Explore the Acquisition and installation about the History of this artwork.
While travelling in Europe after World War I, biologist and physician Dr. Fenton Benedict Turck (1857–1932) purchased a bronze statue of William I (1533–1584), Count of Nassau, Prince of Orange, and national hero of the Netherlands.  William, known as "William the Silent" (Dutch: Willem de Zwijger) and "William of Orange" (Dutch: Willem van Oranje), was the main leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish that set off the Eighty Years' War and resulted in the formal independence of the United Provinces in 1648.  For this reason, William is known as the "Father of the Fatherland" (Dutch: Vader des Vaderlands) of the Netherlands. The statue is a replica of a similar monument created in 1848 by Dutch sculptor Lodewyk Royer (1793–1868) that was installed in Het Plein, a city square in the Hague's Oude Centrum (trans. "Old Center").   The plaster mold for Royer's original statue was kept in Brussels during World War I and after the war, the Dutch government permitted one copy of the statue to be made by sculptor Toon Dupuis (1877–1937) at the Fonderie Nationale des Bronzes, a foundry in Brussels, before destroying the mold.A graduate of Chicago's Northwestern University Medical School, Turck was an internist, medical researcher in cell biology, inventor of cytost serum, and author of The Action of the Living Cell (1933) as well as many tracts on gastrointestinal diseases.  Turck was a direct descendant of Dr. Paschasius Turck, a sixteenth-century Dutch physician who treated William the Silent after he received severe wounds in a 1581 assassination attempt. During his return voyage to the United States, Turck "began to feel guilty about the great cost of the statue" and decided to keep the purchase hidden from his wife by storing the statue in the basement of his New York City laboratory at 428 Lafayette Street in Lower Manhattan.  It remained in Turck's possession, stored in the laboratory basement, for eight years (1920–1928).Turck had become a member of the Holland Society of New York in 1917 and was active in their events and affairs. As early as 1887, the Holland Society had sought to install a prominent monument in New York City to celebrate the city's Dutch heritage. The society agreed on William the Silent as the monument's subject in 1892 and was urged to install the monument in the city's Central Park. In the following years, the society considered commissioning the work from prominent American sculptors Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848–1907) and Daniel Chester French (1850–1931). In 1913, Tunis Bergen, a physician chairing the Holland Society's committee investigating options for a monument, visited the Netherlands and enquired whether a copy of the Royer's statue in the Hague could be made and took measurements and photographs of the work. Subsequently, World War I delayed the society's plans. Throughout the 1920s, the Holland Society had proposed to install Turck's statue in several locations in New York City, in Albany, New York, and other locations along the Hudson Valley.: pp.128–130 In 1924, the Holland Society of New York renewed its efforts to install a monument in a prominent location in New York City's Central Park.: pp.128–130  The proposal was initially accepted by city Parks Commissioner Francis Dawson Gallatin (1870–1933), but opposed by the city's Art Commission.  The Art Commission's assistant secretary H. R. Marshall recommended that the statue be donated to Rutgers College as they recently installed a new college president, John Martin Thomas, adding that it would be a "nice new and very visible gift, tying the university to its Dutch legacy at the height of the fashion for colonial revivals".: p.128  While Turck was having dinner with his close friend, railroad executive Leonor Fresnel Loree (1858–1940) discussed the Dutch roots of Rutgers University, his alma mater, and convinced Turck to donate the statue to the university. At the time, Loree was serving on the college's board of trustees.  Rutgers, chartered in 1766 as Queen's College was the eighth of nine colleges established before the American Revolution and had been founded by Dutch Reformed clergymen from New York and New Jersey.: passim.  After its founding, the college was affiliated with the church through the early nineteenth century, and graduated many students of Dutch ancestry.: passim.  Turck desired to donate the statue anonymously, and with Loree's assistance, arranged for the Holland Society to transfer the statue to Rutgers. Bergen, now a Rutgers trustee in addition to continuing his efforts as chairman of the Holland Society's statue committee, said that it was "particularly fitting that the statue should stand on the grounds of the educational institution founded by descendants of the Netherlands.": p.107  The statue was delivered and installed at Rutgers at the western end of the Voorhees Mall. It was dedicated during a ceremony held on June 9, 1928.
Lodewyk Royer Oude Centrum Rutgers University Het Plein Prince of Orange New Jersey Leonor Fresnel Loree alma mater Francis Dawson Gallatin Northwestern University Medical School eighth of nine colleges established before the American Revolution a new college president diseases William I John Martin Thomas Brussels Hudson Valley Augustus Saint-Gaudens city square Daniel Chester French Albany, New York Father of the Fatherland Lafayette Street Central Park board of trustees Voorhees Mall Count of Nassau World War I Toon Dupuis Dutch Reformed clergymen gastrointestinal Parks Commissioner Dutch ancestry cell biology United Provinces Fonderie Nationale des Bronzes the Hague Lower Manhattan Eighty Years' War William the Silent Holland Society of New York Dutch revolt