5 Bullet Made from Statue of King George III

To mark the spot where patriots tore down the gilded equestrian statue of King George III, Darin Wacs used images of physical objects relating to the event. These objects can be found at the New York Historical Society. The obverse side of the sign shows a collage of images of four pieces of remains from the statue. Without a scale, it is difficult for the viewer to know the size of these pieces. These range from 4 to 8.5 x 13 to 19 x 13 to 18 inches, however the New York Historical Society has several other smaller fragments as well (New York Historical Society Object #1878.4, 1878.5, 1878.6, and 1878.7). The piece on the right side is believed to be a part of the horse’s tail (New York Historical Society Object #1878.6). From top to bottom, the fragments on the left may be pieces with a garment, a patterned sash, and part of the horse’s body (New York Historical Society Object #1878.4, 1878.5, and 1878.7).

The Equestrian Statue of King George III was erected in Bowling Green in August 1770 (The New-York Gazette, or Weekly Post-Boy 1770). Wilton, a sculptor from London, made the statue out of lead and gilded it to make it appear it was made of solid gold (Hartford Daily Courant 1855). Although it is not visible in the images on the sign, the fragments pictured all have traces of the gilding on them (New York Historical Society Object #1878.4, 1878.5, 1878.6, and 1878.7).

The sign states that patriots pulled the statue down from its pedestal on July 9, 1775. However, the year seems to be a typographical error as the statue was not pulled down until the next year, in 1776, after the Declaration of Independence was written. There is a discrepancy of the exact date the statue was taken down, some accounts say July 9, while others say July 11 (New York Historical Society Object #1878.4, 1878.5, 1878.6, and 1878.7; Hartford Daily Courant 1855). When the statue was torn down, the intent was to melt the pieces down into bullets, 42,088 bullets, to use for the revolution . As the fragments in the picture show, some of the pieces survived (Hartford Daily Courant 1855; The Observer 1910). British loyalists, called Tories, may taken some of the fragments and hid them in their homes or buried them near their homes (New York Historical Society Object #1878.4, 1878.5, 1878.6, and 1878.7; Knight 1976).

The artifact pictured on the reverse side of the sign is a bullet mold with a document to certify its authenticity. The sign claims the inscription is on the bullet mold, however the inscription is from the document with the bullet mold. The inscription states that the mold was used to form bullets from the statue of King George III and given to the New York Historical Society by Peter Curtenius’ grandson, Clinton Roosevelt. According the inscription, Peter Curtenius was the colonel who ordered the statue to be torn down. (New York Historical Society Object #1860.7).

Wacs includes “Courtesy of the New York Historical Society” on the sign to show where he found the objects and information. The New York Historical Society sent letters to REPOhistory thanking them for using the Society for their research and supporting the Lower Manhattan Sign Project (New York Historical Society to REPOhistory 1991; New York Historical Society to REPOhistory 1992).

Northwest corner, Broadway and Morris Street

Hartford Daily Courant. 1855. “The Statue of George III.” January 29.

Knight, Micahel. 1976. “Piece of George III Statue Touches Off Another Battle.” The New York Times, July 30.

The New-York Gazette, or the Weekly Post-Boy. 1770. “New-York, August 20.” August 20.

New York Historical Society to REPOhistory, Letter of support. March 2, 1992. The REPOhistory Archive, MSS113, box 5, folder 7. Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University Libraries. http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/fales/repo/dscaspace_ref124.html.

New York Historical Society to REPOhistory, Letter of thanks about the artist using the Society. July 22, 1991.  The REPOhistory Archive, MSS113, box 5, folder 7. Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University Libraries. http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/fales/repo/dscaspace_ref124.html.

New York Historical Society. Online database entry for “Bullet mold,” Object no. 1860.7). Accessed April 15, 2017. http://www.nyhistory.org/exhibit/bullet-mold-16.

New York Historical Society. Online database entry for Joseph Wilton, “Fragment of the equestrian statue of King George III,” Object no. 1878.4. Accessed April 15, 2017. http://www.nyhistory.org/exhibit/fragment-equestrian-statue-king-george-iii-4.

New York Historical Society. Online database entry for Joseph Wilton, “Fragment of the equestrian statue of King George III,” Object no. 1878.5. Accessed April 15, 2017. http://www.nyhistory.org/exhibit/fragment-equestrian-statue-king-george-iii.

New York Historical Society. Online database entry for Joseph Wilton, “Fragment of the equestrian statue of King George III (tail),” Object no. 1878.6. Accessed April 15, 2017. http://www.nyhistory.org/exhibit/fragment-equestrian-statue-king-george-iii-tail.

New York Historical Society. Online database entry for Joseph Wilton, “Fragment of the equestrian statue of King George III,” Object no. 1878.7. Accessed April 15, 2017. http://www.nyhistory.org/exhibit/fragment-equestrian-statue-king-george-iii-0.

The Observer. 1910. “American Goodwill: Proposal to Re-Erect Statue of King George III.” August 21.

Darin Wacs, “5 Bullet Made from Statue of King George III,” REPOhistory's Lower Manhattan Sign Project, accessed April 25, 2024, https://thesis.ckthompson.com/items/show/7.