Boston Bronze and Stone second book signing at Medford Squares Bestsellers Book store!

Our second booking signing at Bestsellers Bookstore went well. Surrendered by hot latte, great books other authors and guitar soloists and plenty of customers made for a successful book signing!

Boston Bronze and Stone goes back to school!

Boston Bronze and Stone went back to school recently to stimulate and educate 100 Lexington students  about creativity in art and past historical creativity of men and women who were successful  in their respective fields of study or vocation.

Military, political, medical, educational, technological, musical, academic and religious heroes and heroines from the City of Boston's past 400 year history were represented and discussed.

Joe Gallo talks about "Boston Bronze and Stone Speaks To Us"

Joe Gallo will be speaking about his book Sunday 12/9/12 11:45 AM immediately after Old North Church's services and a book signing next door in the Old North Church Gift Shop.

George Washington, 1815 
Christ Church (Old North Church), Salem St. / North End Christian Gullager (d. 1827), Sculptor
Marble
The first Made-in-America sculpture is housed in the Old North Church. Boston not Philadelphia, nor New York, nor Washington D.C. can say it has the first American-made Carrara bust of George Washington, Father of our Country.
Had the American Revolution not intervened, more London-made memorials might have come to Boston to join the Scheemakers, Cheere, and Tyler works in King’s Chapel. As it was, the next significant memorial was a home-grown product, the bust of George Washington that was given in 1815 to Christ Church, Sa-em Street, by its senior warden, Shubael Bell. During Washington’s progressthrough New Eng-land in 1789 he sat for two hoursin Portsmouth, New Hampshire,on 3November for ChristianGullager (or Gülager), a Dan-ish artist, who came to Americaabout 1781, and lived in Boston,New York and Philadelphia un-til his death in the latter city in1827.
The not-very-flattering oil portrait that Gullager pro- duced now belongs to the Mas- sachusetts Historical Society. The Reverend William Bentley of Salem noted in his invaluable diary on 5 April 1790 that, ‘Mr. Gullager of Boston has completed a bust of General Washington in Plaster of Paris, as large as life,’ which was the prototype of the bust in Christ Church.

The church has placed nearby an inscription reading:  

“General Lafayette, standing here in 1824 and looking at the bust of Washington, said, ‘Yes, that is the man I knew and more like him than any other portrait.’’’ One hates to think that the anecdote is true, or that Lafayette was right. Shubael Bell’s gift by no means satisfied the Boston desire to memorialize Wash- ington, for a decade later a local committee sought to erect a full-length statue. For this purpose they had, as will shortly be seen, to turn to the British sculptor, Sir Francis Chantrey, whose work is the first to be illustrated in this series of Boston statues. (Whitehill,14,15). 

Boston Boxing Legend Tony DeMarco becomes another Boston Monument for the City of Boston and people of Tony's North End.


Event: Former undisputed Welterweight Champion, Tony DeMarco, sculpture is revealed on October 20, 2012 at 1:00pm at the corner of Cross / Hanover Streets

Many people know him as “The Champ” or simply as Tony. Some know him as Nardo because his birth name is Leonardo Liotta.

The pride of the North End, Tony DeMarco, “The Flame and Fury of Fleet Street,” the former undisputed Welterweight Champion of the World, will be immortalized in bronze and stone by artist Harry Weber.
.
Tony chose to release his book in the North End because: “This is the neighborhood that I grew up in. I have always been greatly supported by friends and family in this neighborhood on August 11, 2011 at the "Fisherman's Feast".

"This is where I want my book to be released. These are the people that I love.”Tony said.

Nardo, Memoirs of a Boxing Champion is the story of a man who made it to the top of the sports world. Tony defeated Johnny Saxton for the undisputed Welterweight Championship at the famed Boston Garden, just two blocks from his home. His epic battles with Carmen Basilio are considered two of the greatest matches in boxing history. However, he was nearly toppled by tragedy and heartache in his personal life. Tony overcame those obstacles and today is one of the most beloved athletes in the city of Boston.

Written by Tony DeMarco, with Ellen Zappala, the book details Tony’s humble beginning on Fleet Street, his rise to the top of the boxing world, his days in Arizona as a successful nightclub owner, and how he coped with the tragedy of losing two children. You will also get a peek at some antics of Tony and several characters in his life – from his travels to California with neighborhood pals to his encounters with notables like Bob Hope, Sonny King, Jack Ruby and Raymond Patriarca. Nardo, Memoirs of a Boxing Champion is also filled with many rarely seen photos, hand-picked by Tony, from his personal collection.( North End Regional News August 11, 2011)

Boston Monuments: Coconut Grove Memorial

Coconut Grove Memorial

Artist Unknown

LOCATION:

17 Piedmont Street  

Bay Village

Plaque

1993

MEDIUM:

Bronze

On November 28, 1942, a fire destroyed the Cocoanut Grove night club. More than 490 people were killed. The fire’s cause was never definitely determined, but the club’s flammable decorations certainly contributed to its ferocity. Revolving doors that soon became jammed and emergency exits that were illegally blocked and locked additionally contributed to the large loss of life. The plaque commemorates the dead and notes that, as a result of the tragedy, there were major changes in fire codes and in the treatment of burn victims not only in Boston, but across the country. The plaque, with a bas-relief image of the Cocoanut Grove’s floor plan, was set in the sidewalk near 17 Piedmont Street—the night club’s site—by the Bay Village Association in 1993.

"Boston Bronze and Stone Speak To Us" intends to add this Boston Monument to our next edition of our book.

What people are says about Boston Bronze and Stone Speak To Us

What people are saying about Boston Bronze and Stone Speak To Us

Boston Monuments Rule!

