Famous Fictional Figure: Mother Goose - Central Park, NY, NY

Mother Goose

Central Park

NY, NY

N 40° 46.345 W 073° 58.170

Short Description: 

A sculpture depicting Mother Goose in the nursery rhyme Old Mother Goose. It is augmented with Mother Goose characters. The sculpture is located in at the entrance to the Rumsey Playfield, in Central Park, New York City.

Long Description:

A 60" by 42" by 63" granite sculpture of Mother Goose on a 38" by 54" by 72" granite base in depicts Mother Goose riding on a gander. It is a depiction of the nursery rhyme:


Old Mother Goose, when
She wanted to wander,
Would ride through the air
On a very fine gander.

Mother Goose had a house,
'T was built in a wood,
Where an owl at the door
For sentinel stood.

She had a son Jack,
A plain-looking lad;
He was not very good,
Nor yet very bad.

She sent him to market,
A live goose he bought:
"Here! mother," says he,
"It will not go for nought."

Jack's goose and her gander
Grew very fond;
They'd both eat together,
Or swim in one pond.

Jack found one morning,
As I have been told,
His goose had laid him
An egg of pure gold.

Jack rode to his mother,
The news for to tell.
She called him a good boy,
And said it was well.

Mother Goose is wearing a pointed hat and a long flowing cape. She is riding side-saddle on a gander and is surrounded by bas-reliefs sculptures the of nursery rhyme characters Humpty Dumpty, Old King Cole, Little Jack Horner, Mother Hubbard, and Mary and her little lamb. The sculpture was created Frederick George Richard Roth and a team of carvers. It was installed in Central Park in 1938.

Mother Goose is both a nursery rhyme character and the name given to the Colonial American compiler of traditional children's rhymes. Traditionally, Mother Goose is said to be Mary Goose who lived in Boston and died in 1690.