The Four Freedoms Monument - Madison, FL - Smithsonian Art Inventory Sculptures on Waymarking.com

This lovely sculpture is the namesake of the park in which its located. The park is located across from the Madison County Courthouse and is a popular gathering location in the city of Madison.

Smithsonian Art Inventory Description: "Four robed angels, two male and two female, face outward with their backs to one another. Each is in a different activity --praying, holding a sword, holding a document, or holding grapes. The angels have long wings which extend upward, the tips of which touch those of the other angels on either side. The sculpture is mounted atop a tall, multitiered base with a plaque."

Smithsonian Art Inventory Inscription: "(On lower front of sculpture:) 19 (copyright symbol) 43 by Walter Russell (On bronze plaque, front of base:) A tribute from the nation to honor Colin Kelly, first American hero of World War II, 1915-1941. Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. signed"

From the Madison County, Florida website:

The Four Freedoms are goals articulated by President Franklin Roosevelt in the State of the Union Address he delivered to Congress on January 6, 1941. In the address, Roosevelt enumerated four points as fundamental freedoms humans "everywhere in the world" ought to enjoy:

"In the future days which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression -- everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of worship. That is, freedom of every person to worship whomever (be it God, or any other deity/deities) in his own way -- everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want, which translated into world terms, means economic understanding which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants -- everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor -- anywhere in the world. That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called "new order" of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb."

President Roosevelt commissioned sculptor Walter A. Russell to create the Four Freedoms Monument to be dedicated to the first hero of World War II. This beautiful statue was dedicated to Captain Colin P. Kelly in 1943 at Madison Square Garden in New York City before a crowd of 60,000. On June 14, 1944 the monument was re-dedicated in Kelly's hometown of Madison, Florida with a speech by Florida Governor Spessard Holland.

TITLE: The Four Freedoms Monument ARTIST(S): Walter Russell, sculptor. DATE: Copyrighted 1943. Dedicated June 14, 1944. MEDIUM: Sculpture: cast stone (marble aggregate in cement); Base: masonry. CONTROL NUMBER: IAS FL000460 Direct Link to the Individual Listing in the Smithsonian Art Inventory: [Web Link] PHYSICAL LOCATION: Four Freedoms Park, Corner of Range Street & Highway 90 West, Madison, Florida. DIFFERENCES NOTED BETWEEN THE INVENTORY LISTING AND YOUR OBSERVATIONS AND RESEARCH: None noted.

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