Our mischievous puppy pal Liberty was inspired by the dog depicted in Johannes A. S. Oertel's (1823-1909) Pulling Down the Statue of King George III, New York City.
This painting documents the destruction of the gilded lead statue of King George III of Great Britain in Bowling Green, N.Y., by New Yorkers and Continental soldiery, after the Declaration of Independence had been read to Washington's troops on the Commons on July 9, 1776. In the painting, Liberty the dog is seen in the foreground running about. Fragments of the statue and the stone base on which it stood are preserved in the Society's collection.
Monuments: Commemoration and Controversy (January 28--July 3, 20220 explores monuments and their representations in public spaces as flashpoints of fierce debate over national identity, politics, and race that have raged for centuries. Offering a historical foundation for understanding today’s controversies, the exhibition features fragments of a statue of King George III torn down by American Revolutionaries, a souvenir replica of a bulldozed monument by Harlem Renaissance sculptor Augusta Savage, and a maquette of New York City’s first public monument to a Black woman, Harriet Tubman, among other objects from the Museum’s collection. The exhibition reveals how monument-making and monument-breaking have long shaped American life as public statues have been celebrated, attacked, protested, altered, and removed. Curated by Wendy Nālani E. Ikemoto, senior curator of American art