Thanks so much Joe.  I think I am probably going to order directly from you and have you ship them out.  Will be in Boston a number of times in the coming weeks but mainly in the Longwood and Copley areas – not sure if I will have the time to go over to the North End – at least not until December 21^st!  Will order directly from your website.  This is an absolutely wonderful book – I have always hoped that someone would put together a definitive book on the beautiful sculptures around Boston.  Have spent a good deal of my life in and out of the city and as a child I used to walk with my parents and grandmother/aunt around the city admiring the sculptures – so very few of which we actually knew the story of .. so very happy that you took the time, and had the interest, to produce this wonderful book!  Thank you!

from Annie Bixford, Rhode Island

Above Joe and Mentor sculptor Nancy Schon , creator of Boston Public Garden's "Make Way For Ducklings"

Happy Birthday Boston Massacre Monument 124 Years Old

The birthday of Robert Kraus's monument commemerating the March 5, 1770 shootings of British subjects in Boston.
Boston Massacre Monument Nov 14, 1888 sculptured by a Prussian German artist on Boston Common /Lafayette Mall Tremont Street,  Robert Kraus (1850-1902), Sculptor Bronze / Stone




Freedom is symbolically victorious, cast in this bronze sculpture by Kraus.

This very dramatic Freedom, depicted with the flag, a broken chain, an American eagle, and a trod-upon British crown, are positioned before a column with the names of the five Bostonians killed by British soldiers in the 1770 encounter.

 The high relief bronze plaque depicting the massacre features an extended hand which visitors love to shake, keeping it polished. Crispus Attucks, famed as the first black to give his life for this nation, lies in the foreground. His shoe also protrudes from the relief and visitors keep that polished as well.

Henry Lee of Friends of The Boston Public Garden.

I had the honor of taking a five week "Boston Historic Parks"course by Henry Lee sponsored by  the Beacon Hill Seminars. Henry Lee has just retired from his above position of 41 years as president of "Friends of The Boston Public Garden".

Mr Lee is educating us to the work and expense of maintaining The Boston Common, Boston Public Gardens and The Commonwealth Mall park. He lectures on the 400 year history of these historic parks. The history of the usages of these earliest of America's public parks is Mr. lee's specialties. The use of The Boston Common as a communal cow pasture and military parade grounds came first and fore most.
The use of The gardens as an escape for the congestion of the city was the next phase of usage for America's first public spaces. Finally, parks serve as public gathering grounds of fun social and political events.

The historical Boston Common, The beautiful Public Gardens depicting the art work of the English gardener and its meandering paths, the orderliness of the Hausmann influenced Arthur Gilman architect's Back Bay, Commonwealth Mall are all discussed in Mr Lee's comprehensive course.
The landscape design, the tree care, the past / current exotic garden design and of course the Public Art of the Boston bronze and stone sculptures are all touched upon.

Mr Henry Lee is also known for his persistence and rigidity in his fight against the 10 year battle against the Park Plaza Project.

Happy Birthday To Boston's Ether Monument 166 Years Old

Ether Monument
Boston Pubic Gardens
Arlington St. / Beacon St.
John Quincy Adams Ward / Henry Van Brunt, Sculptors Granite
Neither shall there be Anymore Pain. -- Rev. To Commemorate the Discovery that the
Inhaling of Ether causes Insensibility to Pain.” First proved to the world at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston
-- October AD MDCCCXLVI”
This also cometh Forth from the Lord of Hosts which is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working.
-- Isaiah

The Gift of Thomas Lee in Gratitude for the
relief of Human Suffering by the inhaling of Ether. A Citizen of Boston has erected this monument. -- AD MDCCCLXVII

Ether Centennial Dedicated Oct. 16, 1946 Taken from the Stone

The Ether Centennial took place  autumn on October 16th, 1946; and as the monument in the Public Garden to the ‘discoverer of ether’ has been described in our booklet entitled Some Interesting Boston Events, this chapter is devoted chiefly to the most appropriate remarks made at the centennial celebration by several leading medical authorities. Dr. Reginald Fitz recalled a number of incidents and records relating to that first operation under the Ether Dome of the Massachusetts General Hospital. This room contains the inscription, part of which reads, ‘On October 16, 1846, in this room, then the operating theatre of the Hospital, was given the first public demonstration of anesthesia to the extent of producing insensibility to pain during a serious surgical operation.’

 Dr. Fitz referred to the diary of the surgeon of that first operation, Dr. J.C. Warren, which contained this entry written on the same day: ‘Did an interesting operation at the Hospital this morning, while the Patient was under the influence of Dr. Morton’s preparation to prevent pain. The substance employed was Sulphuric Ether.’ On the day following the operation Dr. Warren wrote: ‘I hereby certify that I have twice seen the administration of Dr. Morton’s application for the prevention of pain; that it had a decided effect in preventing the sufferings of the patients during the operation and that no bad consequences resulted.’ Some months afterwards Dr. Warren swore that he had never heard of ether in a surgical operation until Morton suggested it. When this famous surgeon resigned from the Medical School he made this statement: ‘A discovery which every medical man, and especially every practical surgeon, must hail with unmingled satisfaction.’”

Another first-hand account was written by Edward Everett, President of Harvard University, whose diary is deposited in the Massachusetts Historical Society. The late Allyn B. Forbes, Director of that Society, very kindly sent us this information:
It appears from his diary that on the morning of October 16, 1846, when the first ether operation was going on, Everett was trying to get up a breakfast party for the next day. The first reference that he makes to ether is on November 3. In the evening he went to Dr. Bigelow’s for an informal meeting of the American Academy. At that time, young Dr. Bigelow read an account of a stupefying gas prepared by Dr. Morton, a dentist, and inhaled by persons about to be operated upon. Dr. Morton had used it in many cases with entire success: -- nearly 200. It has also been used in the hospital in cases of ordinary surgery and generally with success. (Forbes and Eastman, 42)


What people are saying about "Boston Bronze and Stone Speak To Us"

Joseph Gallo Brings Boston’s Public Street Sculptures to Life in New Book
February 16, 2012
By Patriot-Bridge Staff

Strolling through Boston, it’s easy to spot the sculptures that tourists congregate around and snap pictures of during the summer months. But what people don’t see when looking at the bronze or stone pieces is the story behind them, and what they represent. Joseph Gallo, author of  “Boston Bronze and Stone Speak to Us” is the exception.

With a dream of writing a book detailing the stories behind Boston’s abundant public sculpture, Gallo’s comprehensive guide is now very much a reality. “There hasn’t been a book like this in 75 years,” said Gallo, who worked on it for six years, conducting his research by sifting through Massachusetts Statehouse archives, newspaper articles, books, and the Internet.

Unlike other books on Boston’s statues, “Boston Bronze and Stone Speak to Us” is inviting and lively, much like the statues themselves, which seemed to come alive with the animated way Gallo described them. “This book is not just stagnant statues, they speak to us, and you have to listen to their whispers,” he said.



In college, Gallo minored in history and art, two consuming passions that were suppressed because he had to work and make a living. When he moved to Lincoln Walk about seven years ago with his wife, Gallo reveled in the art and history surrounding him.

“I was walking through the streets and saw all these monuments, and I realized I didn’t know much about them. So I looked at old books and the photos were horrendous. The photos were black and white, and the text was boring…I got into it out of ignorance,” he reflected.

But Gallo’s encounters with monuments he lived amongst but knew nothing about is no foreign feeling to a great majority of Bostonians. People walk the Freedom Trail, perhaps out of a sense of obligation, but the journey is meaningless unless there is an understanding of its significance, and the statues that are meant to help portray that.

“Boston Bronze and Stone Speak to Us” is an exciting guide that informs readers of not only what they’re seeing, but why it’s important. “I tried to make my book colorful and meaningful for people who come. Newer statues emit feeling, while older statues are rigid, and I want people to know the history of why that is. I added maps and put stars to reflect the pages of where statues are, and broke everything up into neighborhoods so you can take these sections and not be overwhelmed by the city of Boston,” Gallo said of his work.

Speaking in between sips of hot chocolate at Caffe Paradisio on Hanover Street, Gallo dissected some of the sculptures in his book, piecing together art and history with each animated word. Gallo’s favorite statue is Paul Revere, and not just because of the gallant way he sits atop his horse in the North End. “Like myself, he was an entrepreneur,” Gallo started. “He made all the bells in New England, and so many different buildings still have them. He was also a patriot, and I, too, love my country.”

A botanist by trade (he works at Plantscape Designs, Inc.), Gallo gives life to plants. So it is no wonder that he is fascinated with statues expressing lifelike qualities. “The twisted aspirational monuments, the ones that are contorted in different ways are the monuments that have real life. They’re scattered all throughout Boston. I particularly like the Hungarian Freedom Monument where the Stamp Act occurred. It’s a beautiful twist with the mother and father, and the other one is the Aspiration of the Great Spirit in front of the Museum of Fine Arts. It’s an Indian looking upwards and it represents what they believed in, which is nature and the power of multi-gods,” he said.

“When you see a modern one [statues], it’s inspiring, it’s alive. A lot of the sculptures incorporate characteristics of what the city was moving towards and personalities of who they’re after, like mayors,” Gallo added.

Symbolism is another praised characteristic of the sculptures and statues. And with Boston being one of the oldest cities in the United States, you can expect that there are no vapid monuments without representation.

“Quest Eternal on Boylston Street is a 700 ton monument of a naked man stretching. It symbolizes the aspiration of Boston for the time period when the Prudential Center was the tallest building. It was Boston’s first 50-story building, and the statue symbolizes development. Boston became a modern city whereas before it was more Gothic,” Gallo said.

But who were the sculptors erecting these progressive, symbolic statues, and where did they come from? The answer, Gallo divulged, lies in a city with deeper history than Boston’s cobbled streets could ever know—Rome, Italy.

“Rome has a direct influence on American sculpture,” Gallo said, who admits to Rome being his favorite European city. “Rome also has a direct influence on Boston. There’s a connection between Boston sculptors and Florence and Rome, and can be seen in MFA (Museum of Fine Arts).   The Democratic donkey on School Street was done in Florence. There’s just so much,” he said.

Speaking in between sips of hot chocolate at Caffe Paradisio on Hanover Street, Gallo dissected some of the sculptures in his book, piecing together art and history with each animated word.

“These things, although they’re monuments, have an influence on people, on architects, on mayors, to build and have an aspirational freedom and forward movement,” he said.

Like the monuments, Gallo also possesses a yearning to move forward, and will do so by creating more books. “I want to get to a second edition and put in more monuments that are coming up in Boston. I enjoy telling others the significance of monuments with respect to the history of Boston, and telling it through photography and art. But I want everything to flow. Harbor Fog, by Ross Miller, was too contemporary for first book. It’s a monument of granite stones from original wharfs, and in center are LED lights that blink off and on in different colors to represent harbor lights, and mist comes out to simulate fog, so when you’re walking, it seems like you’re walking through the harbor. It’s things like that that I’m going to be putting into the second book.”

Gallo would also love to extend his reach to Washington D.C. and New York City, which are cities he believes lack a colorful guide to their monuments. Even still, nowhere else in the country has monuments like there are in Boston, according to Gallo.

“Everything done in Boston was later done in other cities,” he said. “Boston is a European city. What people don’t understand is the reason why Boston was the most successful plantation is because of the harbor…It became an international trade center.

John Winthrop saw the importance and value of the deep waters of Boston Harbor, knowing the wharfs would be the stimulus for mercantile trade. If Gallo were to create his own statue, it would be placed in the location of Boston’s early success, and it would be a remake of Paul Revere.

“The Paul Revere statue is mythical, historical, and patriotic. I would put it where the Long Wharf Marriott is. Historically, that’s what I would do, in a more dynamic form,” Gallo said.

Gallo’s enlightening guide to all of Boston’s monuments serves as a way for people to look at statues not with empty eyes, but with a twinkle that can only come from knowledge of the history behind them. And if there is one thing Gallo knows, it’s Boston’s history.

“Boston is America, America is Boston” is Gallo’s trademarked phrase. “The concept of America started in Boston,” he said. “It was the first city to have churches and selectmen and towns. You had all these firsts. That statement has a lot of scholarly meaning.”

Although Gallo himself is not a scholar, historian, or artist, he is an educator for all of the above. “And that’s why I wrote this book,” he said.

“Boston Bronze and Stone Speak to Us” is available on Gallo’s website pdiplants.com/BBSweb/, local bookstores in Boston, and Boston’s Historical Society.

