Edmund Burke - Washington, DC
N 38° 54.232 W 077° 01.647
18S E 324194 N 4308062
This bronze statue of Edmund Burke is located in Burke Park on Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, DC. It is a contributing statue in the U.S. National Register of Historic Places' American Revolution Statuary listing.
Waymark Code: WMDF23
Location: District of Columbia, United States
Date Posted: 01/07/2012
Views: 5
ABOUT THE STATUE:
This 8 ft. x 39 1/2 in. x 39 1/2 in. bronze sculpture of Edmund Burke stands on a rectangular granite base measuring 72 in. in height x 92 in. in width. The sculpture of Burke portrays him standing with his right leg stepping forward and his right hand raised and waving. His left hand is down at his side and is holding a three-cornered hat. He is wearing a long jacket, a vest, and knee breeches. His hair, which is parted down the middle, curls up just above his ears.
The sculpture is signed: J. Havard Thomas MDCCXCIV/CAST A CIRE PERDUE H.H. MARTYN Co. Ltd. Cheltenham 1922.
The front side of the base is inscribed with:
BVRKE
1729-1797
"MAGNANIMITY IN POLITICS IS
NOT SELDOM THE
TRVEST WISDOM"
The east side of the base is inscribed with:
THIS STATVE
A COPY OF THE WORK
OF HARVARD THOMAS IN
THE CITY OF BRISTOL/ENGLAND WAS PRESENT-
ED THROVGH THE SVL-
GRAVE INSTITVTION TO
THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA
BY SIR CHARLES CHEERS
WAKEFIELD BARONET
FORMERLY LORD MAYOR
OF LONDON/ERECTED A.D. 1922
ABOUT THE MAN:
"Like most strongly intellectual thinkers and writers, Burke is hard to characterize. He was born in Ireland of a Protestant father and Catholic mother. Reared a Protestant, Burke studied law for a while but abandoned it for a career of writing and intense activity in public life. Entering the Commons in 1765 as a Whig at the time of the Stamp Act, Burke earned popularity among the American colonists through championing their cause, along with Pitt and his associate John Wilkes, all strongly pro-American. His career is marked by a strong advocacy of individual freedom, emancipation of slaves, free trade, and aid to Catholics in Ireland. His writings on the French Revolution (which he condemned for its excesses), and his opposition to imprisonment for libel, showed a strong bent for individual freedom as opposed to statism and government power. Today, Burke would be typecast as a libertarian conservative. Masonically, there is no sure evidence of Burke's membership, though he is thought to have belonged to Jerusalem Lodge No. 44, Clerkenwell, London, sometimes referred to as "Burke's Lodge." Members of this Lodge made John Wilkes a Mason while that worthy was in prison, in 1769.
His treatise on Defence of the Colonists in America was required reading in public high schools in Washington, DC in the 1930s."
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