Peace Monuments Dedicated in 1800-1849

Right click image to enlarge.

3 Peace Monuments in 1800-1809

1806 - "Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker" [sic], Apsley House, Hyde Park Corner, London (England). "A colossal heroic nude statue by Italian artist Antonio Canova [1757-1822], of Napoleon I of France in the guise of the Roman god Mars. He holds a gilded Nike or Victory standing on an orb in his right hand and a staff in his left. It was produced between 1802 & 1806 & stands 3.45 metres to the raised left hand. Once on display in the Louvre in Paris, it was purchased from Louis XVIII in 1816 by the British government, which granted it to the Duke of Wellington [1769-1852]. It is now on display in Robert Adam's stairwell at the Duke's London residence, Apsley House."

1811 - "Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker" [sic], Milan (Italy). In 1811 a bronze copy of the statue was cast in Rome by Francesco Righetti & his son Luigi using the bronze of the cannons of Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome. A previous attempt to cast the statue had failed. Since 1859 the bronze has stood in the main courtyard of Palazzo Brera, home of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera and the Pinacoteca di Brera, in Milan. Its temporary base was replaced in 1864 with the present base designed by Luigi Bisi... The gilded bronze winged victory on the globe in the right hand of the figure was stolen on 25 October 1978 [and] replaced with a replica in the 1980's."

1806-1860 - Tripoli Monument or Peace Monument, Navy Yard, Washington, DC (USA). Made in Italy by Charles Micali. Damaged by fire during the War of 1812. Moved to West Grounds of the US Capitol in 1831. Moved to US Naval Academy (USNA), Annapolis, Maryland (USA) in 1861 (qv). Plaque: "The oldest military monument in the United States honors heroes of the War against the Barbary Coast Pirates [1801-1805], the new republic's first war..." Renovated in June 2000.

About 1807 - John Newton's grave & Stained glass window depicting the 'Greyhound,' Parish Church of St. Peter & St. Paul, Olney, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire (England). One of a series of stained glass windows depicting the ship "Greyhound." John Newton [1725-1807], a one time slaver, underwent religious conversion & conversion to the anti-slavery cause. His near shipwreck on the 'Greyhound' which found refuge in Londonderry (Northern Ireland) in 1748 played a part in this process. He went on to write ‘Amazing Grace.’" /// ". The Vicarage was occupied by John Newton as Curate from 1764 until 1780, when he moved to London, becoming Rector of St. Mary Woolnoth. A dormer window belongs to the study where he wrote Amazing Grace. The church contains Newton's pulpit & fine stained glass windows commemorating William Cowper [1731-1800] & Newton. In the churchyard are the graves of Newton & his wife Mary, with an interesting inscription describing himself as 'once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa...'" When was the window created?

9 Peace Monuments in 1810-1819

1813 - Ahu'ena Heiau, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii (USA). Heiau / temple dedicated to Lono, Hawaiian God of peace, agriculture and prosperity. Reconstructed by King Kamehameha the Great [d. May 8, 1819]. On the register of National Historic Landmarks as one of the most important of Hawaii's historic sites. Visited by EWL.

April 11, 1814 - "The Treaty of Fontainebleau was established in Fontainebleau (France) on 11 April 1814 between Napoleon I [1769-1821] & representatives from the Austrian Empire, Russia & Prussia. The treaty was signed at Paris on 11 April, by the plenipotentiaries of both sides & ratified by Napoleon on 13 April. With this treaty, the allies ended Napoleon's rule as emperor of France and sent him into exile on Elba." /// "Napoleon's initial defeat [was] the short-lived peace proclaimed on 27 June 1814 when Napoleon was imprisoned on Elba. The peace was celebrated in Paris, but [King George IV] the Prince Regent [1762-1830] invited the allied sovereigns to continue their celebrations in England. The offer was enthusiastically taken up. June 1814 must have been the only time in Oxford's history when it hosted an emperor, a king, four future kings, a chancellor of the Austrian empire, two future and two past British prime ministers, many world-famous generals, and enough peers to burst the House of Lords... And one of the things they wanted to do was to visit the famous university town of Oxford, one of the very few places in the country, incidentally, where the Prince Regent could rely on a warm welcome. At the prospect, 'every heart fluttered with expectation and delight.'" -- From "Big Junket" by Christopher Danziger (2015).

