- Date: 1885
- Sculptor: John Quincy Adams Ward
- Medium & size: Bronze (9 feet), on a granite pedestal by Richard Morris Hunt (7.5 feet); 4 bronze bas-reliefs on pedestal, each 10 x 25 inches.
- Location: East side of Central Park, north of the 72nd-Street traverse just before it splits into east- and westbound lanes.
In 1620, the Pilgrims boarded the Mayflower and set sail for … the Hudson River. Faced with howling November storms after a two-month voyage, they hunkered down in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Hence the first Europeans to settle Manhattan were the commercially minded Dutch, who arrived in 1625. Making the most of a broad inland waterway and a great harbor, the Dutch developed a thriving trade in furs.
Presently the prosperous little town of New Amsterdam drew the envious gaze of King Charles II. He sent four English warships to seize it in 1664, and renamed the town for his brother, the Duke of York.
Under British rule, New York grew slowly but steadily. Then, in 1783, the British fleet sailed out of New York Harbor for the last time. (See my post on the Washington at Union Square and Evacuation Day.) Soon a radically new political system made the United States a haven for those who valued political and economic freedom.
From 1815 to 1915, thirty-three million immigrants poured into the country. Most sailed into New York harbor. From there, they could head for the farmland of the Midwest via the Erie Canal or the railroads. Some settled down in New York to work for the industries that were thriving under the free-enterprise system. When the creation of Central Park was being discussed in the 1850s, New York was already the largest city in the Western hemisphere. By the time America turned a hundred, Manhattan’s population topped a million.
More than a third of the island’s residents were foreign born. But … only two or three percent had come from jolly old England. Here’s where the Pilgrim comes in.
This sculpture commemorates the seventy-fifth anniversary of the New England Society, which was established to promote “friendship, charity and mutual assistance” among New Englanders living in Manhattan. When the sculpture was dedicated in 1880, one of the glittering events of the social season in New York was the New England Society’s annual ball, held to celebrate the Pilgrims’ landing at Plymouth Rock.
This Pilgrim isn’t a meek, ascetic Christian. He sports an elegant hat, jacket, and boots. He has ammunition cartridges for his rifle slung across his chest. True, a relief of the Bible is front and center on the pedestal.
But a second relief shows a bow and arrows, and a third shows the Mayflower sweeping along with all sails set.
The fourth relief is a tribute to commerce and industry: a globe, a sextant, a hammer and anvil, and a spindle with yarn.
Like a true New Yorker, this man is a hunter, a fighter, an explorer, a creator, and a trader. And, from his prominent location in Central Park, he conveys a monumental message: “Don’t forget: we were here first.” Or at least: “We were here before you.”
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- See also my essays on Saint Gaudens’s Puritan: here, here, and here. Pilgrims, who founded the colony in Plymouth, were Separatists: they thought the Anglican Church so bad that only thing to do was go elsewhere and start anew. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was founded by Puritans, members of the Anglican Church who wanted to remain in the Church of England but purify it.
- For more on Central Park in the 1850s-1870s, see my book Central Park: The Early Years.
- For early images of Central Park, see the pages on this site for through 1860, 1861-1865, and 1866-1870.
- In Getting More Enjoyment from Sculpture You Love, I demonstrate a method for looking at sculptures in detail, in depth, and on your own. Learn to enjoy your favorite sculptures more, and find new favorites. Available on Amazon in print and Kindle formats. More here.
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