Each year, nearly 5 million people visit the American Museum of Natural History.
Most pass by a controversial statue memorializing former governor of New
York and U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt.
It's hard to get perspective on the statue. You really have to be standing in the park across the street
to actually get much perspective. And when you do, you see this kind of heroic
figure on top of the horse—Teddy Roosevelt as we've come to know him and love him,
with a bandana and his Rough Rider kind of gear.
And then there's the two figures, which I think many people miss. This Indian figure on one
side, an African figure on the other. There's something that's itchy about this
statue, that rubs us the wrong way, that's just not quite right.
I started to look at this statue. I was just thinking tick you see the horse is like oh but dang I
started paying attention to the people and I was like oh like there's one
person at the top and then the other two are at the bottom it's a beautifully
rendered equestrian statue but the symbolism of the statue is always
problematic first impressions of the statue are that it's a magnificent piece
of work and that it's massive it's a reminder of this country's
history and what we don't want to talk about it solidified what happened to
some of my own ancestors it could be seen as a friendship I know it looks
good right in front of museum also so I'm not you know it's a nice it's a nice
now you can take nice selfies thank the African is naked or practically naked
we're calling them a primitive Society I know it hurts a lot of my people in
particular it hurts a lot of minorities in general people have protested the
statue for decades and today these voices are intensifying their demands
that we which of course come down when I look at the statue
I do see a commentary about white supremacy it has acquired that
reputation as being a monument to racial supremacy it represents
a racial hierarchy and it pains me that that might be part of the experience
entering the museum the fact that monuments in Memorial in New York are
controversial isn't new they often become because it's public space sites
of protest places to rally places to celebrate that is the role of public
space it's a space of contestation statues are powerful things and we're
taking a hard look at our history and how do we deal with that after Roosevelt
died in 1919 the state of New York set out to create a memorial to honor
him as a nature lover Explorer an author of Natural History the state of New York
wanted to memorialize TR as one of the great New Yorkers it made sense to the
Museum of Natural History because the Roosevelts had such a great
history here our Charter was signed in 1869 in his father's parlor he was a
blueblood kid from a aristocratic New York family who goes on to live rough on
the range as the kind of cowboy there's the Rough Rider legacy of him on San
Juan Hill that makes him a war hero at the time he was a larger-than-life
adventure hero type of figure yes he was a naturalist yes he was a kind of
Explorer but he was also the president he is our great conservation president
during his tenure in office he saved over 234 million acres of wild America
places like the Grand Canyon muir woods this is part of the enduring legacy of
Theodore Roosevelt architect John Russell Pope won a competition to design
the memorial at the Museum consisting of a new building murals and other works of
art sculptor James Earle Fraser was chosen to execute Pope's vision of the
statue which was unveiled in 1940 Pope's specified an equestrian monument
Roosevelt on the horse and two figures standing next
and the entire group not just Roosevelt was intended to be heroic the
allegorical figures and these are Frazier's words may stand for
Roosevelt's friendliness to all races the figures represent the continents on
which he hunted as other gun bearers or guides or both people referred to this
figure as an african-american that's totally impossible
we know he represented the continent of Africa the African figure is conjectural
in a way sort of not known so you get a sort of classical kind of body figure
very stripped down without much in the way of accoutrements a sort of robe that
leaves the figure more exposed the Indian figure has detail on it the
blanket it has beautiful medallion the headdress has some detail in it so the
Indian figure is known in that sense he was probably intended to represent a
Plains Indian warrior there's a kind of freedom of interpretation because it
represents more than a single portrait it's a composite of many tribes the
positive aspect of the statues is that it's done with great skill the artist
was very competent and knew how to show his vault as the powerful figure by
putting everybody else in his wake here was Theodore Roosevelt great American
figure stalwart riding on his horse I mean he's holding the horse that's
reined always to me seems like a narrative of domestication like the
horse has been tamed the Native American the indigenous populations had been
tamed the conquest of the African continent was also about sort of taming
the savage right the savage beasts and that was the narrative that was
communicated to me through an American Indian person looking at the monument
there's an experience of pain that comes with it Indian figures sort of cast as
the sort of vanishing disappearing figure of the past to see that
representation and to understand that the representation has had all kinds of
consequences it's not a pleasant experience
I don't feel offended by this - I feel like they did something wrong
with the statue it's it's not right maybe the intention had been to make
awareness of Native Americans and Africans but it just came off all wrong
it would have been better if the two guys were both on horses and then it
would have been like we're all like equal and all the same the sculptor
James Earle Fraser I don't think he means a slight against Native America or
Africa but we are so distant from his mind as living cultures where the
