By Carol Tannenhauser
Walking past the American Museum of Natural History, between 77th and 81st Streets on Central Park West, on Thursday afternoon, I noticed … nothing.
The large, dark-green, painted-plywood box is gone, and so is the statue that it once encased. Deemed “racist” by some in its depiction of Theodore Roosevelt in relation to his guides, who were Black and Native-American, the statue was removed in January 2022, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests, after standing in that spot for more than 80 years.
In its place is a large plaque, reading:
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
MEMORIAL
(1858-1919)
IN HONOR OF
NEW YORK STATE’S 33RD GOVERNOR
THE NATION’S 26TH PRESIDENT
AWARDED NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENT
AUTHOR AND NATURALIST
A man and his small son were looking at the plaque.
“There was a statue there,” I told the man, who was surprised and said “Really?”
The Museum’s facade looks as if it has been cleaned; it is sparkling and the plaza has a new, wide-open feeling.
Speaking of open, we are awaiting word from the Museum about when Theodore Roosevelt Park will be reopening. We will let you know.
Orwellian. Nauseating.
Orwellian, yes, but not necessarily in a bad way.
How so? We’re not rewriting history. We’re merely removing an historical artifact that many find offensive from a place of honor. The plan, I’ve heard, is to move it to another location where it may be studied in appropriate context without glorifying the racist aspects of the statue. That sounds like we’re encouraging introspection, doesn’t it? How’s that a bad thing?
Like WHAT is offensive about TR?
He BUILT the Museum!!
He…actually didn’t.
If you don’t get the offensiveness of the statute, that’s your right. TR was BORN in 1858, so he was 11 when the Museum was FOUNDED in 1869, which opened in the Arsenal in 1871. Construction of the building on CPW began in 1874 and the MUSEUM OPENED in 1877, when Rutherford Hayes was president and TR was all of 19!
I think it has been moved inside, to one of the galleries.
Sad the statue was removed.
Orwellian is the perfect word.
If I’m honest, I’m glad that thing is gone. It never sat right with me. You can say they were his guides, but they were clearly cast as inferiors. Walking past it felt about like walking past a statue that celebrated a confederate general. It was a throwback to an era when racism was so prevalent that even pretty liberal minded people didn’t notice. It sat for 80 years, do we want to use the perspective of 80 years ago as our guide for what’s right today?
You can’t erase history. You can only learn from it.
And you definitely cannot use the values of today and apply them to what the values were one hundred years ago.
Our values of today are our values. How will those values be looked at by our great great grandchildren, a hundred years from now?
Removing a statue doesn’t rewrite history or negate it, it just stops honoring them. PERIOD
Spot on, Diego. thank you for your clarity
They were cast as guides. TR is on a horse because he was a rough rider. Not inferior in the least, more like honorable helpers. Even as a child I never understood why statues of Confederate generals would be allowed to remain, and I’m glad they have all been removed, these were arrogant racist men who fought to be slave owners and broke away from this country. They should all rot. But this statue is fine. Terrible what ONE person decided at the museum to do.
You are right! Amazing how people interpret things to fit their agenda!
Theodore Roosevelt never wanted a statue of himself. Especially not one on a horse. HE SAID THAT HIMSELF. And getting rid of a statue does not erase history. He’s still a great president. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/23/theodore-roosevelt-would-be-first-agree-his-statue-should-come-down/
Isn’t that just another form of censorship… ? Same as erasing certain history from history textbooks. This doesn’t look like democracy to me. Wouldn’t it have been better to keep that in place and provide an explanation on the past and the “progress” humans have made now in terms of racial justice, etc.?
1984 was written as a warning, Liberals use it as a how to manual.
We have never had such a liar in the White House as Trump- throwing innocent children into cages because their parents are seeking a better life for them is even worse than Orwellian-it’s disgustingly fascist. The right wing doesn’t want to women to control their own bodies-also Orwellian, if you ask me. The right seems much more guilty of Orwellian behavior- banning books left and right because they are so afraid their children will learn some of the more shameful aspects of our nation’s history, or that gay people exist. NOW THAT”S ORWELLIAN. Thanks, right wingers!!
