outcome of the race.  In the words of Aesop “slow but steady progress wins the race”.

The Tortoise and the Hare by Aesop

The Hare was once boasting of his speed before the other animals. "I have never yet been beaten," said he, "when I put forth my full speed. I challenge any one here to race with me."

     The Tortoise said quietly, "I accept your challenge."

     "That is a good joke," said the Hare; "I could dance round you all the way."

     "Keep your boasting till you've won," answered the Tortoise. "Shall we race?"

     So a course was fixed and a start was made. The Hare darted almost out of sight at once, but soon stopped and, to show his contempt for the Tortoise, lay down to have a nap. The Tortoise plodded on and plodded on, and when the Hare awoke from his nap, he saw the Tortoise just near the winning-post and could not run up in time to save the race.

     Then the Tortoise said: "Slow but steady progress wins the race."

Artist: John Singleton Copley - Boston, MA

John Singleton Copley

Copley Square

Boston, MA

GPS: N42° 21.009; W071° 04.599

Short Description: 

The statue of the foremost colonial American painter, John Singleton Copley, is located in the famous public square in Boston that bears his name.

Long Description:

John Singleton Copley was born in Boston in 1738 to poor Irish immigrant parents, Richard and Mary Singleton Copley. At the age of 14 he painted the earliest of his known portraits, a painting of his half-brother Charles Pelham. He became famous for his portraits of aristocratic elegance and grace. In addition to oil paintings, Copley was one of America's first pastel artist.

Building upon his success in America, he desired to expand his reputation to Europe. Artist Benjamin West, urged him to come to London. He sailed to London in 1774. He painted his first important work in 1778, Watson and the Shark, which became a forerunner of 19th century Romantic art depicting the struggle of humans against nature. Copley never returned to America. He died in London on Sept. 9, 1815.

The life-size bronze statue of John Singleton Copley by Lewis Cohen is located on the Boylston Street side of Copley Square in the Back Bay area of Boston. It was dedicated in 2002. Copley is shown standing on a 3' cubic black granite base. he is dressed colonial period attire with ruffled shirt, vest and knee length coat. In his left hand he holds a artists palette while holding brush in the fingers of his right hand.

The base of the statue is inscribed:

John Singleton Copley

1738 - 1815

Boston and London

American Portrait Painter

Member Royal Academy of Arts

Philatelic Photograph: Trinity Church - Boston, MA

Trinity Church
Copley Square

Boston, MA

GPS: N42° 20.991; W071° 04.556

Short Description: 

Trinity Church is located in Copley Square in the Back Bay section of Boston.

Long Description:

Trinity Church (Episcopal) is the architectural masterpiece of Henry Hobson Richardson, one of the most innovative architects of the late 19th century. He is world renown for his massive, masonry architecture inspired by the Romanesque, a style now called Richardsonian Romanesque. Trinity Church, his most celebrated religious structure, has cruciform plan in constructed in yellow-gray granite and brownstone. Construction began in 1872 and was finished in 1877.

Trinity Church has been honored as one of the "Ten Most Significant Buildings in the United States" by the American Institute of Architects. The church is also listed as one of the greatest buildings in the world on the great buildings website. In 1970 the building was designated a National Historic Landmark.

The stamp was issued by the United States on October 9, 1980 as one of a block of four stamps in the American Architecture Series.

Statue of Historic Figure: Leif Erikson - Boston, MA

Leif Erikson
by
Anne Whitney

N 42° 20.945 W 071° 05.311

Short Description: 

A statue of the Viking explorer, Leif Erikson, is located on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall at Charlesgate in the Back Bay of Boston.

Long Description:

Leif Erikson was born in Iceland, the son of Erik the Red. He became a an accomplished sailor and explorer. He sailed to Greenland in 986 AD and establish a Norse colony. Later he became famous in Norse history as the first European to sail across the North Atlantic Ocean to land on the North American continent, in 1000 AD. According Icelandic Sagas, he established a settlement at Vinland, now believed to be at L'Anse aux Meadows on the northern tip of Newfoundland, Canada.


A 9' tall bronze statue of Leif Erikson is standing on a gray plinth shaped as a boulder on a 9' high red rock base. Erikson is wearing a tunic with chain mail armor, and carrying a sheathed curved dagger on his left side.  His left hand is raised to shield his eyes and his right hand is holding a horn. Two bronze plaques on the base depict Erikson and his crew landing on a rocky shore and Erikson telling of his discovery.

Erikson and his crew landing on a rocky shore.

Erikson telling of his discovery.

The statue was commissioned by Eben N. Horsford, created by Anne Whitney, and installed  in 1887. The base has the following inscriptions:

LEIF

THE DISCOVERER

SON OF ERIK

WHO SAILED FROM ICELAND

AND LANDED THIS CONTINENT

AD1000

Statue of Historic Figure: Domingo Faustino Sarmiento - Boston, MA

Domingo Faustino Sarmiento

by

Ivette Compagnion

GPS: N42° 21.000 W71° 05.110

Short Description:

The statue of former President of Argentina,  Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, is located on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall between Hereford Street and Gloucester Street in the Back Bay of Boston.

Long Description:

Domingo Faustino Sarmiento was the President of Argentina from 1868 to 1874. Deeply influenced by Boston educator. Horace Mann, he was a strong advocate for the development of public education in Argentina. In 1973, the government of Argentina delivered this sculpture as a a gift to the City of Boston in recognition of their friendship and cooperation.

A 10' by 4' by 3.25' textured bronze statue of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento depicts the Argentinian president standing with his arms by his sides on a 5' high by 4.75' square concrete base rising from a landscaped area. Sarmiento is wearing a suit with a scarf slung over his right shoulder. The sculpture was created by Ivette Compagnion Ivette, cast by Fundicion Sarruly Buthhass, and installed on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall in May 1973. 

A bronze plaque at the base of the statue is inscribed:

DOMINGO F. SARMIENTO

1811 - 1888

PRESIDENT OF ARGENTINA DIPLOMAT

WRITER FATHER OF THE ARGENTINE

EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM AND FRIEND OF

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. THE ARGENTINE

REPUBLIC TO THE CITY OF BOSTON.

BOSTON MAY 1973 

Statues of Historic Figures: Boston Women's Memorial - Boston, MA

Boston Women's Memorial 

by
Meredith Gang Bergmann

GPS: N 42° 21.031 W 071° 05.000

Short Description: 

The Boston Women's Memorial honors three famous Bostonian women: Abigail Adams, Lucy Stone, and Phillis Wheatley. The Memorial is located on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall between Gloucester St. and Fairfield St. in the Back Bay of Boston.

Long Description:

Bronze statues of three famous Boston women are arranged at ground level arranged amid inscribed granite blocks. Within a 30' diameter circle are larger-than-life size statures of : Abigail Adams (75" x 33" x 21"), Phillis Wheatley (59" x 50" x 32"),  and Lucy Stone (63" x 65" x 42").

Abigail Adams is wearing a long dress and  bonnet. She has her arms crossed and is standing next to a block of granite. The granite block has three inscriptions:

And, by the way, in the
New Code of laws
which I suppose
it will be necessary
for you to make
I desire you
would
remember the ladies
and be more generous
and favorable to them
than your ancestors.
Do not put such unlimited
power into the hands
of the husbands.
Remember, all men would
be tyrants if they could.
If particular care and
attention is not paid to the
ladies, we are determined
to foment a rebellion,
and will not hold ourselves
bound by any laws in which
we have no voice
or representation."

Letter to John Adams
March 17, 1776

Abigail Adams
1744 - 1818
Born in Weymouth Massachusetts. She was
the wife of the second President of the
United States and the mother of the sixth.
Her letters establish her as a perceptive
social and political commentator and
a strong voice for women's advancement.

If we were to count our

years by the revolutions
we have witnessed
we might number them
with the antediluvians
so rapid have been
the changes: that the mind
tho fleet in it progress,
has been outstripped by them
and we are left like statues
gazing at what we can neither
fathom or comprehend

Letter to Mercy Otis Warren
March 9, 1807"

Lucy Stone  is sitting on a granite block with her legs resting on a smaller and lower granite bench. She is wearing a long dress and jewelry on are left wrist and neck. She is leaning over as if writing on the granite block she is sitting on.

The inscription on top of the granite block:

Let woman's sphere be bounded
only by her capacity

Speech, Woman's Rights Convention, Worcester.

The front of the granite block is inscribed:

The legal right for woman
to record her opinion
wherever opinions count
is the tool of whose
ownership we ask.
Woman's Journal

The back of the granite block is inscribed:

Lucy Stone
1818 - 1893
Born in Brookfield, she was one of the 
first Massachusetts women to graduate from 
college. She was an ardent abolitionist. 
A renowned orator, and the founder of 
The Woman's Journal, the foremost 
women's suffrage publications of its era.

