306 The Horse's Tail

Ben Franklin's World

Liz Covart

History, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 2 July 2021

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The words of the Declaration of Independence are not the only aspect of the American Revolution that carry power. Visual and material objects from during and after the Revolution also carry power and meaning. Objects like monuments, uniforms, muskets, powder horns, and the Horse’s Tail, a remnant of a grand equestrian statue of King George III, which stood in New York City’s Bowling Green park. Historians Wendy Bellion, Leslie Harris, and Arthur Burns join us to investigate the history of revolutionary New York City and how New Yorkers came to their decisions to both install and tear down a statue to King George III, and what happened to this statue after it came down. This episode is sponsored in part by Humanities New York. The mission of Humanities New York is to strengthen civil society and the bonds of community, using the humanities to foster engaging inquiry and dialog around social and cultural concerns. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/306 Complementary Episodes 🎧 Episode 058: Andrew Schocket, Fighting over the Founders: How We Remember the American Revolution 🎧 Episode 136: Jennifer Van Horn, Material Culture and the Making of America 🎧 Episode 144: Robert Parkinson, The Common Cause of the American Revolution 🎧 Episode 185: Joyce Goodfriend, Early New York City and Its Culture 🎧 Episode 245: Celebrating the Fourth 🎧 Episode 277: Whose Fourth of July REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 Topic Request Form 📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.com WHEN YOU'RE READY 🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener Community LISTEN 🎧 🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music 🛜 Pandora CONNECT 🦋 Liz on Bluesky 👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn 🛜 Liz’s Website SAY THANKS 💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚 Leave a rating on Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to an AirWave Media Podcast.
0:04.0	Ben Franklin's world is a production of the Omaha-Handro Institute,
0:08.0	and this episode is sponsored in part by Humanities New York.
0:12.0	Humanities New York's mission is to strengthen civil society
0:16.0	and the bonds of community, using the humanities
0:19.0	to foster engaging inquiry and dialogue around social and cultural concerns.
0:24.0	Learn more at humanitiesny.org.
0:30.0	What survives at the New York Historical Society is a fragment
0:34.0	just a piece of the tale of the horse.
0:37.0	It is a beautiful object.
0:39.0	It has these forms that kind of cascade from top to bottom.
0:44.0	We see these curls that kind of move left and move right.
0:48.0	As a fragment, it's got a lot of motion,
0:51.0	and it has a lot of dynamism to it.
0:54.0	It's pretty small.
0:55.0	It's only 13 inches in length.
0:58.0	And this is one of the reasons that we know that it was merely a part
1:02.0	of a much longer form of the tale.
1:04.0	It does possess some of its original gilding.
1:07.0	It gives us the faintest sense of how an object like this might have shimmered and gleaned
1:13.0	in the sunlight in Lower Manhattan in 1776.
1:17.0	Its power has been recognized.
	...

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