Right, right, the “conservative” party that ran on banning books, banning discussion of gay people, and overturning free elections is the champion of freedom. Eye roll.
The left has been banning books for decades (Huck Finn, western classics by Greek philosophers). They ban “offensive” speakers from college campuses, and they deny elections (2000, 2004, 2016, 2018).
It is not “censoring” to critique literature. Huck Finn can be found in every library. People are literally pulling books off the shelf of public libraries, there was even an armed mob trying to intimidate librarians who might have a book on the shelf with a gay character. The right is much more guilty of censorship. it is pretty well documented.
College students throwing a fit is banning, but actual lawmakers prohibiting free speech and removing books from libraries is ok? The right is good at attacking others but not so much at looking in the mirror.
Deny elections? Seriously? Who stormed the Capitol Building in 2020?
Exactly!!!
Yes. I distinctly remember the scene in 1984 where Orwell wrote about how they changed a statue about the war against Eastasia into a plaque detailing what happened in Eastasia. It was very dystopian.
No one erased TR. They just took him off his horse. You can still take a selfie with his statue on the bench on the ground floor if that’s your thing. It’s right under Oceania. I mean, the room with the Seas exhibit and the whale.
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” — 1984 (Part 2, Section 5)
Ummm….there is a plaque celebrating the life of Teddy Roosevelt in the same spot as the statue…indeed, the entire main entrance to the museum is still devoted to TR. An art object which caused a great deal of controversy and debate has been removed. Not exactly sure we are living in an Orwellian hellscape and feel as if your comment verges on hyperbole.
They took him off his horse lording over the Native Americans and replaced it with a plaque saying he was the President, the Governor, the Nobel Laureate, and more.
What was falsified here? What date was altered? How was history rewritten in a way that matters to you?
…. Oh. Got it.
Exactly. If there was a distortion of history it was the stereotyped “guides” which bore no resemblance to actual people or events.
In that respect removal of the statue is the opposite of Orwellian.
Sad that the statue that stood for 80 years, and was erected without malice of intent,
was removed.
The removal of the statue is some kind of agitprop.
BUT the plaque feels more fitting. Honestly it’s easier to enter the museum at CPW without the giant statue taking up so much frontage. And I think it better honors TRs legacy for people to directly see his name and a quick list of accomplishments as they enter from that side.
No President ever did as much for conservation as TR. Who knows what he would have thought of the statue, which was cast long after he passed.
It’s a disgrace that the statue was removed. Shame on the museum.
Of course nobody paid attention to the sculptor or the architect’s intention or explanation of the statue.
“The two figures at [Roosevelt’s] side are guides symbolizing the continents of Africa and America, and if you choose may stand for Roosevelt’s friendliness to all races.” —Sculptor James Earle Fraser, 1940
“In the center of the terrace…will arise a polished granite pedestal bearing an equestrian statue of Roosevelt with two accompanying figures on foot, one representing the American Indian and the other the primitive African. This heroic group…will symbolize the fearless leadership, the explorer, benefactor and educator….”—From a description of the architect – John Russell Pope design approved by the Memorial Commission, 1928
It would nice if people did a little research before tearing down a beautiful piece of art. James Earle Fraser deserves better. Look at his other sculptures, notably End of the Trail and tell me this was a work of a racist man…
We have Pope, the designer, who wrote , “the primitive African”, which actually troubled me, in contrast to Fraser, the sculptor, who wrote of Roosevelt’s “friendliness to all races”. How much of Pope’s design did Fraser actually follow and how much did Fraser try to show Roosevelt’s humanism and actual anti-racism? I would like to learn more about what Fraser was really trying to do in following follow Pope’s design while trying to get away from his “primitive African” insult. Above all, we should not judge an 80 year old statue by the norms of today.
