Funky Find in Prospect Park: The Lafayette Memorial's Unusual Touch

Amidst Big Apple's storied monuments, a charm lies tucked in Brooklyn's Prospect Park - the Lafayette Memorial. This gilded piece, born from a 1895 will by a wise old Brooklynite named Henry Harteau, was crafted to honor Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, a French hero of the American Revolutionary War. But what seizes the gaze is not Gilbert alone, but the African American groom in the monument's heartfelt bronze relief, tenderly seeing to his horse. So, the next time you wander Prospect Park, don't overlook the Lafayette Memorial - a shout-out to the black soldiers who rocked the American Revolutionary War. Scholars have been bickering over this groom's identity, with some chucking out James Armistead Lafayette, a freed African-American who fought along Gilbert during the war, as a possible candidate.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons