Category Archives: Statues – while they last

Theodore Roosevelt Statue, Museum Of Natural History, 2004

In June 2020 the equestrian statue of Teddy Roosevelt was slated to take a rough ride from the steps of the entrance of NYC’s American Museum of Natural History into oblivion. — “The statue was meant to celebrate Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) as a devoted naturalist and author of works on natural history…. At the same time, the statue itself communicates a racial hierarchy that the Museum and members of the public have long found disturbing,” according to the museum’s website.

President Chester A. Arthur, Madison Square Park

Chester Alan Arthur was the only president not to have been elected to the office, having been the VP when President Garfield was assassinated in 1881 and thereafter losing his party’s primary.  So why is there a statue of him in NYC’s Madison Square Park?  Born in Vermont, he moved to NYC to practice law. When he assumed the presidency, he was living at 123 Lexington Ave. in Manhattan where he took the oath of office, becoming one of only two presidents, along with George Washington, to have been inaugurated in NYC.  His friends commissioned the statue in the late 1890’s.  He’s also one of only 42 presidents never to have been impeached.