From the first years to which my memory stretches, 
I have been a disappointed woman. In education, in marriage
in religion, in everything disappointment is the lot of women.
It shall be the business of my life to deepen this disappointment
in every woman's heart until she bows down to it no longer.

Speech National Woman's Rights Convention Cincinnati 1855

I believe the world grows better because I believe
that in the eternal order there is always a movement
swift or slow towards what is right and true.

Last published statement The Independent 1893


Phillis Wheatley is sitting sideways on a granite bench and leaning an a large granite block. She is wearing a long dress and wearing a bonnet. Her left hand is propped against her chin and she is holding a quill in her right hand.

The inscription next to the quill reads:

In every human breast God has implanted a Principle
which we call love of freedom
It is impatient of oppression
and pants for deliverance
The same principle lives in us.

Letter to the Reverend Samson Occom  February 14, 1774

The front has one her her poems:

Imagination: Who can sing thy force?
Or who describe the sweetness of thy course?
Soaring through air to find the bright abode
Th' empyreal palace of the thund'ring God
We on thy pinions can surpass the wind
And leave the rolling universe behind
From star to star the mental optics rove,
Measure the skies and range the realms above
There in one view we grasp the mighty whole
Or with new world amaze th'unbounded soul

One side of the granite block is inscribed:

Phillis Wheatley
ca 1753 - 1784
Born in West Africa and sold as a slave 
from the ship Phillis in colonial Boston 
she was a literary prodigy whose 1773 volume, 
Poems on Various Subjects Religious 
and Moral was the first book published by 
an African Writer in America.

The right side inscription:

I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate
Was snatch'd from Afric's fancy'd happy seat:
What pangs excruciating must molest,
What sorrows labour in my parent's breast?
Steel'd was that soul and by no misery mov'd
That from a father seiz'd his babe belov'd:
Such, such my case. And can I then but pray
Others may never feel tyrannic sway?

To The Right Honorable William
Earl of Dartmouth

Statue of Historical Figure: William Lloyd Garrison - Boston, MA

William Lloyd Garrison

by

Olin Levi Warner

N 42° 21.100 W 071° 04.739

Short Description:

The statue of William Lloyd Garrison is located on Commonwealth Avenue Mall between Dartmouth St. and Exeter St. in the Back Bay of Boston.

Long Description:

William Lloyd Garrison was an influential journalist who was an abolitionist, suffragist, and social reformer. He founded and edited the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator and was a founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society. After the Civil War he became very active in the woman suffrage movement.

A 7' by 4' by 6.33' bronze seated statue of William Lloyd Garrison rests on a  4.75' by 4' by 6.33' granite base. The sculpture was cast 1886 by the Decorative Bronze Company and installed on May 13, 1886. Garrison is holding papers in his right hand. Quills, a book, and an ink stand rest underneath the chair.

The granite base has the following inscriptions:

Front

WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON 

Left side

I AM IN EARNEST-I WILL NOT EQUIVOCATE

I WILL NOT EXCUSE-I WILL NOT RETREAT

A SINGLE INCH AND I WILL BE HEARD

Right side:

MY COUNTRY IS THE WORLD-MY COUNTRYMEN

ARE ALL MANKIND 

On the back:

1805 - 1879 

Firefighter's Memorial: Vendome Fire Memorial - Boston, MA

Vendome Fire Memorial

by 
Ted Clausen and Peter White

GPS: N 42° 21.118; W 71° 04.672

Short Description:

The Vendome Fire Memorial is located on Commonwealth Avenue Mall at Dartmouth Street in the Bay Bay section of Boston, MA.

Left Side

Middle

Right Side

Long Description:

On June 17, 1972 as fire raced through the Hotel Vendome  the rear floors of collapsed killing nine and burying sixteen other firefighters. A bronze and black granite 4' high by 1' wide semi-circular granite memorial was erected across the street from the former location of the Hotel Vendome and dedicated on June 19, 1997. Funds for the memorial came from the the Edward Ingersoll Browne Trust Fund in 1977.

The memorial is inscribed with sequence of events, quotations from firefighters,  and the names and dates of the nine firefighters who died in the fire.  At the west end of the wall there is a bronze sculpture of a firefighter's jacket and helmet draped over the top of the wall.


Inscriptions:

Timeline:

2:35 pm there is smoke in the cafe of the Hotel Vendome, Commonwealth Avenue & Dartmouth St.

2:40 pm Firefighters arrive, finding smoke & flames coming from the third & fourth floors

2:44 pm District Four reports box 1571 a working fire.