Thus Oxford played a unique role in the Peace of 1814, and its two modest 1814 peace monuments -- see below -- have quietly marked this momentous event for over 200 years. This puts the two Oxford monuments among the earliest examples of "peace monuments" anywhere & makes them contemporaries of the Stoodley Pike Monument in West Yorkshire (qv).

1814 - Peace Stone, Carfax, Oxford (England). Inscribed: "'PEACE was proclaim’d In the CITY of OXFORD JUNE 1814.' There is a more modern inscribed stone immediately below the peace stone, which adds no information whatsoever: 'THE STONE ABOVE COMMEMORATES THE PEACE OF 1814.' In 1814 this peace stone was set in the north side of the tower of the original [11th century] medieval Church of St. Martin at Carfax. This church was in the centre of the City of Oxford where four roads meet, and it was also the City Church."

1814 - Peace Stone, Plain Roundabout, Oxford (England). Now the pedestal of a street lamp. Inscribed "PEACE was proclaimed in the City of OXFORD JUNE 27 1814." The roundabout marked the eastern entrance to Oxford from the London direction in 1814 (St. Clement's was not taken into the city until 1835). Information courtesy of Stephanie Jenkins & Tim Myatt.

After 14 June 1814 - Vase of Siberian Jasper, Merton College, Oxford University, Oxford (England). Danziger's article also depicts a "vase of Siberian jasper sent to Merton College by Tsar Alexander I [1777-1825] & his sister Ekaterina Pavlovna [1788-1819] in thanks after lodging there [during the peace celebration] on the night of 14 June 1814." (This is similar to the vase [qv] given by Russia to the Peace Palace in The Hague 100 years later.)

1814-1854, 1856 - Stoodley Pike Monument, West Yorkshire (England). Stoodley Pike is a 1,300-foot (400 m) hill in the south Pennines, noted for the 121 foot Stoodley Pike Monument at its summit, which dominates the moors above Todmorden. Inscription above the entrance is worn & covered with lichen, but it is legible & reads: "Stoodley Pike. A beacon monument erected by public subscription commenced in 1814 to commemorate the surrender of Paris to the allies and finished after the Battle of Waterloo when peace was established in 1815. By a strange coincidence the pike [monument] fell on the day the Russian ambassador left London before the declaration of war with Russia in 1854. Was rebuilt when peace was restored in 1856." Info courtesy of Nick Wilding.

1814 - El tres de mayo de 1808 en Madrid / The Third of May 1808, Museo del Prado, Madrid (Spain). By Francisco Goya [1746-1828].

1814 - "Tampoco / No More." By Francisco Goya [1746-1828]. Etching from Los Desastres de la Guerra / The Disasters of War.

Circa 1815 - "Peace" (Allegory of the Treaty of Ghent) by John Rubens Smith [1775-1849], Library of Congress, Washington, DC (USA). The Treaty of Ghent (now in Belgium) was signed December 24, 1814, and ended the War of 1812 between the USA & Great Britain.

October 1-November, 1818 - Congress of Aix-la-Chappelle, Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany). "Primarily a meeting of the four allied powers - Britain, Austria, Prussia & Russia - to decide the question of the withdrawal of the army of occupation from France & the nature of the modifications to be introduced in consequence into the relations of the four powers towards each other, and collectively towards France. This was the third conference to bear that name; the first took place in 1668, the second in 1748." Image shows congress memorial in Aachen.

6 Peace Monuments in 1820-1829

1820 - Temple de l'amite et de la paix / Temple of Friendship & Peace, United Nations, Geneva (Switzerland). Built by Count Jean-Jaques de Sellon [1782-1839] on his estate in Pregny, La Fenetre. Destroyed during a storm in 1946, but its stones remain in storage (as shown in lower image).

H O U S E

1820 - Home of Elihu Embree [1782-1820], 142 Matthews Mill Road, Telford, Tennessee (USA). About 6 miles west of Jonesborough. Unintentional monument. Constructed about 1791. Was a hiding place for runaway slaves. Originally faced north. Upper image shows porch added to south side. Lower image shows basement once occupied by slaves. Privately owned.

M A R K E R

Date? - "Thomas Embree Marker," Highway 353, near Telford, Washington County, Tennessee (USA). Points to home of Elihu Embree. Photo by EWL 05July2015. /// Lower image is "The Emancipator" (with introduction by Ella Pearce Buchanan & John F. Nash), Embreeville Publications, Jonesborough (1995), which contains reprints of Embree's newspaper.

M A R K E R

Date? - "First Abolitionist Publications" marker, Jonesborough, Tennessee (USA). Honors Quaker Elihu Embree [1782-1820] who published the first newspaper in the USA dedicated entirely to the abolition of slavery. /// Lower image is grave of Elihu Embree, Embree Family Cemetery in Jonesborough. Embree died at age 38. Cemetery is "very overrun but can be walked."

C O M M U N E

1825-1828 - Nashoba Community, Wolf River, Germantown, near Memphis, Tennessee (USA). No longer exsits. Short-lived experiment of reformer Frances (Fanny) Wright [1795-1852] to train slaves for freedom. Click here for history of Wright, General LaFayette, New Harmony, Robert Dale Owen, etc.

M A R K E R

1950's - Nashoba Marker, Germantown, near Memphis, Tennessee (USA). The Nashoba Community was founded by Frances (Fanny) Wright [1795-1852], "a Scottish-born lecturer, writer, freethinker, feminist, abolitionist & social reformer, who became a US citizen in 1825, the same year she founded Nashoba as a utopian community to prepare slaves for emancipation, intending to create an egalitarian place, but it lasted only three years."

G R A V E

After 1852 - Grave of Frances Wright, Spring Grove Cemetery, 4521 Spring Grove Avenue, Cincinnati, Hamilton County Ohio 45232 (USA). "Wright's 'Views of Society & Manners in America' (1821) brought her the most attention as a critique of the new nation." Fanny did many remarkable things: She visited Monticello with the Marquis de Lafayette, lived in New Harmony, Indiana, lectured in New York City, published a newspaper in Cincinatti, freed slaves in Haiti, bore one child out of wedlock & lived at La Grange, LaFayette's estate near Paris (France).

1826 - Levi Coffin House, Fountain City, Indiana (USA). Unintentional monument. "It is speculated that 2,000 fugitive slaves had been at the house from 1826 to 1847. Levi & Catherine Coffin moved to Cincinnati, Ohio to open a warehouse that supplied free labor businesses, at the request of fellow abolitionists. The state government of Indiana acquired the house in 1967 & opened it to the public in 1970 after restoration."

1893 - "The Underground Railroad," Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio (USA). "Just as the nadir of race relations was beginning in the early 1890s, some artists such as Charles T. Webber [1825-1911], continued to show race unity & interacial solidarity. This painting shows some famous abolitionists & activists who were conductors on the underground railroad. That’s Catharine White Coffin standing in the center with the elderly gentleman using a walking stick. Her husband Levi Coffin [1798-1877] is up high on the cart at the right. The Quaker abolitionist Hannah Haydock is on the far left with the children."

1827 - "Fame and Peace Crowning George Washington" by Antonio Capellano, East Central Portico (above the Rotunda doors), Capitol, Washington, DC (USA). Fame on the right holds a trumpet, peace on the left a palm branch.

S Q U A R E

1828 - Place des Victoires-Nationaux / National Victories Square, Paris (France). With an equestrian statue of Louis XIV. Designed as a memorial to the Treaties of Nijmegen concluded in 1678-79. "In 1793, the Place was renamed, & a wooden pyramid was erected on the site of the destroyed statue. In 1810, under the rule of Napoléon Bonaparte, a nude statue of General Louis Desaix replaced the pyramid. However, following the abdication of Napoléon, the statue was taken down, & its metal was used to create a new statue of Henry IV on the nearby Pont Neuf. In 1828, the restored Bourbon king, Charles X, commissioned the current equestrian statue, which was sculpted by François Joseph Bosio. Louis XIV, dressed as a Roman emperor, sits on a proud horse rearing on its hind legs. An iron fence encircles the 12-meter-high statue."

