Charles Sumner

Anne Whitney
American, 1821-1915
Charles Sumner
c. 1874
Plaster

Charles Sumner (1811-1874) was a Massachusetts U.S. senator from 1852-74 who was dedicated to the abolition of slavery. On May 22, 1856, South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks beat Sumner with a cane in the Senate Chamber in response to Sumner’s scathing speech that condemned slavery and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. It took Sumner three years to recover from the attack, but he remained a senator for many years after.

Shortly after Sumner’s death in 1874, the Boston Art Committee announced a competition for a memorial statue to honor Sumner. Anne Whitney, who greatly admired Sumner and was an abolitionist herself, submitted an anonymous entry to the competition. Her entry won, but when the Boston Art Committee learned that the artist was a woman, they instead awarded it to their second-choice design by Thomas Ball. That sculpture now stands in the Boston Public Garden. Decades later, an anonymous donor funded a bronze version of Whitney’s statue, now located in Harvard Square, Harvard College being Sumner’s alma mater. Many commented that Whitney’s sculpture, which shows him seated and pensive, captured the spirit of Sumner. In the bronze version in Harvard Square, Sumner holds a book in his hand.

This statue of Charles Sumner is visible in photographs of the Tufts Library reading room dating from 1893 and 1894 from the Weymouth Public Libraries Historical Photography Collection. The portrait bust of Henry Chapman, husband of Maria Weston Chapman, located in the Quiet Room, is also by Anne Whitney.

Sources

"Anne Whitney." Britannica Library, Encyclopædia Britannica, 8 July 2009. https://library.eb.com/levels/referencecenter/article/Anne-Whitney/126039. Accessed 21 November 2020.

"Charles Sumner." Britannica Library, Encyclopædia Britannica, 20 July 1998. http://library.eb.com/levels/referencecenter/article/Charles-Sumner/70314. Accessed 21 November 2020.

Murphy, Dan. “Sculptor Paying Tribute to Charles Sumner Faced Sexism.” Beacon Hill Times, 12 March 2020. https://beaconhilltimes.com/2020/03/12/sculptor-paying-tribute-to-charle.... Accessed 21 November 2020.

Paiva, Walter N. “A Tale of Two Statues.” The Crimson, 4 February 2018.  https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2018/2/8/charles-sumner-anne-whitney/. Accessed 21 November 2020.

United States Senate. “The Kansas-Nebraska Act,” United States Senate. https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Kansas_Nebraska_Act.htm. Accessed 25 November 2020.