Fathers of Anarchy
A hidden-away memorial to executed anarchists by the sculptor of Mount Rushmore
Photo: Leslie Jones, from Boston Public Library Print Department
H
ow secret is the memorial to anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti by Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor of Mount Rushmore? So secret it was kept out of public view for 60 years and still is only intermittently displayed. Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, executed August 23, 1927, for the murder of a factory payroll manager, were memorialized by Borglum in 1937. But so controversial was their case, the monument was three times rejected by the city; even today, it is displayed only occasionally in the Boston Public Library, where it’s kept along with a wealth of other art. The library also has Sacco's and Vanzetti’s ashes and their death masks. Moskal
“Farewell, mia madre!”
Dukakis signed a proclamation saying that
Sacco and Vanzetti were unfairly treated,
though it did not pronounce them innocent.
Shhh who knew
Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor of Mount Rushmore and the Sacco and Vanzetti memorial, was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, though he ultimately repudiated it.
700 Boylston St.
Copley Square
Boston,
MA,
02116
617.536.5400
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