But I would much prefer to have kept the statue and made it a history lesson by posting more about it right on site. To understand what I am trying to say, please look at the diorama on the ground floor showing what it describes as the Lenape Indians “selling” Manhattan to the Dutch Colonists. They kept the diorama “as is” but explained all the things that were wrong with it, which in my opinion made the exhibition much more powerful and authentic.
It was 1928 when the word primitive was used to describe Africans. We used the words colored or Negro to describe blacks in this country back then. Did that make everyone racist? I doubt there was any malice intended on Pope’s part.
John E., In my lifetime I have used “Colored” (as in NAACP), “Negro”, “African-American” and “Black”. I am happy to use any of these terms that Black people may prefer at a given time. But I find “primitive” to be as insulting as the “N” word.
John, you are a hoot! The “primitive African” is a description based on Pope’s idea of race. C’mon man. You did the work of getting the quote, but not reading it critically.
Do you really think you can “critically” call Pope out as a racist because he used the word “primitive” to describe Africans back in 1928? You’re a hoot. I bet if Pope used the words colored or Negro, you would come to the same conclusion. Try reading a few history books before you comment.
The entrance looks much more welcoming now. The giant striding horse and unsmiling men, TR with his hand on his gun,…it looked intimidating. It in no way represented the contents of the museum or its mission. Or even TR’s mission for the museum. It was a bad allegory. and, yes, it WAS offensive.
How do you all feel about the statue of J. Marion Sims that was taken down? We’re not erasing history, we’re setting an example for our kids to say our history is complicated and ripe with trauma at every turn and it’s ok to re-examine our histories and the figures we looked up to at one point in time. Folks who we celebrated might change when we get all of the information we didn’t have before. I’m sure everyone on this site remembers a time when Bill Cosby was “Americas father”. I’ll take it one step further and say there was even a time when it was exciting to see Donald Trump around the city. My how times have changed, and so we must change with it.
The statues were beautiful, wonderfully “noble,” in their way. But they were also an enormous, sour reminder of the ills of our past worldviews too. It is good they are gone. We can see both sides, and appreciate that what we honor and what we declare as our monuments, can adapt.
I know they have found a new home far away from CPW. There is a part of me that wishes they were in the basement of the Museum with an explanation of their own history, so any student who wanted could see that old style in its grandeur and weirdness and understand that part of history too.
No history is being hidden. Refusing to certify fair elections is Orwellian. Moving a statue with agreement of the institution and of the family of the honored person, as this was, is not.
Getting rid of these statues or changing names etc does not change history at all. You can’t change the past. It only makes people more ignorant.
They should have taken the statue inside and made an exhibit about why it was moved. A missed opportunity to teach. And pretending it was never there is not the answer either.
But my question is, where is the statue now? It was supposed to go to South Dakota but I don’t think it did. Which begs the question, where did it go?
Should the enormous statue of Columbus at Columbus Circle and the name be removed too? I wonder what West Siders think of that. Unlike the Teddy Roosevelt statue, it’s one of the most prominent and memorable sites in Manhattan. I wonder how many years it has left?
Yes, we want it down and won’t stop until it’s gone
NYPD was stationing cops to protect the Columbus statue for months in 2020 and I believe they surround it on Columbus Day. So, yes, there is a large contingent of people who want it taken down.
Well then, how about removing “Columbus” from Columbus Ave. I’m sure those living on Columbus Ave. won’t mind the trouble of changing their address to Indigenous People Ave.
I don’t live on Columbus Ave, but if I did, I’d probably be fine with it, except for the length of the name. But would it make a difference in the real world? What New Yorker calls Sixth Ave Avenue of the Americas, or calls Seventh Ave Fashion Ave?
I’m not sure I get why so much stuff in the country is named after someone who never even set foot on it.
