Emancipation Memorial (Boston)
memorial by Thomas Ball
The Emancipation Memorial, also known as the Freedman's Memorial or the Emancipation Group, was a monument in Park Square in Boston. Designed and sculpted by Thomas Ball and erected in 1879, its sister statue is located in Lincoln Park in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The Boston statue was taken down by the City of Boston on December 29, 2020, following a unanimous vote from the Boston Art Commission on June 30 to remove the memorial.
Funding
Funds for the original statue built in Washington, D.C., in 1876 were raised by formerly enslaved people. The Western Sanitary Commission, a white-run, war-relief agency in St. Louis, managed the funds and design. The Boston replica was built in 1879 and installed in Park Square. Moses Kimball, a well-known public figure, public speaker, politician, and founder of the Boston Museum, donated The Emancipation Group to the city of Boston. Kimball commissioned Ball to duplicate a bronze recasting of the Freedmen's Memorial as a present from him to Boston.
Design and construction
The monument was designed by sculptor Thomas Ball, a native of the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston. Ball, an admirer of President Abraham Lincoln, intended to honor Lincoln and commemorate the historic Emancipation Proclamation with the memorial.
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