Bruce K.
Yelp
I have seen this statue countless times in a variety of sizes in museums all over but now this full sized sculpture has let me research the rest of the story.
The Puritan is by sculptor Augustus St. Gaudens of Springfield. In 1881, Chester W. Chapin, a railroad tycoon and congressman from Springfield commissioned the sculptor to create a bronze likeness of his ancestor, Deacon Samuel Chapin (1595-1675), one of the early settlers of the City of Springfield. By 1881, Springfield had become one of America's most innovative industrial and manufacturing centers, and was one of the wealthiest cities in the United States.
The sculpture, cast at the Bureau Brothers Foundry in Philadelphia, was unveiled on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 1887 in Stearns Square, between Bridge Street and Worthington Street. In 1899, the statue was moved here to Merrick Park, on the corner of Chestnut and State Streets next to the old city library, which would later become part of Springfield's Quadrangle cultural center. The statue has remained there ever since.
By the time of the statue's design, no authentic portraits of Deacon Samuel Chapin were known to exist so the artist put together a composite of the family type. Though some say that it is of abolitionist John Brown (a descendant of Chapin) who is alleged "did not end the war that ended slavery, he at least began the war that ended slavery."
So there you go. Now you know what I know about this imposing character.
[Review 15198 overall, round number 700 of 2021, number 1061 in Massachusetts.]