6 Peace Monuments in 1830-1839

1832 - Marble Obilisk, Cemetiere du Petit-Saconnex, chemin Moise-Duboule 12, Le Petit-Saconnex, near Geneva (Switzerland). Erected by Count Jean-Jaques de Sellon [1782-1839] on his estate La Fenêtre (which now belongs to the United Nations) in Pregny, but it was transferred in 1907 to the nearby cemetery where he is buried. Inscriptions: "Heureux ceux ui procurent la paix car ils seront appelles enfants de dieu." "Dieu ne veut pas la mort du pecheur mais sa conversion et sa vie." "La Societe de la Paix fut fondee le 1er Decembre 1830 par J.J. de Sellon, Citoyen de Geneve, Comte du St Empire. Il consacra ce monuent a l'inviolabilite de la vie de l'homme l'an 1832." Also bears the names of advocates of peace & of the abolition of the death penalty: William Penn, Casimir Perrier, Livingson, Nicholas de Flue, William Wilberforce, Elisabeth (the queen?), the US states of Maine & New Hampshire (ont aboli la peine de mort l'an 1837 [sic]), Duke Leopold of Tuscany, Victor de Tracy, Charles Lucas, Cesare Beccaria, Grohmann, Fredericc Guillaume of Prussia, Henry IV of France, the Duke of Sully, Fenelon & the Duke of Sussex. ALL information about this monument is from "Itinerary for Peace in the Streets of Geneva" (August 2002), pp. 102-3. Image shows the cemetery but NOT the monument.

Circa 1833 - Peaceable Kingdon by Quaker artist Edward Hicks, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts (USA). Click here for more information on the "kingdoms of Edward Hicks." Probably painted in Pennsylvania. One of a series of similar paintings made over a span of several years.

November 1835 - Wilberforce Monument, Queen's Garderns, Hull (England). "The column is 90 feet, and the statue on top is 12 feet tall, carved out of hard-wearing millstone grit. The statue was, in fact, an after-thought by the monument committee. It was sculpted by a Mr. Feort in Dock Street." Photo was taken in 1903. /// "William Wilberforce [1759-1833] was a British politician, philanthropist & a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade."

1840 - Statue of William Wilberforce, Westminster Abbey, London (England). William Wilberforce [1759-1833] was a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. Image shows Queen Elizabeth at the statue just before a service in March 2007 marking the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade.

1836 - La Paix / Peace (also known as La Paix de 1815 / The Peace of 1815), Northwest Pillar (facing Avenue de la Grand-Armeé), Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile, Place Charles de Gaulle (also known as the Place de l'Étoile), Paris (France).

1838 - Peace Column, Château Allaman/Allaman Castle (aka Peace Castle), Allaman, Vaud (Switzerland). On Lake Geneva. Column was discovered in 2013 hidden, perhaps deliberately, inside a plaster pillar. "One of the most significant historical Castles (maybe in the whole of Europe, the heart of the Peace movement, initiated & inspired by Count J.J. de Sellon. It is in [this castle] that the first Congrès of Peace took place in 1832. So, you are, if I may say, and keeper of the Peace history. What does it represent for you to be the owner of the Peace Castle? /// Markus Jerger: The honour, privilege & pleasure to own & live in a medieval estate is not comparable to any other form of 'home' or 'life' experience. You are inspired daily by a new historic discovery when surrounded by a rich past, like in Allaman Castle. This place emerges you into the evolution of the societies of the region in the 10th, 12th, 14th, 18th Century & the past owners life & contribution to our history. Sellon is such an exceptional example, but also Cavour or the Countess Margarite de Langallerie were outstanding contributors to the Castle's unique evolution." /// Translation of the column's inscriptions is unavailable. INCOMPLETE

2 Peace Monuments in 1840-1849

September 24, 1848 - Friedenskirche / Church of Peace, Marly Gardens on the Green Fence, Sanssouci Park, Potsdam (Germany). "Built according to the wishes and with the close involvement of the artistically gifted King Frederick William IV [1795-1861], and designed by the court architect Ludwig Persius. After Persius' death in 1845 the architect Friedrich August Stüler was tasked with continuing his work. The structure resembles a High Italian monastery. Right image shows crypt of Frederick William and his wife in the church.

Before 1849 - Edward Hicks House, Penn Street, Newtown, Pennsylvania (USA). Unintentional monument. "Edwards Hicks [1780-1849] was a Quaker sign painter, best known today for his 'ornamental' paintings, especially the motif known as 'The Peaceable Kingdom,' which illuminates Isaiah 11: 'The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.'” He painted between 60 & 100 paintings on this theme,often combining it with Penn’s Treaty with the Indians... The treaty William Penn entered into was remarked upon by Voltaire, who called it '...the only treaty never sworn to and never broken.' Hicks' house "is commemorated with a historical marker & an information board describing his life & work as a painter, preacher & peacemaker." This is "Monday's Monument" #50.

Click here for 1850 & later.