When I would meet my friend there, both of us professors, we would say “Meet you under the horse’s tail.” And we did. Now have to find another way to remind us what we are full of.
Glad to have “the box” finally gone, and hoping that means the topiary Christmas dinos will be back this year! They took last year off and I missed them
Wonderfully written little article. Food for thought in this rapidly shifting world. Thank you.
There is another plaque that is also displayed under and to the right of the larger one.
It says that the statue was erected by the state of New York after Roosevelt’s death. It was removed in 2022 after the City of New York , the Roosevelt family and the Museum agreed that the composition suggested racial hierarchy.
The African and Native American figures are described as “guides”, implying they had superior knowledge. But visually, the statue showed the commanding figure of Teddy on his horse, with the other two figures walking a step behind, as if he was leading them.
I thought the statue expressed the then-prevalent (but insulting) idea of Kipling’s “white man’s burden” — that Anglo-Saxons took responsibility for leading the “darker brothers” toward “civilization”. I love the Museum, but fumed every time I walked past the statue.
I think Roosevelt’s legacy is better represented in signage explicitly recognizing his accomplishments — not this statue which, as others noted, he never authorized.
And yes, people are complicated, and so is history.
Yes, I never saw the two walking figures as “guides.” As far as I knew, the African figure was carrying guns, as though serving the great white hunter. There is no way to read their presence in the ensemble as anything other than marked by subordination.
Why is the term racist in air quotes in this article? The statue was racist and offensive without the need to minimize the validity of the word. As an African American woman who has lived on the UWS for a number of years, I’m still amazed how so much racism in this neighborhood is cloaked in justification and righteous indication. Regardless of intent of the sculptor, the number of years that statue has loomed over CPW, or some of the positive impacts of TR’s presidency (which is now reflected appropriately in the plaque), the depiction was offensive. The “guides” were inferior and I personally prefer to not have a constant visual of this aspect of history. If people need a teaching moment, read a book, do some research, have the difficult discussions and talk about the state of so called “progress’ of today….but have some empathy for your neighbors who don’t think this statue is a beautiful reflection of history.
Thank you for your perspective, Disappointed. I think it’s possible to be of two minds, as I am, about the statue. To my mind (a) it is a striking and handsome piece of sculpture and an example of past-years Americana; and (b) it is an expression of outright racism that had no place at the entrance of a museum with a major emphasis on anthropology. I’m glad it’s gone but I’m glad it still exists in a more appropriate environment.
I wonder what TR himself would have thought of this statue kerfuffle? On other matters, he would be very happy with how the museum is doing and of course the national parks that he helped create. He would be happy with America’s increased concern for the environment in recent decades. My guess is that he would reject the idea that the statue was a kind of racist statement. But he would say that if the statue is detracting attention from what is really important, which is our natural world, then by all means take it down.
Happy it is gone. A lot of white people posting on here lol.
The statue lives on. From Wikipedia: “On June 21, 2021, the New York City Public Design Commission voted unanimously to remove the statue from in front of the museum and relocate it to an institution devoted to Roosevelt’s life and legacy.[4] On November 19, the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation announced it would accept the statue as a long-term loan from New York City for display at the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, scheduled to open in Medora, North Dakota, in 2026. Theodore Roosevelt IV said: “It is fitting that the statue is being relocated to a place where its composition can be recontextualized to facilitate difficult, complex and inclusive discussions.”
James Earle Fraser was not necessarily a bad artist. If you look at his sculpture pieces such as “The End of the Trail” or his coins like the Oregon Trail Memorial Half Dollar show a Indigenous culture that has been lost. The Buffalo Nickel is also iconic. I doubt Fraser would intend that the Teddy Roosevelt sculpture would be looked at in a racist context.
You’re absolutely right! James Earle Fraser would be rolling over in his grave right now. No work of art best describes the Native American’s plight in this country than The End of the Trail.
The statue was (or will be) moved to the TR Museum in, I think, one of the Dakotas.