Roger Conant Statue in Salem
Salem Statue Issues
Roger's Face?
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There are no known contemporaneous images of Roger Conant since the Puritans considered statues, portraits and selfies to be idolatry and prohibited. I would love to think that the artist used one of Roger’s descendants as a model for his face since he looks a lot like me, a 12th generation grandson.
BUT
Roger's statue certainly does look like The Puritan in Springfield, Mass, The Pilgrim in Philadelphis and statues in many other places.
"1595 Anno Domini 1675,Deacon Samuel Chapin,One Of The Founders Of Springfield"
In 1881, Chester W. Chapin, a railroad tycoon and congressman from Springfield, Massachusetts, commissioned the renowned sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens to create a bronze likeness of his ancestor, Deacon Samuel Chapin (1595–1675), one of the early settlers of the City of Springfield.
In 1913, the Conant Family Association approved sculptor Henry Hudson Kitson's design for a bronze sculpture of Roger Conant.
They look a lot alike. Coincidence or did Kitson con Salem?
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Questions about the Statue
Anglo-American sculptor Henry Hudson Kitson (c.1864-1947) Photo by J.P. Purdy in Henry Hudson and Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
The sculptor, it seems, according to Professor Joseph Conforti, was sending a conservative message to Salem residents at a critical time in the city’s history during the early 20th century.
‘Labor unrest provoked fears of mounting violence and radical political protest’, he explains in his book Imagining New England: Explorations of Regional Identity from the Pilgrims to the Mid-Twentieth Century, published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2001.
‘Amid a rising tide of immigrants and growing alarm over labor unrest, a new monument to Salem’s past was erected — a grand human figure that, in Professor Conforti’s words, ‘hovered like a moral sentry over Salem’s changed social order’.
‘In 1911, noted sculptor Henry Kitson completed a statue of Roger Conant, the first permanent settler in Salem. Situated next to the common in the center of the city, the magnificent figure rivaled Saint-Gaudens’s statue of The Puritan, to which it bears a striking resemblance. Bestride an eight-foot boulder, the stern, manly Conant towered over pedestrians’.
In Professor Conforti’s view, Kitson’s sculpture had a political purpose. It ‘served to inspire the native-born minority and to encourage respect for Salem’s heritage among the city’s immigrant throng.’
‘Labor unrest provoked fears of mounting violence and radical political protest’, he explains in his book Imagining New England: Explorations of Regional Identity from the Pilgrims to the Mid-Twentieth Century, published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2001.
‘Amid a rising tide of immigrants and growing alarm over labor unrest, a new monument to Salem’s past was erected — a grand human figure that, in Professor Conforti’s words, ‘hovered like a moral sentry over Salem’s changed social order’.
‘In 1911, noted sculptor Henry Kitson completed a statue of Roger Conant, the first permanent settler in Salem. Situated next to the common in the center of the city, the magnificent figure rivaled Saint-Gaudens’s statue of The Puritan, to which it bears a striking resemblance. Bestride an eight-foot boulder, the stern, manly Conant towered over pedestrians’.
In Professor Conforti’s view, Kitson’s sculpture had a political purpose. It ‘served to inspire the native-born minority and to encourage respect for Salem’s heritage among the city’s immigrant throng.’
For additional information see Michael Downes' article on Roger's statue
Suggestion for the Plaque under the statue
Current Wording
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Better Wording
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Note that the plaque under the statue does not say anything about Roger Conant being the founder of Salem, the first governor of Massachusetts, a peacemaker and a mensch in a time a of very bad and greedy men. By being next to the Salem Witch Museum, it looks like he was a part of the witch trials. He wasn't!