Emancipation (Boston, MA)

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Dublin Core

Title

Emancipation (Boston, MA)

Subject

Subject (Topic)
Allegory (Art)
Northeastern United States
Public art
Public sculpture
Slaves--Emancipation--United States

Subject (Object Type)
Commemorative sculpture

Description

The multi-figure sculpture is anchored around a truncated tree that reaches over the heads of the three human figures. The tree is roughly realized, and Fuller’s hand is evident in the surface treatment. At the center of the composition, a young woman and man stand upright and are semi-nude. The couple emerge from the “Tree of Knowledge.” Behind the male figure, the female figure of “Humanity,” clothed in a gown, bows her head and rests it on her raised left arm. She gently rests her right hand on the young man’s shoulder.

Creator

Fuller, Meta Warrick, 1877-1968

Source

Photographs by Renée Ater

Date

Dedication: June 20, 1999

Contributor

CBA Landscape Architects, Boston, Massachusetts; United South End Settlements, Boston, Massachusetts; New England Foundation for the Arts, Boston, Massachusetts; The George B. Henderson Foundation and The Edgar Ingersoll Browne Fund, Boston, Massachusetts; and Boston Parks and Recreation

Rights

National Center of Afro-American Artists, 300 Walnut Street, Roxbury, Massachusetts, United States

The Museum of Afro-American History, 46 Joy Street, Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Format

JPEG

Language

English

Type

Visual Arts-Sculpture

Coverage

Harriet Tubman Park, Columbus Avenue and Pembrook Street, Boston, Massachusetts, 02116, United States

Date Created

1913

Has Part

Inscription on granite base (1999):
Emancipation, 1913. In honor of African American freed persons who by their courage and valor gave
meaning to emancipation. Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, (1877-1968) sculptor. Courtesy of The Museum of the National Center for Afro-American Artists and the
Museum of Afro-American History.

Inscription on granite base (2013):
“Humanity weeping over her suddenly freed children who beneath the gnarled fingers of Fate, step forth into the world, unafraid.” Meta Warrick Fuller

Inscription on granite base (2013):
“The Negro has been emancipated from slavery but not from the curse of race hatred and prejudice. . . It was not Lincoln alone who wrote the Emancipation but the humane side of the nation . . .” Meta Warrick Fuller

Extent

84 in. (213.36 cm.)

Medium

Bronze; Pink granite

Bibliographic Citation

Ater, Renée. Remaking Race and History: The Sculpture of Meta Warrick Fuller. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011.

Rights Holder

Renée Ater

Still Image Item Type Metadata

Original Format

Sculpture

Physical Dimensions

84 in. (213.36 cm.)

Citation

Fuller, Meta Warrick, 1877-1968, “Emancipation (Boston, MA),” Contemporary Monuments to the Slave Past, accessed March 28, 2024, https://www.slaverymonuments.org/items/show/1121.

Geolocation