Iconoclasm in Wilton: The Revolutionary-era Statue of King George III at Wilton Historical Society

The dramatic story of a Revolutionary-era statue and its connection to Wilton takes center stage in a presentation by University of Delaware professor Wendy Bellion. The program explores the 1776 destruction of the equestrian statue of King George III in New York and Wilton’s role in what happened to its remains.

On July 9, 1776, a crowd pulled the statue from its pedestal at Bowling Green in lower Manhattan following a public reading of the Declaration of Independence. While the statue’s head was sent to London, British soldiers transported the remaining fragments through Wilton to Litchfield, where they were melted down and recast as ammunition for Continental soldiers. Loyalists in Wilton reportedly took pieces of the statue along the way and concealed them in fields, swamps and cellars. The presentation also examines how fragments resurfaced in later centuries and how efforts to recreate the lost statue ultimately led to its destruction again.

Bellion is Professor of Art History and Sewell C. Biggs Chair in American Art at the University of Delaware. Her scholarship focuses on the art and material culture of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Atlantic World and the early modern Americas.

The presentation will take place from 7 pm to 8 pm on Wednesday, October 14, at the Wilton Historical Society. Admission is free for Historical Society members, while non-members pay $10.

More information is available at https://wiltonhistorical.org/events/event/iconoclasm-in-wilton-the-revolutionary-era-statue-of-king-george-iii/.