Frederick Douglass Memorial
Artist:Koren, Gabriel, sculptor
With: Miller, Algernon, 1945-, site and fountain designer, Quennell Rothschild & Partners, architect, Polich-Tallix, founder
Status: In Situ and Within Central Park
Title: Frederick Douglass Memorial
Dates: Sculpture: 2009; Installed June 2010; Dedicated September 20, 2011.
Medium: Bronze, brass, and stainless steel
Dimensions: Sculpture: 8 ft. x 48 in. x 48 in.
Inscription: Granite block 1: BORN FREDERICK AUGUSTUS BAILEY, 1818, TALBOT COUNTY, MARYLAND. /
Granite block 2: MARRIED ANNA MURRAY IN 1838, WHO DIED IN 1882. /
Granite block 3: MARRIED HELEN PITTS IN 1884. /
Granite block 4: “WHATEVER MAY BE SAID AS TO A DIVISION OF DUTIES AND AVOCATIONS, / THE RIGHTS OF MAN AND THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN ARE ONE AND / INSEPARABLE, AND STAND UPON THE SAME INDESTRUCTABLE BASIS.” – 1851 /
Granite block 5: “THE FLIGHT WAS A BOLD AND PERILOUS ONE; BUT HERE / I AM, IN THE GREAT CITY OF NEW YORK, SAFE AND SOUND, / WITHOUT THE LOSS OF BLOOD OR BONE.” – 1855 /
Granite block 6: “SUCH IS MY DETESTATION OF SLAVERY, THAT I WOULD KEEP THE MERCILESS SLAVEHOLDER PROFOUNDLY IGNORANT OF THE MEANS OF FLIGHT / ADOPTED BY THE SLAVE. HE SHOULD BE LEFT TO IMAGINE HIMSELF SURROUNDED BY MYRIADS OF INVISIBLE TORMENTORS…” – 1855 /
Granite block 7: “OF MY FATHER I KNOW NOTHING. SLAVERY HAD NO RECOGNITION / OF FATHERS, AS NONE OF FAMILIES.” – 1845 /
Granite block 8: “IF THERE IS NO STRUGGLE THERE IS NO PROGRESS. / THOSE WHO PROFESS TO FAVOR FREEDOM AND / YET DEPRECATE AGITATION…WANT CROPS WITHOUT / PLOWING UP THE GROUND…THEY WANT THE OCEAN / WITHOUT THE AWEFUL ROAR OF ITS MANY WATERS…POWER / CONCEDES NOTHING WITHOUT A DEMAND.” – 1857 /
Pavement: RIGHT IS OF NO SEX – TRUTH IS OF NO COLOR – GOD IS THE FATHER OF US ALL, AND WE ARE ALL BRETHREN / MASTHEAD OF THE NORTH STAR /
Fountain, north side: FREDERICK DOUGLASS / 1818-1895 / BORN INTO SLAVERY IN MARYLAND, FREDERICK / BAILEY FOUND THE WAY TO FREEDOM ALONG THE / UNDERGROUND RAILROAD IN 1838. DISGUISED AS A / SAILOR, HE TRAVELED TO MANHATTAN BY SHIP, AND FOUND SHELTER AT THE HOUSE OF ABOLITIONIST / DAVID RUGGLES ON LISPENARD STREET. THERE, HE / AWAITED THE ARRIVAL OF HIS FIANCEE, ANNA / MURRAY, A FREE BLACK WOMAN FROM MARYLAND. / THEY MARRIED, AND TOGETHER CONTINUED / BAILEY’S FREEDOM JOURNEY TO MASSACHUSETTS, WHERE HE CHANGED HIS NAME TO DOUGLASS. / LAUDED FOR HIS ORATION, HE BECAME A PROMINENT / ABOLITIONIST AND PURCHASED HIS LEGAL FREEDOM / FROM SLAVERY. / PUBLISHER OF THE ABOLITIONIST / JOURNAL THE NORTH STAR, HE CHAMPIONED / FREEDOM FOR ALL AMERICANS AND ENDORSED / WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE. DOUGLASS LATER HELD POSTS / AS ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE SANTO DOMINGO / COMMISSION (1871), MARSHALL OF THE DISTRICT OF / COLUMBIA (1877-1881) AND U.S. MINISTER TO HAITI / (1889-1891). FOLLOWING THE DEATH OF HIS WIFE / IN 1884, DOUGLASS MARRIED HELEN PITTS. HE DIED / IN WASHINGTON, D.C. ON FEBRUARY 20, 1895. /
Fountain, south side: GABRIEL KOREN, SCULPTOR / ALGERNON MILLER, SITE ARTIST / DECEMBER 2005 /
Description: Heroic scale bronze figure, bronze fountain wall, and decorative paving and seating blocks.
Owner: City of New York, Department of Parks and Recreation, New York, New York.
Located Central Park North and Frederick Douglass Boulevard,, New York, New York.
Donor: Percent for Art, Department of Cultural Affairs.
Remarks: This memorial honors the abolitionist, writer, and statesperson Frederick Douglass (1818-1895). In 1950 the site, located at the northwest border of Central Park was named for Douglass, but a 1970s master plan was never implemented and it sat undeveloped for decades .In the mid to late 1990s, a series of community-based design workshops organized by the Central Park Conservancy and later the Cityscape Institute led to a design competition in 2003, which was won by a collaborative proposal submitted by Harlem-based artist Algernon Miller and Hungarian-born sculptor Gabriel Koren. Miller’s overall site design included granite seating and paving patterns based on traditional African-American quilt motifs, as well as a bronze perimeter fence with a wagon wheel motif. He also responded to the design competition guidelines with a bronze water wall depicting the Big Dipper constellation that guided those on the “underground railroad.” Koren crafted a standing bronze portrait of Douglass, inspired by nineteenth-century photographs.