Central Park In Bronze

Location: 83rd Street, east side

Artist/Designer: Carl H. Conrads

Materials: Westerly granite

Installation: 1880

Funding: Gift of John C. Hamilton, son of Alexander Hamilton

 

Hamilton, one of our Founding Fathers, was the author of most of the Federalist Papers. As our first Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton shaped the economic system of our country. But he may be best known for how he died: in a duel with Aaron Burr, then Vice President of the United States.

 

New York City has four statues of Hamilton; only George Washington is memorialized in this form more often. This statue is the gift of John C. Hamilton, the fourth son and fifth child of the statesman. John was 12 years old when Burr shot and killed his father in 1804.

 

While most of Central Park’s statues are bronze, artists make statues from a wide array of materials, from durable stone to ephemerals such as ice or sand. The German-born artist Conrads especially enjoyed working with granite. The sculptor may be best known for his memorial to Civil War soldiers, The American Volunteer, at Antietam National Cemetery.

 

To learn about Alexander Hamilton, see this biography: Alexander Hamilton Biography