This 8-foot silver bronze statue of DeWitt Clinton, executed by Adolph A. Weinman, was dedicated in 1941 and sits in a niche on the southern end of the facade of the
Museum of the City of New York, opposite a sculpture of
Alexander Hamilton. Gifts of a trustee of the MCNY, they represent New York City's emergence as a commercial center.
DeWitt Clinton (March 2, 1769–February 11, 1828) was a mayor and governor of New York and one-time presidential candidate who is best known for the creation of the Eerie Canal. Just the third New York statue of Clinton (the others are in
Green-Wood Cemetery and embedded in the fifth-floor cornice of the Surrogate's Court at Chambers Street), Weinman's statue shows Clinton standing with one arm akimbo, holding an unrolled map of the Erie Canal, one foot forward and eyes set off at the distance.
The Museum of the City of New York (MCNY), founded in 1923 to present the history of New York City and its people, fills an imposing 5-floor brick and limestone building on the Museum Mile section of Fifth Avenue, between 103rd and 104th Streets. The Museum was originally housed in Gracie Mansion until this Neo-Georgian-Colonial style was built to the design of Joseph J. Freedlander from 1928-1930. The museum's collections include paintings, drawings, prints, and photographs featuring New York City and its residents, as well as costumes, decorative objects and furniture, toys, rare books and manuscripts, marine and military collections, police and fire collections, and a theater collection.