2:46 pm a second alarm is struck.

3:02 pm a third alarm is struck.

3:06 pm a fourth alarm is struck.

5:20 pm the fire is contained. Companies start to make up, preparing to leave the building.

5:28 pm without warning four floors of the Vendome collapse, burying 25 firefighters.

2:00 am firefighters search the rubble until all are accounted for. 9 firefighters are dead, 16 are injured

Quotations:

When that bell rings we are all the same. We are a team. We have one job to do.

Our teamwork is everything; our life depends on every other firefighter. You never forget this.

We don't talk about the tragic fires. It would be too much. We go home to our families.

We save lives & property. We are not heroes. We do what we love. We do our jobs.

Our families know that each day could be our last. It's just part of the work

The worst death, but you learn to let it go. You wouldn't be able to do your job.

There is the unknown in every fire.

You do your job, follow the plan; still something can go wrong.

Investigations reveal that the Vendome did not collapse because of the fire, but from structural weakness.

Sometimes you have to say there's nothing more we could have done.

Losing a firefighter brings back every other loss.

Firefighter's Names and Dates:

FF Thomas W. Beckwith

Engine Co. 32

March 22, 1937 - June 17, 1972

FF Joseph F. Bouche, Jr. 

Engine Co. 22

January 10, 1944 - June 17, 1972

Lt. Thomas J. Carroll

Engine Co. 22 

May 18, 1920 - June 17, 1972

FF Charles E. Dolan

Ladder Co. 13

September 6, 1924 - June 17, 1972

Lt. John E. Hanbury Jr. 

Ladder Co. 13 

May 20, 1926 - June 17, 1972

FF John E. Jameson 

Engine Co. 22 

March 20, 1920 - June 17, 1972

FF Richard B. Magee 

Engine Co. 33 

Sept 17, 1932 - June 17, 1972

FF Paul J. Murphy

Engine Co. 32 

March 5, 1936 - June 17, 1972

FF Joseph P. Sanwik

Ladder Co. 13

August 8, 1924 - June 17, 1972

Statue of Historic Figure: Patrick Andrew Collins - Boston, MA

Patrick Andrew Collins

by

Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson

 and

 Henry Hudson Kitson

GPS: N 42° 21.127; W 071° 04.610

Short Description:

A monument to former Boston Mayor and Congressman, Patrick Andrew Collins, is located on Commonwealth Avenue Mall between Clarendon and Dartmouth Streets.

Long Description:

America

Ireland

A 3' high bronze bust of Patrick Andrew Collins is placed on top of an 11.5' by 10' by 6.75' granite base. The bust is flanked by two bronze allegorical figures representing Ireland on Collin's right side and America on Collin's left side. The bust depicts the head of Collins but is featureless from the neck down.

America is 7.5' high. She is wearing a crown of laurel leaves and carries a shield on her right arm and a palm branch in her right hand. Ireland 7.5' high. She is wearing a crown of shamrocks holding a harp under her left arm and a bunch of laurel in her left hand.

The monument was created by Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson and Henry Hudson Kitson. It was cast at the Roman Bronze Works and dedicated in 1908. It was moved to its current location in 1966.

Patrick Collins was born on March 12, 1844 in County Cork, Ireland. His family emigrated to the United States and settled in Chelsea, Massachusetts in 1848. He entered politics and held a variety of public offices. He is most noted for being Mayor of Boston from 1902 - 1905.

The front and back of the monument have the same biographical inscription:

PATRICK

ANDREW

COLLINS

1844-1905

BORN IN IRELAND

AND ALWAYS HER

LOVER. AMERICAN 

BY EARLY TRAINING

AND VARIED EMPLOY 

UPHOLSTERER FROM 

15 TO 23. HARVARD 

BACHELOR OF LAWS

AT 27. FROM 1871 

LAWYER. 1868-72 

MEMBER OF THE 

MASS. LEGISLATURE.

1883-1889 MEMBER 

OF CONGRESS. 1893-1897

CONSUL-GENERAL IN 

LONDON 1902-05 

MAYOR OF BOSTON 

A TALENTED 

HONEST, GENEROUS

SERVICEABLE MAN 

Revolutionary War: General John Glover - Boston, MA

General John Glover

by

Martin Milmore

GPS: N 42° 21.178; W 071° 04.487

Short Description: 

A statue and plaque dedicated to General John Glover is located on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall between Berkeley Street and Clarendon Street in Boston's Back Bay.

