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Robert Gould Shaw Memorial

Robert Gould Shaw Memorial

Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Photo: Rhododendrites · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Location
Boston Common, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Client / Owner
—
Year
Completed 1897
Access
Public
Typology
Cultural
Style
—

The Robert Gould Shaw Memorial is a bronze relief by Augustus Saint-Gaudens opposite 24 Beacon Street at the edge of Boston Common. It was unveiled on May 31, 1897, and the National Park Service owns it. The article lists 1884 as its year and names no architect.

The relief is 11 by 14 feet (3.4 by 4.3 meters). It shows Colonel Shaw on horseback with 23 Black soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, marching down Beacon Street on May 28, 1863. Saint-Gaudens used live models to individualize the faces. Shaw died on July 18, 1863, in the attack on Fort Wagner.

A restoration from 2020 to 2021 cost $2.8 million and gave it a new foundation. A plaster cast is held at the National Gallery of Art on loan from the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site.

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