General Israel Putnam's statue has kept its post in Bushnell Park, Hartford, since its dedication in 1874. The figure was designed by sculptor John Quincy Adams Ward and honors Putnam, who served as a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and became a folk hero in Connecticut. Listen for the echoes of the story: Putnam was born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1718, moved to Connecticut in 1739, and died here in 1790.
The statue you see was largely paid for by a bequest from Judge Joseph P. Allyn; in 1869 Allyn’s will allocated US$5,000 to his father and two other men to erect a monument to Putnam, and his father added an additional $5,000 of his own. It was dedicated in a large ceremony in 1874 and was one of the first statues to be set in this park, which today houses several other monuments to famous Connecticut residents. From an artistic standpoint, critics have given the work mixed reviews, but its place in the park and in local memory is unmistakable.
Mixed reviews aside, Putnam was among the first statues here, and monuments to other Connecticut residents keep him company.