Photo: Patricia Youngquist
The Equestrian Statue of Theodore Roosevelt was removed from the steps of the American Museum of Natural History in the middle of the night on Wednesday, January 19.
Footage of the displacement was caught by @dannydalynyc.
The effort to relocate the statue was launched in June 2020. This endeavor came amid growing protests for racial justice – along with an increased national focus on the removal of controversial figures.
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“The Statue has long been controversial because of the hierarchical composition that places one figure on horseback and the others walking alongside, and many of us find its depictions of the Native American and African figures and their placement in the monument racist,” read a statement by the AMNH when they first proposed the change.
The proposal was met with both opposition and support. On more than one occasion, some individuals who’ve found the statue to be offensive have vandalized it. Others have protested the statue’s removal.
In November 2021, we learned that the statue’s new home would be in the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota, which according to the New York Times, is expected to open in 2026. Here, it will be recontextualized “with input from a council of Indigenous and Black people, historians, scholars and artists.” Until it arrives to its new home, the statue is expected to be held in storage.
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In May 2021, architect Rolondo Kraeher presented plans to Community Board 7 which outlined a proposal for the statue’s replacement. The proposal calls not for a new statue, but additional stairs and text engraved on the ground. Kraeher said that the design was meant to create a message of openness and availability.
We’ve reached out to the Public Design Commission and will provide an update once we know whether or not this redesign will be implemented.
I have loved that statue since I was a little kid over seventy years ago. It was my favorite statue in New York. I feel like a piece of my heart has been torn out. The Museum of Natural History has always been my favorite building in New York. I will never set foot there again.
The nonsense continues. Innocent law abiding people are being murdered and this is what our community board is focusing on.
Words cannot describe the disgust felt by many.
Agree. The destruction of NYC continues with no end in sight. But then again, we elect these morons and you reap what you sow.
DITTO!
It’s as if… now hear me out… that the American Museum of Natural History pays homage to Teddy Roosevelt because of his desire to preserve this country’s wilderness. Maybe why that’s why he’s on horseback? Are we going to complain that paintings of Jesus have a light on him and not the other people in the painting? Or complain that snow is white?
But now we put up statues of criminals. We are becoming a nation of complete idiots
I don’t know why this has caused such an uproar. It is plain to me that it Mr Roosevelt’s turn to ride atop the horse after his two Native American friends had their 20 mins. Perhaps a plaque saying that these three gentlemen had ponied (no pun intended) their money together to rent a horse for a one-hour trail ride and that this is a moment captured by the artist when it was simply Mr Roosevelt’s turn.
I know people are leaving the city in droves. Now even the statues are.
It’s beyond disgusting & absurd that Roosevelt’s beautiful statue was taken down. Nothing but cowards & losers who allowed this to happen.
NYC – where criminals freely roam the streets committing heinous crimes 24/7 yet there are no repercussions for them. Roosevelt – who left a legacy of greatness & achievement for our country gets canceled all because some snowflake somewhere is whining. What a laughingstock our country & city have become.
They remove the statue in the dark of night and want to replace it with a message of “openness”?
The Woke-ification of America is inane.
After viewing the video linked to the article, it appears that they chopped off Teddy’s head and trunk which is resting on the bed of the truck. What happened to the lower half of his body, the horse and the two men standing on either side of him when the statue was intact? Are they leaving the two men in place on the pedestal, with the horse in between them, as a symbol of openness and diversity?
Lots of great posts here. I am waiting for the left to defend this disgrace.
It was done in the middle of the night. That is all you need to know. Even woke idiots responsible for this horrible act were ashamed to commit it in daylight. I feel like dark times are ahead of us. Ask those who survived Chinese Cultural Revolution or Khmer Rouge genocide if this feels like deja vu
The inmates are running the asylum.
The decline of NYC started when deBlahsio was elected and the fall will happen while Adams is at the helm.
Didn’t the Roosevelt family pay for the Museum? Yet, the statue of Teddy Roosevelt is being shipped off to North Dakota? What a miserable, insulting slap in the face. If the city feels the woke, cancel culture need to remove the statue from the front, at least give it a place inside the Museum that the family built!
When does this nonsense end?
Beth, I am with you, and it ends when the left takes a vicious beating in November. Only then will the cowardly liberals and their true allies on the right realize the hard left is the real enemy of freedom.
New York is becoming the city of idiots. What an outrage. Hopefully people will quit donating to this museum and the clowns that run it will figure it out! Total disgrace. He was a great role model. But we now its “great” to put statues of criminals. America is crying.