Focus on Statue of Thomas Jefferson (David d'Angers) and discuss the New York City version.
In 1834, when the Common Council accepted Levy's gift, they also gave him a gold snuff box and the Freedom of the City. Before the statue was officially installed, it was displayed at 355 Broadway, with admission charged for viewing. According to press reports, the proceeds let Levy purchase and distribute 1,200 loaves of bread to be given to the poor.
For around seven decades, the statue was said to sit in the Governor's Room of City Hall. At some point, however, it was placed in a hall of the building's basement. After lobbying by Jefferson Monroe Levy, the Art Commission voted on July 1, 1919, to return the statue to the Governor's Room.In 1995, as Deputy Mayor John S. Dyson was planning to restore City Hall, art scholar Leslie Freudenheim advocated it be moved from the side of the council chambers, where it had been placed at some point, to a more prominent location "at the juncture of City Hall's two magnificent, curvilinear staircases."In 2011, when the Council returned after a year and a half of renovations, councilmember Letitia James noted that the statue had been cleaned.
Letitia James Jefferson Monroe Levy Common Council Freedom of the City John S. Dyson Art Commission