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Secondary sourceSculptureDesigned 1885, cast 1886, installed 13 May 1886

Statue of William Lloyd Garrison

Olin Levi Warner · Designed 1885, cast 1886, installed 13 May 1886

A bronze seated statue of Garrison on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, by sculptor Olin Levi Warner. It was installed in 1886 and is one of the main public monuments to him.

A public monument to Garrison erected by his contemporaries, showing how he was honored in Boston after his death.

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Bronze seated statue of a man in a suit and chair, mounted on a granite pedestal inscribed with words, in a city street with red brick buildings and bare trees under blue sky.
Olin Levi Warner, Statue of William Lloyd Garrison, 1886. Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts.

About this source

What it is

This is a bronze seated statue of William Lloyd Garrison by Olin Levi Warner. It shows a man in a suit and chair, mounted on a Quincy granite pedestal designed by architect Joseph Morrill Wells. The statue was designed in 1885, cast in 1886 and installed on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston on May 13 of that year. The inscription 'I will be heard' appears on the monument. The statue was surveyed in 1993 as part of the Smithsonian Institution's Save Outdoor Sculpture program.

Why it matters

Statues like this show how Garrison's contemporaries chose to remember him after his death. The monument stands in a major Boston street, the same city that had once turned against him. Students can see how a later generation chose to honor an abolitionist in public space.

Look closer

  • What does the pose and the seated figure suggest about how the sculptor wanted Garrison to be remembered?
  • Why might the inscription 'I will be heard' have been chosen for the pedestal?
  • Whose voices are missing from a monument like this, and who decided what it would show?

This sculpture is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of William Lloyd Garrison on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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