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Christopher Columbus Boston Monument

Christopher Columbus

Waterfront / Christopher Columbus Park Andrew J. Mazzola, Sculptor Carrara Marble

This Boston monument is located in one of the most beautiful and historic parks within Boston.
The historic docks constructed and used for the Mercan- tile trade between Boston, Europe and the Caribbean during the 1600’s,1700’s and 1800’s border this park.
The Boston Parks Department Summer Concert Series and the Holiday lighting of the blue lit Arbor Ceremony all happen here, right before Christopher Columbus.
The Christopher Columbus Park was constructed in 1974, thanks to the efforts of a non-profit group formed by residents and businesses in the North End and Waterfront areas. This tribute to the park’s namesake explorer was added a few years later. In their proximity to the North End, the statue and park emphasize Colum- bus’s Italian heritage. The statue created by Andrew J. Mazzola of Norwood Monumental Works is carved from Italian Carrara mar- ble, favored by sculptors for its quality and its translucence. The marble’s porous surface has also been susceptible to vandals, some of whom view Columbus as an oppressor, not a hero. -- Courtesy of Boston Art Commission.
The voyages of Columbus molded the future of European colonization and encouraged European exploration of foreign lands for centuries to come.
Columbus’ initial 1492 voyage came at a critical time of emerging modern western imperialism and economic competition between developing kingdoms seeking wealth from the establishment of trade routes and colonies. In this sociopolitical climate, Columbus’s far-fetched scheme won the atten- tion of Isabelle of Castle. Severely underestimating the circumference of the Earth, he estimated that a westward route from Iberia to the Indies would be shorter than the overland trade route through Arabia. If true, this would allow Spain entry into the lucrative spice trade heretofore commanded by the Arabs and Italians. Following his plotted course, he instead landed within the Bahamas at a locale he named San Salvador. Mistaking the lands he encountered for Asia, he
referred to the inhabitants as (“indios,” Spanish for “Indians”).

There Here! Boston Bronze and Stone Books.

Thousands of "Boston Bronze and Stone Speak To Us" books are in. Please place your orders today!

A definitive guidebook to Boston Monuments Statues and Plaques.Copies can be purchased at Old North Church Gift Shop!!

Roberto Clemente; Boston Monuments

Roberto Clemente

Fenway

Anthony Forgone, Sculptor 1976 Bronze / Stone

Heroically, represented in bronze and stone the Boston Puerto Rican community honors Roberto with this monument and baseball field.

“Roberto Clemente: His three loves; Puerto Rico, baseball, and children”.
Taken from the Stone

This monument was dedicated in 1973 to the late baseball player and humanitarian Roberto Clemente. It is a 5-foot-tall (1.5 m.) stone marker inset with a large bronze relief of Clemente and a short inscription in Spanish & English. The adjacent baseball diamond, which is part of the athletic field, is also dedicated in his honor.
Clemente played his entire 18-year baseball career with the Pirates (1955-72). He was awarded the National League’s Most Valuable Player Award in 1966. During his career, Clemente was selected to participate in the league’s All Star Game on twelve occasions. He won twelve Gold Glove Awards and led the league in batting average in four different seasons.
He was involved in charity work in Puerto Rico and other Latin American countries, often delivering baseball equipment and food to them.
He died in an aviation accident on December 31, 1972, while en route to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. His body was never recovered. He was elected to the Hall of Fame posthumously in 1973, thus becoming the first Latin American to be selected and the only current Hall of Famer for whom the mandatory five year waiting period has been waived since the wait was instituted in 1954. Clemente is also the first Hispanic player to win a World Series as a starter (1960), win a league MVP award (1966) and win a World Series MVP award (1971).

"Boston Bronze and Stone Speak To Us"celebrates another Boston Monument.

Leif Erikson Boston Monuments ; a question answered.

Did Leif Erikson once live in Cambridge, Massachusetts?

Leif Erikson has been accredited with being the first European discoverer of America 500 years before Christopher Columbus. Both Boston Monuments can be found in "Boston Bronze and Stone Speak To Us".

The precise identity of Vinland remains uncertain, with various locations on the North American coast identified. In 1963, archaeologists found ruins of a Viking-type settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, in northern Newfoundland, which correspond to Leif's description of Vinland.

Question: What do roving bands of intrepid Vikings and a legendary lost city of gold have in common with something as prosaic as baking powder? Answer: Prof. Eben Norton Horsford.

Horsford was an early food chemist who in 1847 was appointed to fill Harvard's Rumford Chair of the Application of Science to the Useful Arts. In 1854 he co-founded Rumford Chemical Works, which he named after his position. A few years later he struck it rich by inventing a new formulation of baking powder.

Previously, baking powder had contained baking soda and cream of tartar. Horsford replaced the cream of tartar with the more reliable calcium biphosphate (also known as calcium acid phosphate and many other names). Most brands of baking powder still use calcium biphosphate, but also contain the more recent addition of sodium aluminum sulfate. The leading brand of aluminum-free baking powder is the direct descendant of the one the good professor sold, but it is now called "Rumford Baking Powder" instead of "Professor Horsford's Phosphatic Baking Powder."

Later in life, and with too much time and too much money (and perhaps a few too many fermentation experiments), Horsford turned amateur archeologist and convinced himself that in A.D. 1000, Leif Erikson sailed up the Charles and built his house in what is now Cambridge, Massachusetts. Horsford did a little digging (literally) and found some buried artifacts that he claimed were Norse. On the spot he built the memorial you saw. He didn't stop there. A few miles upstream, at the mouth of Stony Brook (which separates the towns of Waltham and Weston), he had a tower built marking the supposed location of a Viking fort and city. As if that weren't enough, he also commissioned a statue of Leif that still stands on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. The professor wrote a seemingly endless series of books, articles, and pamphlets about the Vikings' visits to Massachusetts. After his death, his daughter Cornelia took up the cause. Their work received little support from mainstream historians and archeologists at the time, and even less today.

Horsford embellished the story further by combining the Viking explorations with the legendary city of Norumbega. The story is largely forgotten now, but Norumbega once figured with Ophir, El Dorado, and the seven cities of Cíbola in the ranks of legendary golden cities.

