Focus on Equestrian statue of Joseph Hooker and explore the History.
The 1903 bronze sculpture was designed by Daniel Chester French and Edward Clark Potter, and rests on a granite base. It was surveyed as part of the Smithsonian Institution's "Save Outdoor Sculpture!" program in 1997.Legislators approved US$55,000 in public funds to commission the statue. The statue originally included a bronze plaque bearing the words "A Soldier in the Army that Kept the Nation Whole". Veterans' groups demanded the removal of this inscription, as they felt it diminished Hooker's leadership role in the war.Though popular with his troops, Hooker's memorialization in one of the most prominent locations in Massachusetts has been controversial. The historian Charles Francis Adams Jr., who served as a colonel in the Civil War, was quoted as saying he refused to walk on the same side of the street as the statue: "I look upon [the statue] as an opprobrium cast on every genuine Massachusetts man who served in the Civil War. Hooker in no way and in no degree represents the typical soldiership of the Commonwealth."In 2017, amid the removal of Confederate monuments and memorials in the Southern United States, the Boston Globe said the Joseph Hooker statue belongs to "the category known as Why Are These Statues Even Here At All?" The newspaper quoted Peter Drummey of the Massachusetts Historical Society as stating that "Hooker didn't have a very good reputation as a soldier or as a person." Drummey speculated that rather than honoring the person himself, the presence of the Joseph Hooker statue at the State House is a testament to the political power of veterans' groups.The Hooker statue, along with the nearby statue of Mary Dyer, remained open to the public even after the September 11 attacks in 2001 prompted state authorities to close the gates to the State House lawn, limiting access to statues of Anne Hutchinson, John F. Kennedy, Henry Cabot Lodge, Horace Mann and Daniel Webster.
Joseph Hooker John F. Kennedy US$ Daniel Chester French Boston Globe bronze sculpture statue of Mary Dyer Southern United States Boston Smithsonian Institution Anne Hutchinson Daniel Webster removal of Confederate monuments and memorials Charles Francis Adams Jr. Save Outdoor Sculpture! September 11 attacks Horace Mann Edward Clark Potter Massachusetts Historical Society Henry Cabot Lodge Massachusetts