The 1903
bronze sculpture was designed by
Daniel Chester French and
Edward Clark Potter, and rests on a granite base. It was surveyed as part of the
Smithsonian Institution's "
Save Outdoor Sculpture!" program in 1997. Legislators approved
US$55,000 in public funds to commission the statue. The statue originally included a bronze plaque bearing the words "A Soldier in the Army that Kept the Nation Whole". Veterans' groups demanded the removal of this inscription, as they felt it diminished Hooker's leadership role in the war. Though popular with his troops, Hooker's memorialization in one of the most prominent locations in Massachusetts has been controversial. The historian
Charles Francis Adams Jr., who served as a colonel in the Civil War, was quoted as saying he refused to walk on the same side of the street as the statue: "I look upon [the statue] as an opprobrium cast on every genuine Massachusetts man who served in the Civil War. Hooker in no way and in no degree represents the typical soldiership of the Commonwealth." The Hooker statue, along with the nearby
statue of Mary Dyer, remained open to the public even after the
September 11 attacks in 2001 prompted state authorities to close the gates to the State House lawn, limiting access to statues of
Anne Hutchinson,
John F. Kennedy,
Henry Cabot Lodge,
Horace Mann and
Daniel Webster. == General Hooker Entrance ==