In 1529, Girolamo Verrazano produced a map based on reports by his brother, the explorer Giovanni Verrazano. This map is the first known use of the term Oranbega, which later became Norumbega. However, Giovanni's reports are patently unreliable since he called southern Maine "the land of bad people." (We're not bad, we're just misunderstood.) Several decades later, an English explorer named David Ingram elaborated (i.e., lied) and described the fabulously rich city of Norumbega that he claimed to have visited himself. This city of silver, gold, and pearls was generally believed to be in Maine (specifically on the Penobscot River), but explorers sought the place in vain.

Horsford argued that Norumbega lay at the confluence of Stony Brook and the Charles (at the site of the modern tower mentioned above), and that in the days of the explorers it was occupied by the descendants of the Vikings. He believed the name was a corruption of an old name for Norway, Norbega. I can find no independent confirmation that Norway was ever called "Norbega," which isn't too far off from Norway's real names in Old Norse, Norvegr and Nóregr.  But you'd have equally good reason to suggest the professor was named after a shallow place in the river where prostitutes cross. As bad an etymologist as he was an archeologist, Horsford argued mass, maze, mace, and maize were all from a common root, when in fact they are unrelated. He thought "America" was named after Erik the Red, despite the fact that Erik never set foot on the continent. He believed the Vikings would name the new land after Norway, when most of them were from Iceland and Greenland. At any rate, the accepted origin of Oranbega/Norumbega is an Algonquian Indian name meaning "quiet place between the rapids."

Horsford was not the only one to speculate on the precise location of the Vikings' settlements, of course. A wave of Viking madness swept over North America (and especially New England) in the 1830s following the publication of the History of the Northmen by American diplomat Henry Wheaton andAntiquitates Americanae by the Danish historian Carl Christian Rafn, both of which speculated about where the Vikings landed. Soon, every bay and cove from Nova Scotia to Chesapeake Bay was nominated as a landing site, and supposed Viking artifacts were discovered under every bush and tree. 

So where did they really land? Before 1960, most of what we knew about the Norse voyages to North America came from two Icelandic sagas. There are passing mentions of Vinland the Good in several other sagas and in at least one Latin document, but only two sagas give any real details: "The Saga of the Greenlanders" and "Erik the Red's Saga." The two are contradictory on many important details. For example, one describes six voyages, which the other compresses to three. One credits the discovery of Vinland to Bjarni Herjolfsson, the other to Leif Erikson. They tell more or less the same story, but neither can be relied on since they weren't written down until hundreds of years after the fact and describe supernatural events. 

The descriptions the sagas give of the places visited are tantalizing--detailed enough to make people think they can use them to pinpoint the locations, but vague and inconsistent enough that they could refer to any of dozens of different places. Reading the sagas, one is tempted to say "I know a place just down the coast that sounds like that." The first Viking site Horsford identified was just blocks from his house. Dozens, probably hundreds of other places from northern Labrador to southern Virginia have been put forward as possible Viking sites, even though only few locations are described in the sagas. There are concentrations of proposed sites in eastern Massachusetts and around New York, which probably indicates nothing more than high concentrations of amateur historians. 

In 1960 the husband-and-wife team of Helge Ingstad and Anne Stine discovered the remains of a Norse settlement at L'Anse Aux Meadows, near the northernmost point of Newfoundland. That put an end to the speculation, right? Wrong. The L'Anse Aux Meadows site, if it is mentioned at all in the sagas, is probably a place referred to as Leifsbúðir ("Leif's booths" or "Leif's temporary shelters," which Horsford placed in Cambridge). But Vinland was supposedly named for the grape (vín) vines that grew there. Grapes do not grow in Newfoundland, nor did they a thousand years ago. It has been argued that the first element of Vinland might be from a Norse root meaning "pasture." But this word vin was already obsolete by the time Vinland was named, and it requires a short i whereas Vinland (Vínland) is spelled with a long í in Norse. Another suggestion is that they might have confused grapes with some sort of berry. Either explanation is superficially plausible at best. 

I hope no one accuses me of chauvinism, but a pair of nuts really does make all the difference.  In the mid-1970s two butternuts were unearthed at the L'Anse Aux Meadows site. Butternuts (also called white walnuts) don't grow in Newfoundland. It so happens that the northern limit of butternuts coincides closely with the northern limit of wild grapes. If the Norse settlers found butternuts, there is an excellent possibility that they found grapes as well. It now seems likely that L'Anse Aux Meadows is not Vinland per se, but either the northernmost part of Vinland or a stopping-off point en route. Does that mean the Vikings might really have sailed up the Charles as Horsford believed? It's possible but not likely. Both butternuts and grapes can be found along the east coast of New Brunswick, and there's no good evidence the Vikings went farther south than that. There are two settlements that were probably south of Leifsbúðir that are mentioned in the sagas: Straumsey ("stream island" or "current island") and Hóp ("tidal lake"). We don't really know where they are. Horsford thought Straumsey was Monomoy Island (between Cape Cod and Nantucket). He thought Hóp was--get this--Boston's Back Bay (before it was filled in). Who knew the Vikings were Yuppies?

Why did they go home again? Internal disputes (leading to murder) combined with disputes with the natives (leading to deadly battles) forced them home after just a few years. But they didn't go away for good. As late as 1347, Greenlanders continued making timber runs to a place they called Markland ("forest land," which is probably Labrador, but which Horsford thought was Nova Scotia). More interestingly, history records that about a century after Leif's time, a certain Bishop Erik of Greenland set out for Vinland to save the inhabitants. History does not record whether the inhabitants wanted to be saved, since the bishop was never heard from again.

Further reading:

The Landfall of Leif Erikson: A.D. 1000 and The Discovery of the Ancient City of Norumbega by Eben Norton Horsford

"The Saga of the Greenlanders"

"Erik the Red's Saga"

Chronicle :Boston Monuments

Joe Gallo was just interviewed about his new book, "Boston Bronze and Stone Speak To Us"on Chronicle , produced by Stella Gould of Channel 5 TV.

Visit www.bostonbronzeandstone.com for viewing my book on a Chronicle segment.

Karen Jordan & friend Dewey use Boston Bronze and Stone as a Boston monument guide.