symbols of primitivism were the symbols of nature I think their faces are
dignified but you know at what cost because unis they didn't seem like free
men I see colonial power the standing figures were taken to somehow be lesser
than Roosevelt because he's on the horse and they're standing on the ground that
of course looks extremely prejudicial that's how we would see it today if we
see it in the historical context and we see the two standing figures as having
allegorical content both representing continents and representing figures who
would have assisted Roosevelt on his hunt and then we see it in a different
context I think Fraser as a sculptor meant to depict them in a very
sympathetic way with dignity you know you don't see the cigar store Indian as
as they were called you don't see you know the comic African with the bone and
his nose it's a beautifully crafted work of art but there's always an aesthetics
to race Roosevelt was seen as a champion of conservationists science
conservationism gave us our National Park System and Roosevelt's probably
best remembered for that most people don't know that a lot of these national
parks were made possible by the evacuation of indigenous populations
Roosevelt says something like this I'm not gonna go so far as to say
that the only good Indian is a dead Indian but in nine of ten cases I
believe that to be the case and in the tenth case well you know so you couldn't
call him a friend of the Indian I would absolutely call Theodore Roosevelt a
racist his views on race come out of his last position come from a certain moment
where that particular class had an extraordinary amount of wealth and power
at the turn of the 20th century you have to look at people at their time period
and Theodore Roosevelt 1901 to 1909 if you're comparing him he was quite
enlightened and he invited Booker T Washington to the White House and this
created a huge outrage never before at African Americans sat in
the White House and TR got hammered for this after his presidency Theodore
Roosevelt goes to Africa who else in America was doing that on the other hand
he was an imperialist figure there when you read some of his writings you cringe
because it has such a feeling of white supremacy it shows a portrait of
somebody feeling that tribal people of Africa are not very high on his
Darwinian scale he had very specific views around which
races the Nordic the Alpine were going to lead civilization forward and then
there were those that you didn't want to mate with Roosevelt was very much a part
of that debate around whether or not you could actually breed better humans this
feels called eugenics which also became very popular the American Museum of
Natural History was also involved in this misguided movement hosting two
conferences with displays in the 1920s and 1930s
you can take your pick of American presidents who have perpetuated the
theories of racial segregation and racial subordination he wouldn't be the
first that would come to mind but the placement of the statue the existence of
the monument the dialogue that it generates with the public combined with
the colonial framing of the museum itself is what makes it distinctive and
that's what makes it so problematic I've been here for parts of five decades and
in every one of those decades we've had protests against the tr statue the
political reality is that that statue is where it is because that's where the
state of New York wanted it I think statue should be where they are
should this be on a Main Street should just be on a funded museum no I will put
a dinosaur over here something anything else about this I'll leave it up for
sure there's still a part of history I don't believe they should be destroyed
but I definitely think they should be taken down leave it as it is and that it
you know that it represent the time that it was made and we know better now I
think I would I would move it inside the museum and put something else here I
don't know if it necessarily needs to be taken down because if we if we take it
down then we erase what happened and we cannot really erase what happened we've
just got to like be able to move forward in 2017 the mayor of New York formed a
commission to examine troubling monuments throughout the city but the
Commission was unable to come to a consensus on what to do about the
Roosevelt statue the mayor decided the statue would remain with additional
context and the possibility of adding new works of art I voted to remove the
statue I thought it should be removed elsewhere on grounds not be removed
entirely but moved elsewhere and then contextualise I personally would be
opposed to removing things I think it's better to expand the people that are
being all in our public spaces I would remove it
from public view I think it would be a long overdue act of racial healing in
this city I don't think it deserves to really occupy that prominent position
any longer I'm not inclined to tear things down because I really sincerely
believe it erases history and history is hard and unpleasant but we need to talk
about it I think it's wonderful that there is a conversation about what we're
seeing because there are so many different views now and I think the
conversation can change because of Education and what we hope for in the
future so I mean that's the power of sculpture says the sculptor museums
should not simplify stories we should complicate them Teddy Roosevelt deserves
to be memorialized for his contributions to conservation
we should also acknowledge his race politics these were complicated figures
it's not an attack on the legacy of Roosevelt but it is a request that we
think about what we put on display in light of what we do and how we think of
how we feel in the in the present moment let's think about sort of ways in which
we commemorate but also look to the future now that our politics are
becoming more diverse people are asking can we have different representations of
people and events and histories not a single history but multiple histories
and monuments and markers in the United States I think can speak to those
multiple histories
you