Roosevelt Statue to Be Removed From Museum of Natural History – The New York Times

The bronze statue of Theodore Roosevelt, on horseback and flanked by a Native American man and an African man, which has presided over the entrance to the American Museum of Natural History in New York since 1940, is coming down.

The decision, proposed by the museum and agreed to by New York City, which owns the building and property, came after years of objections from activists and at a time when the killing of George Floyd has initiated an urgent nationwide conversation about racism.

For many, the Equestrian statue at the museums Central Park West entrance had come to symbolize a painful legacy of colonial expansion and racial discrimination.

Over the last few weeks, our museum community has been profoundly moved by the ever-widening movement for racial justice that has emerged after the killing of George Floyd, the museums president, Ellen V. Futter, said in an interview. We have watched as the attention of the world and the country has increasingly turned to statues as powerful and hurtful symbols of systemic racism.

Simply put, she added, the time has come to move it.

The museum took action amid a heated national debate over the appropriateness of statues or monuments that first focused on Confederate symbols like Robert E. Lee and has now moved on to a wider arc of figures, from Christopher Columbus to Thomas Jefferson.

Last week alone, a crowd set fire to a statue of George Washington in Portland, Ore., before pulling it to the ground. Gunfire broke out during a protest in Albuquerque to demand the removal of a statue of Juan de Oate, the despotic conquistador of New Mexico. And New York City Council members demanded that a statue of Thomas Jefferson be removed from City Hall.

In many of those cases, the calls for removal were made by protesters who say the images are too offensive to stand as monuments to American history. The decision about the Roosevelt statue is different, made by a museum that, like others, had previously defended and preserved such portraits as relics of their time and that however objectionable, could perhaps serve to educate. It was then seconded by the city, which had the final say.

The American Museum of Natural History has asked to remove the Theodore Roosevelt statue because it explicitly depicts Black and Indigenous people as subjugated and racially inferior, Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement. The City supports the Museums request. It is the right decision and the right time to remove this problematic statue.

When the monument will be taken down, where it will go and what, if anything, will replace it, remain undetermined, officials said.

A Roosevelt family member, who is a trustee of the museum, released a statement approving of the removal.

The world does not need statues, relics of another age, that reflect neither the values of the person they intend to honor nor the values of equality and justice, said Theodore Roosevelt IV, a great-grandson of the 26th president and a member of the museums board of trustees. The composition of the Equestrian Statue does not reflect Theodore Roosevelts legacy. It is time to move the statue and move forward.

To be sure, the Roosevelt family did get something in return; the museum is naming its Hall of Biodiversity for Roosevelt in recognition of his conservation legacy, Ms. Futter said.

Ms. Futter also made a point of saying that the museum was only taking issue with the statue itself, not with Roosevelt overall, with whom the institution has a long history.

His father was a founding member of the institution; its charter was signed in his home. Roosevelts childhood excavations were among the museums first artifacts. The museum was chosen by New Yorks state legislature for Roosevelts memorial in 1920.

The museum already has several spaces named after Roosevelt, including Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall, the Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda and Theodore Roosevelt Park outside.

Its very important to note that our request is based on the statue, that is the hierarchical composition thats depicted in it, Ms. Futter said. It is not about Theodore Roosevelt who served as Governor of New York before becoming the 26th president of the United States and was a pioneering conservationist.

Critics, though, have pointed to President Roosevelts opinions about racial hierarchy and eugenics and his pivotal role in the Spanish-American War.

The statue created by James Earle Fraser was one of four memorials in New York that a city commission reconsidered in 2017, ultimately deciding after a split decision to leave the statue in place and to add context.

The museum tried to add that context with an exhibition last year, Addressing the Statue, which explored its design and installation, the inclusion of the figures walking beside Roosevelt and Roosevelts racism. The museum also examined its own potential complicity, in particular its exhibitions on eugenics in the early 20th century.

The exhibition was partly a response to the defacing of the statue by protesters, who in 2017 splashed red liquid representing blood over the statues base. The protesters, who identified themselves as members of the Monument Removal Brigade, later published a statement on the internet calling for its removal as an emblem of patriarchy, white supremacy and settler-colonialism.

Now the statue is bleeding, the statement said. We did not make it bleed. It is bloody at its very foundation.

The group also said the museum should rethink its cultural halls regarding the colonial mentality behind them.

At the time, the museum said complaints should be channeled through Mayor de Blasios commission to review city monuments and that the museum was planning to update its exhibits. The institution has since undertaken a renovation of its North West Coast Hall in consultation with native nations from the North West Coast of Canada and Alaska.

In January, the museum also moved the Northwest Coast Great Canoe from its 77th Street entrance into that hall, to better contextualize it. The museums Old New York diorama, which includes a stereotypical depiction of Lenape leaders, now has captions explaining why the display is offensive.

Mayor de Blasio has made a point of rethinking public monuments to honor more women and people of color an undertaking led largely by his wife, Chirlane McCray, and the She Built NYC commission. But these efforts have also been controversial, given complaints about the transparency of the process and the public figures who have been excluded, namely Mother Cabrini, a patron saint of immigrants who had drawn the most nominations in a survey of New Yorkers.

On Friday, the Mayor announced that Ms. McCray would lead a Racial Justice and Reconciliation Commission whose brief would include reviewing the citys potentially racist monuments.

Though the debates over many of these statues have been marked by rancor, the Natural History Museum seems unconflicted about removing the Roosevelt monument that has greeted its visitors for so long.

We believe that moving the statue can be a symbol of progress in our commitment to build and sustain an inclusive and equitable society, Ms. Futter said. Our view has been evolving. This moment crystallized our thinking and galvanized us to action.