"My friend Dewey and I took your book to Boston. Here is a picture of us with the book at a statue ( The Armenia Genocide Monument) you do not have as yet. We had so much fun with the book, but only did half. We are taking a trip into Boston soon for the next half. I can't thank you enough for doing the book , it was an awesome guide.

Thank again, Karen Jordan
P.S. I have to get Dewey a book from you for her birthday"
"Boston Bronze and Stone Speak To Us" is a great guide book for Boston Monuments
available this coming fall 2012.

What People Are Saying About Boston Bronze and Stone

"Boston Bronze and Stone Speak To Us" by Joseph R.Gallo Jr., is a helpful and entertaining companion to the monuments of the most historic city in America. The delightful neighborhood walks will guide you through Boston’s narrow streets seeking out museum-quality public art, while the commentary will take you on an historical adventure through America’s past. - Louis E. Jordan III, Director of Rare Book and Special Collections, University of Notre Dame and author of the definitve study on the 1652 Massachusettss Mint.

New Poe Boston Monument chosen

June 2012 Volume 23, Issue 1 www.bayvillage.net

EXCITING SCULPTURE DESIGN CHOSEN FOR NEARBY POE SQUARE
Stefanie Rocknak, a professional sculptor with a tandem career as a professor of philosophy in New York, has been selected to create a statue to commemorate Edgar Allan Poe in Boston, the city of his birth.
“Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most influential writers ever born in the City of Boston. As a city proud of its rich history, I’m so pleased to see this wonderful tribute come to fruition. The statue chosen for Poe Square is full of life and motion, and is sure to inspire residents and future writers alike for generations to come,” said Mayor Thomas Menino.
A five-member artist selection committee, empowered by Boston Art Commission guidelines, chose the design following a lengthy process.
“I propose to cast a life-size figure of Poe in bronze.
Just off the train, the figure would be walking south  
towards his place of birth, where his mother and
father once lived. Poe, with a trunk full of ideas—and worldwide success—is finally coming home,” said Rocknak of the design she calls Poe Returning to Boston.
The plan calls for the statue of one of America’s most influential writers to be installed in Edgar Allan Poe Square, a tree- lined, city-owned brick plaza at the intersection of Boylston Street and Charles Street South, just two blocks north of where Poe was born in 1809. Mayor Menino dedicated the location to Poe—and to his place in Boston’s literary heritage— during bicentennial celebrations in 2009.
Poe, who at age 18 returned to Boston to publish his first book, later developed a notoriously contentious relationship with the city’s literary elite, including with local editors who seized an opportunity to
criticize him upon another return to his native city for a reading in 1845, the year Poe’s most popular poem, The Raven, appeared. Poe’s final works were also published in Boston prior to his mysterious death in Baltimore in 1849.
An award-winning member of the Sculptors Guild whose artwork has appeared in numerous publications and in more than 40 exhibitions including at the Smithsonian. Rocknak is an associate professor of philosophy and the director of the Cognitive Science Program at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York, where she has taught since 2001. A graduate of Colby College in Waterville, Maine, with a B.A. in American Studies and Art History with a concentration in studio art, she holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Boston University. Her interests include the 18th- century Scottish philosopher David Hume (the subject of her forthcoming book), the philosophy of art, and the philosophy of the mind.
The Edgar Allan Poe Foundation of Boston appreciates support for the Poe Square Public Art Project, and the financial contributions of the City of Boston’s Edward Ingersoll Browne Trust Fund that made its planning and artist selection process
possible. Construction of a finalized design of the sculpture—which proponents envision by the end of next year—will depend on success of future fundraising initiatives to offset the anticipated $125,000 total cost of the project.
For more information about the Poe Square Public Art Project—and about how to contribute to the Poe Statue Fund—contact the Edgar Allan Poe Foundation of Boston at 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116, via email at info@poeboston.org, or care of http://poeboston.blogspot.com/
Images and text used with permission, Edgar Allan Poe Foundation. 

 Sunday June 10, 2012 National Firemen's Day is commemerated by Bob Shure's Boston Monument sculpture below.


Massachusetts Fallen Firefighters Memorial 2007
Outside Beacon Hill State/ Bowdoin St. and Ashburton PL. Robert Shure, Sculptor
Bronze

In this strong bronze pyramid, the artist depicts the constant war between man and fire as three firemen are positioned to fight a fire from every direction.


Efforts to construct a memorial to fallen firefighters began in 2000 with the formation of a non-profit as- sociation. After seven years of fund-raising and planning, this memorial was unveiled. Its design features three elements: the central bronze figures, a Ring of Honor consisting of bricks inscribed with the names of deceased firefighters, and the Firefighters’ Prayer and Bell, placed to the side of the figures and ring. Sculptor Robert Shure also designed the Boston Irish Famine Memorial, located near Downtown Crossing, and a Korean War memorial in Charlestown Navy Yard. (http://www.publicart- boston.com/content/massa- chusetts-fallen-firefighters) Nov. 27, 2010 ) 

The new Immigration Armenian Genocide Monument just completed.

The true story behind the this monument.

Most people think the Armenian Genocide was purely about Turks killing Armenians. However, a prime motivator for the killing of 1.5 million Armenians living in Turkey was greed and the redistribution of wealth. The Ottoman Turkish rulers wanted to take possession of the property belonging to its wealthy Armenian minority. They succeeded.

Throughout the deportation, eyewitness testimonies repeat stories of Turkish officials seeking bribes in the form of gold coins, rugs, jewelry, and so on.

Talaat Pasha (one of the architects of the Armenian Genocide) had the audacity to ask the American Ambassador Henry Morgenthau for the life insurance policies of his victims, because he reasoned the Turkish Government had become the beneficiary of the policies since his victims left no heirs.

Contrary to common belief, not all killings were perpetrated by chetes (criminal gangs) and Turkish soldiers. Townsfolk throughout Anatolia were promised the homes and belongings of their Armenian neighbors. After they were taught to hate the Armenians for being giavurs or gavoors, which means ’infidels’ or ‘non-believers’, it was frighteningly easy to whip the people into frenzied kitchen-knife welding mobs capable of murdering their neighbors.

The Turkish government enabled and encouraged the mass looting that took place everywhere the Armenians had once lived. In many instances, Turkey’s governing leaders relocated Kurds and Muslim peoples from the Balkans and other areas to depopulated Armenian communities (immediately following their mass killing and deportation). The Ottoman Turks’ destruction of its Armenian Christian minority created an ‘instant’ Muslim middle class.

Ottoman government archives containing records of land deeds are not accessible to descendants of the Armenian Turkish citizens who were either killed or expelled from their land. One of the obstacles to Turkey’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide is its fear of reparations.

Many of the Armenian churches not destroyed by the Turks were converted to Mosques. Some Armenian churches (including the sacred Aktamar site) are profitable enterprises employed by Turkey as part of its thriving tourism industry.

Even Mount Ararat, the ancestral homeland and pride of the Armenian people, now lies within Turkey’s borders. A few weeks ago, a Turkish tourism advertisement prominently featuring Mount Ararat with a depiction of Noah’s Ark. Of course, there was no mention of the Armenians, believed to be the descendants of Noah’s son, Japheth.

This beautiful well designed memorial incorporating , landscape design with greenery,a sculpture and a working water fountain is now a Boston treasure.

"Boston Bronze and Stone Speak To Us" would be honored to include this meaningful monument for all people within our second edition soon to be printed.

Greetings:

I just received this invitation concerning the Cyrus E. Dallin 150th Birthday festivities. All are welcome to learn more about this great sculpture and sculptor.


Mr. Gallo,

I am writing to let you know about the North End community's historical celebration in The Paul Revere Mall ("The Prado") this Sunday, April 29, 2012.  I have attached the press release for the event, which will celebrate:

·      the 150th anniversary of the birth of Cyrus Dallin;
·      The Paul Revere Mall as a historical monument; and
·      The Prado's importance as a community park and gathering space for the North End.

The event will last from Noon until 4PM and will include a main program of welcoming remarks from neighborhood organizers and elected officials from 2:00 to 2:30.  We expect the event will be attended by more than two dozen members of four generations of the Dallin family, including Jean Dallin Doherty, Cyrus Dallin’s granddaughter, who attended the September 1940 dedication as a very young girl.  Paul Revere, Jr., who also attended the 1940 dedication, will be at the event, as well.

On either end of the main program, beginning at Noon and continuing through the afternoon, several speakers will give informal historical presentations at various locations in The Prado.  Presentations include:

·      Readings of Longfellow's 1861 "Paul Revere's Ride" and Cyrus Dallin's 1939 "Paul Revere" by the Cyrus Dallin Art Museum
·      "Cyrus Dallin's Artistic Legacy," by Christine Sharborogh, Trustee, Cyrus Dallin Art Museum
·      "Cyrus Dallin and his Paul Revere: 58 Years of Perseverance," by Aimee Taberner, Co-Chair, Cyrus Dallin Art Museum
·      "Paul Revere: The Man Behind the Myth," by Nina Zannieri, Executive Director, Paul Revere Memorial Association
·      "Arthur Shurcliff, Henry Shepley and their Creation of The Prado," by David Kubiak and Anne Pistorio, North End/Waterfront Residents' Association
·      "The Pride of Later Generations: North End History Remembered in The Prado," by Alex Goldfeld, President, North End Historical Society.

A companion lecture program will be held at Old North Church on Thursday evening, May 17, 2012, featuring talks by art curator Rebecca Reynolds about Dallin's Paul Revere and by historian Alex Goldfeld about the neighborhood's history represented in The Prado.

We hope you will be able attend on the 29th, and I would be happy to discuss this event further with you.  I can also be reached at 617-833-9564.

Dave Kubiak
Dallin-Prado Event Organizing Committee

April 23, 2012: For Immediate Release by the Edgar Allan Poe Foundation of Boston


A new sculpture is coming to Boston! Please read below.



SCULPTURE HONORING EDGAR ALLAN POE IN BOSTON CHOSEN AFTER LENGTHY REVIEW PROCESS

POE TO RETURN TO CITY OF HIS BIRTH...WILL BE SEEN STRIDING ACROSS SQUARE DEDICATED TO HIM

TRIUMPHANT POE RETURNING TO BOSTON…SCULPTOR CHOSEN FROM 265 ARTISTS

ARTIST-PHILOSOPHER SELECTED TO CREATE POE STATUE

BOSTON – Stefanie Rocknak, a professional sculptor with a tandem career as a professor of philosophy in New York, has been selected to create a statue to commemorate Edgar Allan Poe in Boston, the city of his birth.

“Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most influential writers ever born in the City of Boston. As a city proud of its rich history, I’m so pleased to see this wonderful tribute come to fruition.  The statue chosen for Poe Square is full of life and motion, and is sure to inspire residents and future writers alike for generations to come,” said Mayor Tom Menino of Rocknak’s design.

A five-member artist selection committee, empowered by Boston Art Commission guidelines, has made the decision following a lengthy process involving intense public scrutiny of design proposals created by three competing finalists. The finalists were picked from a pool of 265 artists who applied for the competitive public art commission from 42 states and 13 countries.

“I propose to cast a life-size figure of Poe in bronze. Just off the train, the figure would be walking south towards his place of birth, where his mother and father once lived. Poe, with a trunk full of ideas—and worldwide success—is finally coming home,” said Rocknak of the design she calls Poe Returning to Boston.

“The sense of Poe returning triumphant with creative ideas bursting forth from his suitcase is very appealing,” according to project manager Jean Mineo.

“The review committee, and public input, conveyed great excitement with the dynamic sense of movement, accessible style, and Poe’s creative energy expressed in the proposal. There is also strong support for Steff’s approachable, ground level statue that helps humanize Poe and place him in the context of this active neighborhood,” Mineo said.

The plan calls for the statue of one of America’s most influential writers to be installed in Edgar Allan Poe Square, a tree-lined, city-owned brick plaza at the intersection of Boylston Street and Charles Street South, just two blocks north of where Poe was born in 1809. Mayor Menino dedicated the location to Poe—and to his place in Boston’s literary heritage—during bicentennial celebrations in 2009.

