Robert Gould Shaw and Massachusetts 54th Regiment Memorial (Boston, MA)
Dublin Core
Title
Robert Gould Shaw and Massachusetts 54th Regiment Memorial (Boston, MA)
Subject
Subject (Topic)
Men--United States Colored Troops
Associations--Military
Northeastern United States
Public art
Public sculpture
Men--United States Colored Troops
Associations--Military
Northeastern United States
Public art
Public sculpture
Subject (Object Type)
Commemorative sculpture
Commemorative sculpture
Description
The work commemorates members of the 54th Volunteer Infantry, the first documented African American regiment to be formed during the Civil War. Colonel Shaw, the regiment’s leader, is shown on horseback with three rows of infantrymen marching behind him. This scene depicts the 54th Regiment marching down Beacon Street in Boston on May 28, 1863, as they left Boston to head for the battles that wages in the South.
Creator
Saint-Gaudens, Augustus, 1848-1907
Source
National Park Service
Date
Unveiled: May 31, 1897
Contributor
Private donations
Rights
National Parks Service
Format
JPEG
Language
English
Type
Visual Arts-Sculpture
Coverage
Northwestern edge of Boston Commons, across Beacon Street from the State House, Boston, MA 02133, United States
Has Format
A plaster cast version, which was exhibited at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, is now housed at the National Gallery of Art, on loan by the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, Cornish, New Hampshire.
Has Part
Inscription on the relief:
"Omnia Relinqvit
Servare Rempvblicam [He left behind everything to save the Republic]
Inscription on the pedestal (lines from James Russell Lowell's poem "Memoriae Positum"):
Right in the van of the red rampart's slippery
Swell with heart that beat a charge he fell
A Charles W. Eliot quote on the back of the monument:
The White Officers taking life and honor in their hands cast in their lot with men of a despised race unproven in war and risked death as inciters of servile insurrection if taken prisoners besides encountering all the common perils of camp march and battle. The Black rank and file volunteered when disaster clouded the Union Cause. Served without pay for eighteen months till given that of white troops. Faced threatened enslavement if captured. Were brave in action. Patient under heavy and dangerous labors. And cheerful amid hardships and privations. Together they gave to the Nation and the World undying proof that Americans of African descent possess the pride, courage and devotion of the patriot soldier. One hundred and eighty thousand such Americans enlisted under the Union Flag in MDCCCLXIII-MDCCCLXV"
"Omnia Relinqvit
Servare Rempvblicam [He left behind everything to save the Republic]
Inscription on the pedestal (lines from James Russell Lowell's poem "Memoriae Positum"):
Right in the van of the red rampart's slippery
Swell with heart that beat a charge he fell
Forward as fits a man: but the high soul burns
On to light men's feet where death for noble//ends makes dying sweet.A Charles W. Eliot quote on the back of the monument:
The White Officers taking life and honor in their hands cast in their lot with men of a despised race unproven in war and risked death as inciters of servile insurrection if taken prisoners besides encountering all the common perils of camp march and battle. The Black rank and file volunteered when disaster clouded the Union Cause. Served without pay for eighteen months till given that of white troops. Faced threatened enslavement if captured. Were brave in action. Patient under heavy and dangerous labors. And cheerful amid hardships and privations. Together they gave to the Nation and the World undying proof that Americans of African descent possess the pride, courage and devotion of the patriot soldier. One hundred and eighty thousand such Americans enlisted under the Union Flag in MDCCCLXIII-MDCCCLXV"
Extent
132 in. x 168 in. (335.28 cm x 426.72cm.)
Medium
Bronze
Bibliographic Citation
"Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Regiment." National Park Service. Accessed January 22, 2019: https://www.nps.gov/boaf/learn/historyculture/shaw.htm
Rights Holder
Renée Ater
Still Image Item Type Metadata
Original Format
Sculpture
Physical Dimensions
132 in. x 168 in. (335.28 cm x 426.72cm.)
Collection
Citation
Saint-Gaudens, Augustus, 1848-1907, “Robert Gould Shaw and Massachusetts 54th Regiment Memorial (Boston, MA),” Contemporary Monuments to the Slave Past, accessed April 19, 2024, https://www.slaverymonuments.org/items/show/1103.