Statue of George Washington (Seattle)

Statue of George Washington in Seattle, Washington, U.S.

Statue of George Washington

View from the southwest in 2015

Artist| Lorado Taft
Year| 1909 (1909)
Type| Sculpture
Subject| George Washington
Location| Seattle, Washington, United States
Coordinates| 47°39′22″N 122°18′40″W﻿ / ﻿47.656072°N 122.311131°W﻿ / 47.656072; -122.311131

George Washington, also known as the President George Washington Monument,[1] is a bronze sculpture of George Washington by Lorado Taft, installed at the University of Washington campus in Seattle's University District, in the U.S. state of Washington.

## History

[edit]

### Construction and dedication

[edit]

The statue was dedicated on Flag Day, June 14, 1909, during the Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition.[2] Its permanent 24-foot (7.3 m) pedestal was built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and installed in August 1938.[3] The pedestal had been designed by Taft in 1908 but was not funded in time for the exposition.[4]

Located a short distance west of Red Square, the statue faces west, toward The Brothers of the Olympic Mountains.

### 21st century

[edit]

During the George Floyd protests, A number of student led organizations at the University of Washington called for the statue's removal due to George Washington’s ownership of slaves. Most notably, the Black Student Union and the Black Lives Matter coalition (UW BLM) publicly spoke out against the statue. UW BLM staged a month-long protest of the statue in August 2020, vandalizing the statue every day, by spray-painting it, to induce a response from the administration.[5]

The university's student newspaper The Daily also called for the removal of the statue in an op-ed, noting that a petition to remove the statue has reached over 3,000 signatures. This petition asked for the George Washington statue to be replaced with a Black Power fist and to rename the nearby George Cafe to the Juneteenth Cafe.[6] According to a 2021 poll conducted by KING 5 News that surveyed 650 Washingtonians, 59% wanted the statue to remain, 29% wanted the statue removed, and 11% were unsure.[7]

## See also

[edit]

* Visual arts portal

* 1909 in art
* Campus of the University of Washington
* Cultural depictions of George Washington
* List of monuments dedicated to George Washington
* List of sculptures of presidents of the United States
* List of statues of George Washington
* List of the tallest statues in the United States

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "George Washington, (sculpture)". Smithsonian Institution. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
2. ^ "George Washington Statue". University of Washington. Archived from the original on September 8, 2015. Retrieved January 2, 2015.
3. ^ "Statue Takes Foot Off Coin". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. August 10, 1938. p. 10.
4. ^ "Washington to Climb Heights on U. Campus". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. March 20, 1938. p. 8.
5. ^ Keimig, Jasmyne (August 14, 2020). "UW Protesters Embark on Month-Long Art Installation at George Washington Statue". The Stranger. Archived from the original on October 1, 2020. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
6. ^ Krieg, Hannah (July 14, 2020). "The petition to remove the George Washington statue and the larger conversation of a white-centric campus". The Daily of the University of Washington. Archived from the original on October 20, 2020. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
7. ^ Swaby, Natalie (February 16, 2021). "UW Black Student Union pushes for removal of George Washington statue". king5.com.

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to George Washington statue, University of Washington.

* George Washington Statue, University of Washington – Seattle, WA at Waymarking

* v
* t
* e

Lorado Taft

Sculptures|

* LaFayette Fountain
* Black Hawk Statue
* Eternal Silence
* Statue of George Washington
* Columbus Fountain
* Fountain of the Great Lakes
* The Solitude of the Soul
* The Soldiers' Monument
* Thatcher Memorial Fountain
* Fountain of Time
* The Recording Angel
* Lincoln the Lawyer
* The Pioneers
* Alma Mater
* Frances Elizabeth Willard
* The Crusader
* Heald Square Monument

Related|

* Taft family
* Emily Taft Douglas (daughter)
* Eagle's Nest Art Colony
* Lorado Taft Midway Studios

* v
* t
* e

Public art in Seattle

Works|

* A Sound Garden
* Adam
* Adjacent, Against, Upon
* AIDS Memorial Pathway
* American Doughboy Bringing Home Victory
* Angie's Umbrella
* Birthplace of Seattle Monument
* Black Lightning
* Black Lives Matter street mural
* Capitol Hill
* City Hall
* Black Sun
* Broken Obelisk
* Centennial Fountain
* Changing Form
* Dancer with Flat Hat
* Dancer's Series: Steps
* Fallen Firefighters Memorial
* Farmer's Pole
* Fountain of Creation
* Fountain of Reflection
* Fountain of the Northwest
* Fountain of Wisdom
* Fremont Rocket
* Fremont Troll
* Grass Blades
* Hammering Man
* Hat 'n' Boots
* Historic Chinatown Gate
* Homeless Jesus
* Hot Rat Summer
* Impatient Optimist
* International Fountain
* Jet Kiss
* Joshua Green Fountain
* Kobe Bell
* Lady Rainier
* Loo Wit
* Lundeberg Derby Monument
* Made in USA
* Mirall
* The Mitt
* Moses (2/3)
* Naramore Fountain
* Nine Spaces Nine Trees
* Olympic Iliad
* The People's Wall
* Pioneer Square totem pole
* Prefontaine Fountain
* Rachel
* Rainbow crossings
* The Red Popsicle
* Sasquatch Pushing Over a House
* Seattle Center Totem
* Seattle Fishermen's Memorial
* Seattle Garden
* Seattle George Monument
* Seattle Monolith
* The Seattle Mural
* Shear Draft
* Sonic Bloom
* Soul Pole
* Statue of Liberty
* Straight Shot
* Thomas Burke Monument
* Three Piece Sculpture: Vertebrae
* United Confederate Veterans Memorial†
* Untitled
* Kelly
* Shapiro
* Untitled Totem Pole
* Urban Garden
* Waiting for the Interurban
* The Wall of Death
* Waterfront Fountain
* Waterworks
* Wind Cradle

| Olympic
Sculpture
Park|

* Bunyon's Chess
* Curve XXIV
* Eagle
* Echo
* Eye Benches I, II and III
* Father and Son
* Love & Loss
* Mary's Invitation – A Place to Regard Beauty
* Neukom Vivarium
* Perre's Ventaglio III
* Persephone Unbound
* Riviera†
* Schubert Sonata
* Seattle Cloud Cover
* Sky Landscape I
* Split
* Stinger
* Two Plane Vertical Horizontal Variation III
* Typewriter Eraser, Scale X†
* Untitled (McMakin)
* Wake
* Wandering Rocks

|

Portrait
sculpture|

| Busts|

* Chief Seattle
* Edvard Grieg
* James J. Hill
* Henry M. Jackson
* Mark A. Matthews

|

Statues|

* Chief Seattle
* Christopher Columbus†
* Chris Cornell
* Leif Erikson
* Ivar Haglund
* Jimi Hendrix
* Don James
* Lenin
* John McGraw
* Jim Owens
* William H. Seward
* Sun Yat-Sen
* George Washington

Related|

* Graffiti in Seattle
* List of public art in Kirkland, Washington
* Public art of the Washington State Ferries system
* The Emperor Has No Balls

Key: † No longer extant or on public display

This article about a sculpture in Washington is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

|

* v
* t
* e

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template