 Long Description:

General John Glover, of Marblehead, MA, was the father of the United States Marine Corps. During the Revolutionary War his regiment of boats enabled Washington's army to retreat to Manhattan after the Battle of Brooklyn on Long Island, thus saving the army from certain defeat. General Glover and his men, using rowboats, ferried General Washington and his troops across the Delaware in 1776 to defeat the Hessian troops in Trenton, NJ. After the war, Glover was a Representative and a Selectman in the Massachusetts Legislature.

An 8' by 3.5' by 3.5' bronze statue of General Glover stands on an approximately 6.5' high and 6.5' by 6.5' square granite base. The statue was sculpted by Martin Milmore in 1875. It was cast at the Robert Wood & Company foundry. The W. Blake & Company did the fabrication. The statue was a gift to the City of Boston from Benjamin T. Reed.

General John Glover is depicted wearing his formal military uniform with cape, epaulets, ruffled shirt, and ascot. He is standing with his left foot on a the barrel of a cannon and holding a sheathed sword in his left hand. He is holding a second sword in is right hand which is broken off at mid blade.

A bronze plaque on the front of the base is inscribed:

JOHN GLOVER,

OF MARBLEHEAD,

A SOLDIER OF THE REVOLUTION.

-------------------------

HE COMMANDED A REGIMENT OF

ONE THOUSAND MEN RAISED IN THAT TOWN

KNOWN AS THE MARINE REGIMENT

AND ENLISTED TO SERVE THROUGH THE WAR;

HE JOINED THE CAMP AT CAMBRIDGE, JUNE 22, 1775,

AND RENDERED DISTINGUISHED SERVICE IN TRANSPORTING

THE ARMY FROM BROOKLYN TO NEW YORK, AUG. 28, 1776,

AND ACROSS THE DELAWARE, DEC. 25, 1776.

HE WAS APPOINTED BY

THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, A BRIGADIER GENERAL,

FEBRUARY 21, 1777.

BY HIS COURAGE, ENERGY, MILITARY TALENTS

AND PATRIOTISM, HE SECURED THE CONFIDENCE OF

WASHINGTON,

AND THE GRATITUDE OF HIS COUNTRY.

BORN NOVEMBER 5, 1732.

DIED AT MARBLEHEAD, JANUARY 30, 1797.

The back of the base carries the inscription:

THE GIFT

OF

BENJAMIN TYLER REED.

1875

Statue of Historic Figure: Alexander Hamilton - Boston, MA

Alexander Hamilton

by

William Rimmer

GPS: N 42° 21.208 W 071° 04.345

Short Description: 

The statue of Alexander Hamilton is located along Commonwealth Avenue Mall near Arlington Street in the Back Bay section of Boston.

Long Description:

A 10' by 3.33' square granite figure of Founding Father of the United States, Alexander Hamilton, stands on an 8.5' by 5.33' square granite base. Alexander Hamilton is depicted wearing classical robes over a ruffled shirt, long stockings and buckle shoes. he is standing with his right arm against his side and his left arm raised to the middle of his chest. The monument was sculpted by William Rimmer between 1864 and 1865.

The granite base has a relief sculpture of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay aligned next to and partially over each other. Below is the inscription:

THE GIFT OF THOMAS LEE.

The north side of the base is inscribed has his biography:

ORATOR, WRITER, SOLDIER, JURIST,

FINANCIER.

ALTHOUGH HIS PARTICULAR

PROVINCE WAS TREASURY,

HIS GENIUS PERVADED THE WHOLE

ADMINISTRATION OF WASHINGTON 

The south side of the base is inscribed: 

ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

BORN IN THE ISLAND OF

NEVIS, WEST INDIES

11 JANUARY 1757,

DIED IN NEW YORK 12 JULY 1804

The back is inscribed:

THIS STATUE ERECTED BY

THOMAS LEE

A CITIZEN OF BOSTON

Alexander Hamilton was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. At the start of the Revolutionary War he organized an artillery company and served as its captain. He went on to become the senior aide-de-camp to General George Washington. After the formation of the nation, he was instrumental is suppressing the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania in 1794. In 1798, Hamilton was appointment as commander of a new army to prepare for a possible conflict against France following the XYZ Affair. An undeclared naval war ensued that was quickly negotiated to an end of the conflict.

Hamilton was a founder of the Federalist Party that supported a strong Constitution and a centralized federal government. He served as Secretary of the Treasury and devised the economic policies of the Washington administration. His familiar image appears on the U.S. $10 bill.