The bronze Paul Revere statue in Boston

In the heart of Massachusetts, an equestrian statue of Paul Revere stands as a monument to the legendary ride. The story of this sculpture is one of long persistence. In 1885, Cyrus Dallin won a competition to design the sculpture, beating out finalists such as Daniel Chester French and James E. Kelly of New York. Although the design was won then, the project was delayed for over 50 years due to a variety of circumstances.

It was not until 1940 that the George Robert White Fund Trustees accepted Dallin's model for casting and appropriated $27,500 for its execution in bronze. The statue was cast at the T. F. McGann Foundry in Somerville and dedicated on September 22, 1940. It rests on a Milford pink granite base designed by Y. Lovell Little and Raymond A. Porter.

During the decades that the project was stalled, Dallin executed several versions of the sculpture. Version number 6 is on display in the Cyrus Dallin Art Museum, while a version of number 5 was installed on a pedestal on the museum grounds in 2024. In 1993, the artwork was surveyed by the Smithsonian Institution's "Save Outdoor Sculpture!" program.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons