The Uncle Sam Memorial Statue is a statue commemorating Samuel Wilson, perhaps the original Uncle Sam, near his birthplace in the center of Arlington, Massachusetts, USA. It was sculpted by Theodore Cotillo Barbarossa. It is located on Mystic Street, adjacent to the Minuteman Bikeway.
The sculpture is a bronze relief of Uncle Sam and three-dimensional sculpture of Samuel Wilson, installed on a limestone base in front of a wall rising from the base's rear. It was funded by Frederick A. Hauck of Cincinnati, Ohio, cast in 1976, installed during the United States Bicentennial on September 11, 1976, and dedicated April 18, 1977.
The bronze relief depicts the life and work of Samuel Wilson in Troy, New York and Mason, New Hampshire, and in Menotomy, Massachusetts (now Arlington, Massachusetts). The relief includes a depiction of the familiar image of the elderly "Uncle Sam" figure in top hat and tails. At its top is a butcher and a ship coming in to dock next to the word "TROY"; in the middle is a pioneer couple standing behind a fence with the words "MASON N-H"; and at the bottom is a soldier on horseback above the word "MENOTOMY." To the relief's right is a standing portrait of Wilson carrying his top hat in the crook of his left arm and extending his right hand slightly.
The sculpture is approximately 8 feet, 8 inches high, on a base approximately 15 feet, 8 inches high by 10 feet wide. Its weight is 17 tons. It was cast and erected by Eleftherios Karkadoulias, with stone work fabricated by Woolery Stone Company, and contains a number of inscriptions, including:
- Base, front above sculpture: SAMUEL WILSON / 1766-1854
- Base, front below figure: IN HONOR OF SAMUEL WILSON / A NATIVE SON / BORN NEAR THIS SITE / ON SEPTEMBER 13, 1766 / HE BECAME / OUR NATIONAL SYMBOL / UNCLE SAM
- Base, bronze plaque on side of base: UNVEILED / SEPTEMBER / 11-1976 / DEDICATED / APRIL-18, 1977 / FREDERICK A. HAUCK / A GIFT TO THE TOWN OF ARLINGTON / MASS. AND THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES THROUGH THE GENEROUS / CONTRIBUTION OF FREDERICK A. HAUCK / OF CINCINNATI, OHIO / DESIGNER-SCULPTOR T.C. BARBAROSSA / BELMONT, MASS. / CAST BY ELEFTHERIOS KARKADOULIAS / CINCINNATI, OHIO / PROJECT COORDINATOR / THE ARLINGTON JAYCEES / BOARD OF SELECTMEN / ARTHUR D. SAUL, JR., CHAIRMAN / ROBERT B. WALSH / ANN MAHON POWERS / MARGARET H. SPENGLER / ROBERT H. MURRAY / TOWN MANAGER / DONALD R. MARQUIS / UNCLE SAM STATUE COMMITTEE / WILLIAM J. BECK / JACK R. DONALSON / JAMES D. HOBBS / JAMES F. LAWSON, JR. / STEPHEN PEKICH / FREDERICK E. PITCHER / JOHN G. PERRY / WILLIAM J. SCAGLIONE.
Famous quotes containing the words uncle sam, uncle, sam, memorial and/or statue:
“Nor must Uncle Sam’s Web-feet be forgotten. At all the watery margins they have been present. Not only on the deep sea, the broad bay, and the rapid river, but also up the narrow muddy bayou, and wherever the ground was a little damp, they have been, and made their tracks.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“Aunt Sally she was one of the mixed-upest looking persons I ever see; except one, and that was uncle Silas, when he come in, and they told it all to him. It kind of made him drunk, as you may say, and he didn’t know nothing at all the rest of the day, and preached a prayer meeting sermon that night that give him a rattling ruputation, because the oldest man in the world couldn’t a understood it.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“So Sam enters the universe of sleep, a man who seeks to live in such a way as to avoid pain, and succeeds merely in avoiding pleasure. What a dreary compromise is life!”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“When I received this [coronation] ring I solemnly bound myself in marriage to the realm; and it will be quite sufficient for the memorial of my name and for my glory, if, when I die, an inscription be engraved on a marble tomb, saying, “Here lieth Elizabeth, which reigned a virgin, and died a virgin.””
—Elizabeth I (1533–1603)
“All over France, in every city there stand cathedrals like this one, triumphant monuments of the past. They tower over the homes of our people like mighty guardians, keeping alive the invincible faith of the Christian. Every arch, every column, every statue is a carved leaf out of our history, a book in stone, glorifying the spirit of France.”
—Sonya Levien (1895–1960)