TIL That The George Washington memorial statue in London is built on American soil, as Washington once said that he would “never stand on English soil ever again”.

Authored by londonremembers.com and submitted by Connor3977

{On the plinth:} Presented to the people of Great Britain and Ireland by the Commonwealth of Virginia, 1921.

The marble original is in Richmond, Virginia, USA. This bronze copy was presented by the Commonwealth of Virginia. There is a story that, since Washington once said he would never stand on English ground, this statue was supplied with some good ol' American soil on which to stand.

Our colleague, Jamie Davis, has found a brief British Pathe item that shows "Washington Statue. Gift of State of Virginia - received on behalf of Nation by Lord Curzon. Trafalgar Square, London." None of the dignitaries on the film look to us like Curzon.

View from the Mirror has a good post about this statue.

From TribLive, describing the Jefferson Memorial Cemetery, Pittsburgh:

"... in the Presidential Court. It's a historic bronze statue of George Washington. Commissioned by Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin in 1794, sculptor Jean Antoine Houdon created the original marble statue. The artist made a plaster cast of Washington's face to use for the sculpture.

In 1910, the Gorham Manufacturing Co. was authorized to make bronze replicas from the original molds. The resulting statues are displayed all over the country and world, including one at Versailles Palace in France and another at Trafalgar Square in London. The final statue cast stands in the park overlooking some of the first lawn crypts installed here, and the mold no longer exists."

mr-dogshit on June 2nd, 2019 at 07:37 UTC »

Except it's not.

When this TIL first appeared on here 5 years ago I emailed The National Gallery (where it's situated) and they said the story is just a myth AND it's since been moved anyway.

http://i.imgur.com/Rm0ItWp.jpg

Noerdy on June 2nd, 2019 at 02:19 UTC »

It’s a historic bronze statue of George Washington. Commissioned by Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin in 1794, sculptor Jean Antoine Houdon created the original marble statue. The artist made a plaster cast of Washington’s face to use for the sculpture. In 1910, the Gorham Manufacturing Co. was authorized to make bronze replicas from the original molds. The resulting statues are displayed all over the country and world, including one at Versailles Palace in France and another at Trafalgar Square in London. The final statue cast stands in the park overlooking some of the first lawn crypts installed here, and the mold no longer exists.

That is amazing

SUND3VlL on June 2nd, 2019 at 02:18 UTC »

Ethan Allen returned to England after the war, and the British made fun of him. One day they put a picture of George Washington in an outhouse where Allen would be sure to see it. He used the outhouse but said nothing about the picture. Then the British asked him about it and Allen said it was a very appropriate place for an Englishman to hang the picture because “nothing will make an Englishman shit so quick as the sight of General Washington.”