''Thorfinn Karlsefni'' is a bronze statue by

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

ic sculptor

Einar Jónsson Einar Jónsson (11 May 1874 – 18 October 1954) was an Icelandic sculptor, born in ''Galtafell'', a farm in southern Iceland. Biography At a young age Einar proved himself to be an unusual child with an artistic bent. At that time there was li ...

. The first casting of it is located in

Fairmount Park Fairmount Park is the largest municipal park in Philadelphia and the historic name for a group of parks located throughout the city. Fairmount Park consists of two park sections named East Park and West Park, divided by the Schuylkill River, with ...

on Kelly Drive, at the North end of

Boathouse Row Boathouse Row is a historic site located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on the east bank of the Schuylkill River just north of the Fairmount Water Works and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It consists of a row of 15 boathouses housing social and row ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. The sculpture was commissioned by Joseph Bunford Samuel through a bequest that his wife, Ellen Phillips Samuel, made to the Association for Public Art (formerly the Fairmount Park Art Association), specifying that the funds were to be used to create a series of sculptures "emblematic of the history of America." ''Thorfinn Karlsefni'' (1915–1918) was installed along Philadelphia's Kelly Drive near the Samuel Memorial and unveiled on November 20, 1920. The artwork is one of 51 sculptures included in the Association for Public Art's Museum Without Walls: AUDIO™ interpretive audio program for Philadelphia's outdoor sculpture. There is another casting of the statue in

Reykjavík Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a po ...

Inscription

The inscription reads: (Sculpture, lower proper left:)
Einar Jonsson
sculptor
1915-18
(On back of Karlsefni's shield: Icelandic verse)
From the island of the North, of ice and snow,
Of blossoming valleys and blue mountains,
Of the midnight sun and the dreamy mists,
The home of the goddess of northern lights.
(Base, front:)

Thorfinn Karlsefni Thorfinn Karlsefni Thórdarson was an Icelandic explorer. Around the year 1010, he followed Leif Eriksson's route to Vinland in a short-lived attempt to establish a permanent settlement there with his wife Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir and their fol ...

Icelander
1003-1006
(Base, front plaque:)
Following Leif Ericson's Discovery of
North America in 1003, Thorfinn Karlsefni
with 165 men and 35 women established a
settlement which lasted for 3 years and
his son Snorri was born in North America
Leif Ericson Society of Pennsylvania
Scandinavian Craft Club of Philadelphia
October 9, 1974

Protests and vandalism

By the 21st century, the statue had become a common rallying location for local

white supremacy White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White su ...

groups. In time, these rallies led to counter protests and vandalism of the statue. In the early morning hours of October 2, 2018, police were called to the statue's location and found it had been toppled from its stone base and dragged into the nearby

Schuylkill River The Schuylkill River ( , ) is a river running northwest to southeast in eastern Pennsylvania. The river was improved by navigations into the Schuylkill Canal, and several of its tributaries drain major parts of Pennsylvania's Coal Region. It fl ...

, which broke the head from the body. During recovery, a crane was needed to remove the statue, which weighs several thousand pounds, from the river. As of 2020, the statue was being conserved, but the City of Philadelphia had no timeline for its reinstallation and was taking the appropriation of the statue by hate groups into consideration as it made plans for the future.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thorfinn Karlsefni (Jonsson) Outdoor sculptures in Philadelphia 1920 sculptures Bronze sculptures in Pennsylvania East Fairmount Park Fairmount, Philadelphia Statues in Pennsylvania Sculptures of men in Pennsylvania 1920 establishments in Pennsylvania Sculptures in Iceland Vandalized works of art in Pennsylvania

Inscription

Protests and vandalism

See also

References