[Unveiled 1894]
1451-1506 b. Genoa, Italy • d. Valladolid, Spain
Sculpted: 1892
Sculptor: Jeronimo Suñol 1839-1902
Gift of New Yorkers and the funding of
The New York Genealogical Society
Facing the Olmsted Flower Bed at the center
of Literary Walk in Central Park stands a bronze
statue on granite base who is not a literary
figure at all, Christopher Columbus.
This Italian mariner and navigator is credited
with having been the first European to sail
across the Atlantic Ocean.
This statue portrays Columbus beside a globe
resting on a roped sea anchor, with one hand
holding a flag as he looks up to the sky while
his other hand reaches out as if for a reply.
It is a modified replica of one Suñol had created
for the Plaza de Colon in Madrid in 1885.
Why Columbus, a man of such dubious
character has found himself in the company
of so many eminent literary figures is questionable.
The explorer however, did write an abundance
of diaries, which have been the source of interest
to historians for centuries. This fact may account
for the misguided placement.