Poe, who at age 18 returned to Boston to publish his first book, later developed a notoriously contentious relationship with the city’s literary elite, including with local editors who seized an opportunity to criticize him upon another return to his native city for a reading in 1845, the year Poe’s most popular poem, The Raven, appeared. Poe’s final works were also published in Boston prior to his mysterious death in Baltimore in 1849.

An award-winning member of the Sculptors Guild whose artwork has appeared in numerous publications and in more than 40 exhibitions including at the Smithsonian, Stefanie Rocknak is an associate professor of philosophy and the director of the Cognitive Science Program at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York, where she has taught since 2001. A graduate of Colby College in Waterville, Maine, with a B.A. in American Studies and Art History with a concentration in studio art, she holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Boston University. Her interests include the 18th-century Scottish philosopher David Hume (the subject of her forthcoming book), the philosophy of art, and the philosophy of the mind.

Describing her dual roles as artist and philosopher in Colby Magazine last November, Rocknak said: “Initially I kept them totally separate … but making representational art is a manifestation of my philosophical belief that all art doesn’t have to be conceptual.” She said her figurative artwork, usually created in wood, is “cathartic” representing “a way to externalize certain emotions.”

The Edgar Allan Poe Foundation of Boston appreciates support for the Poe Square Public Art Project, and the financial contributions of the City of Boston’s Edward Ingersoll Browne Trust Fund that made its planning and artist selection process possible. Construction of a finalized design of the proposed sculpture—which proponents envision by the end of next year—will depend on success of future fundraising initiatives to offset the anticipated $125,000 total cost of the project.

For more information about the Poe Square Public Art Project—and about how to contribute to the Poe Statue Fund—contact the Edgar Allan Poe Foundation of Boston at 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116, via email at info@poeboston.org, or care of http://poeboston.blogspot.com/

The Edgar Allan Poe Foundation of Boston, Inc., is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) corporation organized exclusively for the charitable educational purpose of honoring Poe in the city where he was born in 1809.

Happy Birthday Cyrus E. Dallin from Boston.

"You may be familiar with Cyrus E. Dallins Boston monuments and statues around Boston. "Paul Revere", "Anna Hutchinson" and "Appeal To The Great Spirit" are just some of his spiritualistic memorial sculptures inspiring all of us.

Dallin, the son of Thomas and Jane (Hamer) Dallin, was born in Springville, Utah, November 1861 to a family then belonging to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. At age 19, he moved to Boston to study sculpture with T. H. Bartlett, and in 1883 entered a competition for an equestrian statue of Paul Revere. No entries were selected, but over the next 58 years Dallin made seven versions of a monument of Paul Revere.

In Boston, he became a colleague of Augustus St. Gaudens and a close friend of John Singer Sargent. He married Vittoria Colonna Murray in 1891, moved to Arlington, Massachusetts in 1900, where he lived for the rest of his life, and there raised three children. He was a member of the faculty of Massachusetts Normal Art School, since renamed Massachusetts College of Art and Design, from 1899 to 1941.

He created more than 260 works monuments and statues, including well known Boston statues of Paul Revere and of Native Americans. He also sculpted the statue of the Angel Moroni atop the Salt Lake City Temple, which has become a symbol for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and is generally the pattern for future Angel Moroni statues on the spires of subsequent LDS Temples.

Dallin was probably the first American Sculptor sensitive enough to depict American Indians as humanist spiritualistic human beings in his statues and monuments, because he grew up with Indians as a boy in Utah. Cyrus E.Dallin conveyed this above sensitivity through his Boston bronze and stone sculptures.

Happy Birthday from Joe Gallo, author of "Boston Bronze and Stone Speak To Us", a Boston guidebook of historical story telling of monuments and statues our found on Boston's parks and streets.

Edgar Allan Poe Monument, Boston, MA

Proposed Edgar Allan Poe Monument on Edgar Allan Poe Square at the corner of Charles and Boylston Streets Boston, MA is coming soon with proper future funding. "Boston Bronze and Stone Speak To Us "second edition shall surely place Poe new monument in our book for all to share!

Did you know Poe was born at this above location?

"One of the best-kept secrets in Boston's literary history concerns the most influential writer ever born here: Edgar Allan Poe. And the secret is this: he was born here! Over the past 200 years, leading up to the bicentennial of Poe's birth on January 19, 2009, his connections to other East Coast cities -- Richmond, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York -- have been celebrated and memorialized. Finally, Mayor Thomas M. Menino dedicated this above location as Edgar Allan Poe Square with a plaque.

While each of these cities hosts a museum or historic house that commemorates Poe's standing as a local author, Boston has made itself conspicuous for its apparent determination to treat the master of mystery -- America's first great critic and a foundational figure in the development of popular culture -- like an undeserving orphan.

The walking tour made possible by this brochure ( The Raven's Trail) offered by www.poeboston is designed to begin a new era in the way Poe's connection to Boston is understood and experienced. While it's true that Poe fought a career-long battle against Boston-area authors, whose moralistic poems and stories sounded to him like the croaking frogs, it's also true that he had positive feelings about the place." (The Raven's Trail 2009 ,The Edgar Allan Poe Foundation of Boston, Inc.)

Please visit for more information poeboston.org

Boston is America America is Boston!

Abraham Lincoln by Thomas Ball

Emancipation Group 1877

Park Square / Charles and Stuart Streets Thomas Ball (1819-1911), Sculptor Bronze / Stone

Freedom, release, and liberty are honored by this Thomas Ball monument.

“A duplicate casting of Thomas Ball’s Emancipation Group (originally executed for the Freedman’s Memorial Society in Washing- ton) was given to the city of Boston in 1877 by Moses Kimball and put up in Park Square.”(38 Whitehall).

The original version of this work stands in Lincoln Park in Washington, D.C.

The Great Emancipator freeing a male African-American slave modeled on Archer Alexander. The ex-slave is depicted crouching shirtless and shackled at the president’s feet.

The monument has long been the sub- ject of controversy. Despite being paid for by African-Americans because of the supplicant and inferior position of the black figure, histo- rian Kirk Savage in 1997 condemned it as “a monument entrenched in, and perpetuating, racist ideology.”